Ian Kinsler homered and drove in four runs as part of the Texas Rangers’ offensive barrage in a 20-6 rout of the Minnesota Twins last night in Arlington, Texas.
Kinsler had four of the Rangers’ league-best 27 hits. Mike Napoli and Nelson Cruz also had four hits as all the Rangers starters had at least two except for third baseman Chris Davis, who was hitless in six at-bats. Michael Young also went deep and had three RBIs for Texas, which had 18 runs by the end of the fifth inning.
Things were so one-sided that Michael Cuddyer moved from right field to the mound to pitch the eighth for the Twins. Cuddyer gave up a double to Napoli, a bloop single to Mitch Moreland, and walked Kinsler with one out to load the bases. But Cuddyer retired Elvis Andrus on a fly ball and David Murphy on a pop-up for a scoreless inning.
Pirates 3, Braves 1 - James McDonald struck out a career-high nine in 5 ⅓ scoreless innings - the most strikeouts by a Pittsburgh pitcher in almost two years - as the visiting Pirates kept pace in the tight NL Central race. Pittsburgh is tied with St. Louis for first place in the division, a half-game ahead of Milwaukee, which was off.
Athletics 7, Rays 5 - Conor Jackson hit a two-run double in the seventh inning and host Oakland rallied from three runs down to win. Ben Zobrist homered and doubled twice for the Rays, who lost for the third time in four games and dropped to 4-7 since the All-Star break.
Padres 5, Phillies 4 - Aaron Harang outpitched Cliff Lee, Chris Denorfia stole home, and visiting San Diego beat Philadelphia for the first time in more than a year.
Harang (9-2) gave up four runs in six innings to help the Padres avoid a four-game sweep and defeat the Phillies for the first time since June 7, 2010. The Phillies had beaten the Padres 10 straight times.
Lee (9-7) lasted only four innings, his second-shortest outing of the season. He surrendered 10 hits, five runs, and made a pickoff blunder that allowed Denorfia to steal home. His soft toss to first gave Denorfia the opening he needed to bolt from third and give the Padres a 3-1 lead.
Indians 3, Angels 2 - Jason Kipnis delivered his first career hit with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning to lift host Cleveland to victory. Kipnis, 0 for 5 since being called up Friday, hit a 1-0 pitch from Hisanori Takahashi between first and second base to give the Indians their 11th home win in their last at-bat and break a four-game losing streak.
Dan Haren struck out 10 over 7 ⅔ innings for the Angels and appeared in line for his fifth win in seven starts since June 24. But closer Jordan Walden blew his seventh save in 30 tries.
