St Louis Cardinals Allen Craig watches the baseball leave the park after hitting a grand slam home run in the seventh inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Monday. The homer proved to be the winner as St. Louis defeated Cincinnati 8-6. (Agencies)
Allen Craig hit his first career grand slam, helping the Cardinals rally for an 8-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
Matt Holliday also had a long three-run homer as St. Louis moved into sole possession of first place in the NL Central for the first time since July 29. The Cardinals lead idle Pittsburgh by a half-game and Cincinnati by 3 1/2 games in the top-heavy division.
Craig is 7 for 10 with 20 RBIs this season with the bases full.
‘‘I think I’ve developed a pretty good approach that allows me to be successful in that position,’’ Craig said. ‘‘I go up there confident and I believe in myself.’’
Elsewhere, the Kansas City Royals defeated the Tampa Bay Rays and onetime Royals’ player Wil Myers in a blowout.
Myers, who was originally drafted by the Royals but traded to the Rays last December, went 0-for-4 while appearing in a game for the first time in Kansas City.
The Royals scored five runs in the first three innings and cruised the rest of the way in a game that was a make-up game from May 2 that was cancelled because of snow.
Billy Butler went 3-for-3 with three RBIs for Kansas City while Tampa Bay fell 1-1/2 games behind Boston for first in the American League East.
Zack Greinke struck out nine and smacked an RBI single to raise his average to .340 as he held down the reeling Chicago Cubs.
Greinke (13-3) allowed five hits and two runs while pitching into the ninth and the Dodgers moved to 18-4 this season with Greinke on the mound.
Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig also homered for Los Angeles.
A.J. Pierzynski’s two-out, three-run homer broke open a close game in the seventh inning for the Texas Rangers.
Pierzynski’s 15th home run of the season turned a one-run game into a 7-3 lead.
Teammate Mitch Moreland added an eighth-inning solo shot off reliever Yoervis Medina as five of the Rangers’ 11 hits went for extra bases.
Coco Crisp hit a home run and an RBI single, and newly promoted Daric Barton had a two RBI hits as the Oakland A’s pounced on the Detroit bullpen.
Oakland broke a 4-4 tie with four hits in the space of five batters in the sixth inning against reliever Jose Alvarez (1-4).
The A’s added their seventh run in the seventh on Alberto Callaspo’s RBI single.
Martin Prado had three RBIs and Brandon McCarthy earned his first win since May 24 as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres.
Prado singled with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, driving in two runs for a 4-1 lead, and the D-backs added two unearned runs in the seventh inning.
Prado, who also had a sacrifice fly, has a major-league-high 36 hits and a National League-high 27 RBIs in August.
The Houston Astros prevailed in a see-saw game filled with 27 combined hits, seven homers, numerous miscues and two blown leads.
After blowing a 7-3 lead, Houston came back to win in the ninth following back-to-back home runs by Matt Dominguez and Chris Carter, who led the Astros by going 3-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs.
Juan Nicasio held the San Francisco Giants scoreless for six innings and the Colorado Rockies pounded Barry Zito to begin their 10-game homestand with a win.
Nicasio tied his season high with nine strikeouts, one short of his career high set in 2011, and he drove in a run with a single in the two-run fourth that finished Zito’s game.
Edwin Encarnacion drove in two runs and right-hander R A Dickey pitched into the seventh inning as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the New York Yankees.
Toronto earned its second win in a row after snapping a seven-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory at Houston on Sunday.
Cliff Lee allowed just five hits in eight innings and Cody Asche hit a two-run triple in the fourth inning to lift the Philadelphia Phillies to a win over the New York Mets.
The Phillies (60-71) won for the fifth time in their past six games and improved to 7-4 since Ryne Sandberg replaced Charlie Manuel as manager.
Dodgers series defeat a blip in resurgent season
Such has been the extraordinary dominance of the resurgent Los Angeles Dodgers over the past two months that a series loss to the Boston Red Sox over the weekend barely dented their collective stride.
The Dodgers were beaten 8-1 by the Red Sox in the rubber match of a three-game series in Los Angeles on Sunday, the first series they have lost since June 14-16 at Pittsburgh.
During that span, they had won or split 18 series in a row to set a franchise record.
“It’s a series,” Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez told reporters in matter-of-fact fashion after his team had ‘slipped’ to 76-54 for the season. “You’re going to win some, you’re going to lose some.”
Despite Sunday’s defeat by the Red Sox, the Dodgers stayed a commanding 9-1/2 games ahead of the second-placed Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League (NL) West, having been 9-1/2 games out of first place on June 22.
During a stunning renaissance which has been underpinned by brilliant pitching, reliable batting depth and important contributions from ‘rank-and-file’ players when needed, Los Angeles have piled up 46 wins in 58 games.
Zack Greinke, who has gone 12-3 this season with an earned run average of 2.91, and Clayton Kershaw (13-7, 1.72 ERA) have been the standout pitchers.
“They’re on a roll that baseball hasn’t seen in many, many years,” said Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum, whose team take on the Dodgers in a three-game set starting at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
“Part of it is, obviously, the offense. But when you have Greinke, Kershaw going two out of five days, you’re talking about two guys who can win Cy Youngs in any given year or throw a no-hitter on any given day.”
Dodgers pitcher Josh Beckett, sidelined since having rib surgery on July 10, has gained an even greater appreciation of Kershaw’s talents while watching him on television.
“I tell everybody that as good as you think he is, he is better than that,” said Beckett, who was a World Series champion with the Florida Marlins in 2003 and with the Red Sox in 2007.
“And that’s hard to do, because everybody thinks he’s really good. I know he hasn’t been doing it that long, but he could possibly be the best pitcher ever - he’s that good.
“Coming over here last year, I knew he was good, but he exceeded my expectations,” added Beckett, who joined the Dodgers in a block-buster multi-player trade on Aug 25, 2012.
Left-hander Kershaw leads the majors with his 1.72 earned run average and is a prime contender to win the NL’s Cy Young Award for a second time. He previously won the accolade in 2011 as the NL’s best pitcher.
These are certainly heady days for the Dodgers who fell into bankruptcy in 2011 as owner Frank McCourt and his wife battled in divorce court before a comeback was sparked when Guggenheim Baseball Management, a group of investors including basketball great Magic Johnson, acquired the team in early May last year.