KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Just about everybody in the Cardinals lineup drove in a run, Michael Wacha was good enough on the mound and St. Louis held off the Kansas City Royals 8-4 on Tuesday night to even their four-game, two-city series.
Wacha (4-7) allowed 4 runs over 6 innings but, considering he served up 9 hits and 3 walks, it could have been worse. It was his second consecutive victory after dropping seven consecutive decisions.
His bullpen nearly gave it away: Seung Hwan Oh loaded the bases with one out in the ninth before getting pinch-hitter Alex Gordon to pop out and inducing Eric Hosmer into a routine fielder's choice.
Yordano Ventura (6-5) allowed 7 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and 1 hit batter in 51/3 innings for the Royals. Ventura had only allowed one run over his past two starts, both of which came before an eight-game suspension for his role in a benches-clearing brawl during a game June 7 in Baltimore.
Ventura actually breezed through the first inning on just 12 pitches, but trouble came promptly in the second. He gave up three hits, walked two and Yadier Molina, Kolten Wong and Greg Garcia drove in runs.
He appeared to settle down over the next couple innings before more trouble hit in the fifth.
Matt Carpenter started it with a home run to center, the 48th allowed by a Kansas City pitcher this month -- the club record is 51 in May 2006. Matt Adams added a sacrifice fly later in the inning to make it 5-2.
Ventura's night was done in the sixth, when another hit and a walk brought Manager Ned Yost ambling out of the dugout. Carpenter provided an RBI double and Brandon Moss and Matt Holliday made it 8-2 before reliever Brian Flynn finally got the Royals out of the inning.
INDIANS 5, BRAVES 3 Carlos Santana hit a tiebreaking single in a three-run ninth inning, Corey Kluber allowed only three hits in eight innings and visiting Cleveland beat Atlanta for its 11th consecutive victory. The winning streak is Cleveland's longest in 34 years.
TIGERS 7, MARLINS 5 Miguel Cabrera's three-run home run highlighted a seven-run fifth inning in host Detroit's victory over Miami.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
RANGERS 7, YANKEES 1 Cole Hamels breezed through seven shutout innings to win his fourth consecutive start, Adrian Beltre homered and drove in three runs, and rolling Texas beat host New York. Hamels (9-1) yielded 6 harmless singles and struck out 7, throwing only 86 pitches.
RED SOX 8, RAYS 2 Rick Porcello pitched six strong innings, Travis Shaw homered and drove in five runs for the third time this season, and visiting Boston beat Tampa Bay.
TWINS 4, WHITE SOX 0 Brian Dozier hit two home runs and drove in four runs, Kyle Gibson pitched seven innings for his first victory of the season, and Minnesota blanked host Chicago.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CUBS 7, REDS 2 (15) Kris Bryant singled home the tiebreaking run in the 15th inning and visiting Chicago used three pitchers in left field while beating Cincinnati in the longest game of the season for both teams. With the Cubs out of position players, relievers Travis Wood (Bryant) and Spencer Patton (1-0) alternated between left field and the mound in the 14th inning, which ended with Patton getting the final out. Wood then finished it off with reliever Pedro Strop in left.
DODGERS 6, BREWERS 5 Rookie Julio Urias, 19, battled through six innings for his first major league victory, Adrian Gonzalez had three hits and Los Angeles hung on for a victory over host Milwaukee.
NATIONALS 5, METS 0 Lucas Giolito threw four scoreless innings in his rain-shortened major league debut and Washington beat visiting New York. Baseball's top pitching prospect allowed just 1 hit -- a leadoff single -- struck out 1 and walked 2 before a lengthy rain delay ended his outing.
Sports on 06/29/2016