Weaver gets 1st big-league victory, heads to bed

INTERLEAGUE

CARDINALS 3, ATHLETICS 1

ST. LOUIS -- Luke Weaver didn't have any big plans to celebrate his first major league victory.

Jedd Gyorko homered and Weaver pitched six strong innings as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Oakland Athletics 3-1 on Friday night.

"It's a little late," Weaver, 23, said. "Maybe just bed."

Gyorko's 423-foot shot in the first extended the Cardinals' home run streak to 15 games, the longest active streak in the majors, and made it 2-0 after just two batters.

"I got a pitch that I was kind of looking for, a change-up, and put a good swing on that," Gyorko said.

Weaver (1-1) gave up 1 run and 4 hits in a career-high 6 innings in his home debut for the Cardinals. Five of his seven strikeouts were looking.

"Luke was great tonight," Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said. "Nice to see him get out of the first without all kinds of traffic and having to be under stress right from the beginning. He had a good clean first and I thought he's just continuing to get better with every start."

Weaver lowered his ERA from 5.00 to 3.60.

"I think I made a couple of mechanical things that made me stay through the pitches better," Weaver said. "But just believing that I can be aggressive in the zone and trusting the stuff and I think it paid off tonight."

Cardinals center fielder Randal Grichuk made a diving catch on a sinking drive by Stephen Vogt to end the fifth, and Jhonny Peralta made a sprawling stop at third base and threw out Khris Davis to start the sixth.

"That was a great catch by Grich out there," Weaver said. "It minimized some stress on me and saved the game run-wise."

Yonder Alonso's solo home run in the second inning was the A's only run.

Seung Hwan Oh got the last three outs for his 13th save, helping the Cardinals get their first interleague victory at home in eight tries this season.

Ross Detwiler (1-3) gave up 3 runs and 6 hits while striking out 6 in 5 1/3 innings.

"I think he mixed the pitches a little better," A's Manager Bob Melvin said. "I think his breaking balls were a little better and he was getting ahead more so."

The Cardinals capped the scoring in the sixth thanks to alert base running. Brandon Moss read a soft fly perfectly off the bat of Yadier Molina and advanced from first to third as the ball fell beyond the reach of A's second baseman Max Muncy in short center field. Molina then intentionally got into a run-down on a shallow fly ball by Peralta, allowing Moss to score.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

YANKEES 14, ORIOLES 4 Rookie Gary Sanchez homered for the eighth time in nine games and drove in four runs as host New York beat Baltimore in the opener of their weekend series.

BLUE JAYS 15, TWINS 8 Russell Martin and Justin Smoak each homered and drove in five runs as Toronto hammered visiting Minnesota, handing the Twins their eighth consecutive loss.

ROYALS 6, RED SOX 3 Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon homered, and Ian Kennedy allowed one run through five innings as Kansas City continued its month-long hot streak with a victory over host Boston.

TIGERS 4, ANGELS 2 Justin Verlander pitched into the eighth inning and Justin Upton homered for the fourth time in five games as Detroit beat visiting Los Angeles.

INDIANS 12, RANGERS 1 Corey Kluber pitched six strong innings for a career-best sixth consecutive victory and Abraham Almonte hit two run-scoring doubles, helping Cleveland beat host Texas in a matchup of division leaders.

MARINERS 3, WHITE SOX 1 Chris Sale struck out 14 but got outpitched by Felix Hernandez and the Seattle bullpen, and the visitors ended a three-game skid by beating Chicago.

ASTROS 5, RAYS 4 Carlos Correa and Evan Gattis hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning to lift host Houston to a victory over Tampa Bay.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

NATIONALS 8, ROCKIES 5 Jayson Werth and Daniel Murphy hit solo home runs and drove in two runs each, and Gio Gonzalez earned his 100th career victory as Washington beat visiting Colorado.

METS 9, PHILLIES 4 Wilmer Flores launched a grand slam, Asdrubal Cabrera homered from both sides of the plate and Bartolo Colon had two helpful hits while pitching host New York to a victory over Philadelphia.

MARLINS 7, PADRES 6 Chris Johnson's run-scoring ground-rule double with two outs in the bottom of the ninth gave Miami a victory over visiting San Diego.

PIRATES 5, BREWERS 3 Jordy Mercer's first career grand slam capped a five-run sixth inning that started with two errors by Milwaukee third baseman Jonathan Villar, and visiting Pittsburgh held on for a victory over the Brewers.

Sports on 08/27/2016

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