TORONTO — Mike Moustakas hit his 37th home run of the season, breaking Steve Balboni's Royals record, Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield also connected and Kansas City routed the Toronto Blue Jays 15-5 on Wednesday night.
Rookie right-hander Jakob Junis (8-2) allowed four runs, two earned, in 6 1/3 innings, improving to 5-0 with a 2.42 ERA over his past eight starts.
Moustakas went 3 for 4 and came within a triple of hitting for the cycle. He eclipsed Balboni's 1985 record with a solo blast to right off Carlos Ramirez in the sixth.
Merrifield also had three hits and drove in a pair of runs as the Royals snapped a three-game losing streak and won for the second time in their past seven.
Kansas City came within a run of matching its season high. The Royals scored 16 against Detroit twice within a seven-day span in late July.
Leading 1-0, the Royals exploded for eight runs and seven hits in the second, chasing Blue Jays left-hander Brett Anderson and sending 12 batters to the plate. Alcides Escobar had a two-run single, Merrifield hit an RBI single, Eric Hosmer ended Anderson's night with a two-run double, and Perez greeted reliever Luis Santos with his 26th home run, a two-run drive to left.
Anderson (3-4) left his previous start at Minnesota in the fifth after being bothered by a blister on his index finger. Against the Royals, he allowed eight runs and seven hits in 1 1/3 innings. Anderson was caught by TV cameras ripping his cap apart as he sat in the dugout after coming out of the game.
Kansas City added four more against Ramirez in the sixth, snapping the rookie's streak of 47 2/3 scoreless innings in the minors and majors. He had pitched 10 shutout innings to begin his big league career.
Merrifield ended the streak with a leadoff homer, his 18th, Cabrera hit an RBI double, Perez drove in a run with a groundout and Moustakas added a two-out homer.
Raffy Lopez homered in the ninth for the Blue Jays.
RED SOX 9, ORIOLES 0 Chris Sale struck out 13 to become the first AL pitcher in 18 years to reach the 300 mark, and the Boston Red Sox moved to the brink of clinching a playoff berth by beating the Baltimore Orioles. Sale (17-7) reached the milestone on his last pitch, a called third strike against Ryan Flaherty to end the eighth inning. The last AL pitcher to fan 300 batters in a season was Boston’s Pedro Martinez in 1999, when he set a club record with 313. YANKEES 11, TWINS 3 Aaron Judge hit his AL-leading 45th home run and topped 100 RBIs, Didi Gregorius surpassed Derek Jeter for the most home runs by a Yankees shortstop and New York beat Minnesota for a three-game sweep. The game was briefly halted in the fifth inning when a foul ball down the third-base line off the bat of Todd Frazier struck a young girl, who was carried out of the stands, given first aid and taken to a hospital.
ASTROS 4, WHITE SOX 3 Yuli Gurriel had three hits, including a two-run double, Brad Peacock threw six solid innings and the Houston Astros extended their winning streak to six games with a win over the Chicago White Sox. Peacock (12-2) allowed two runs on one hit with six strikeouts. The right-hander continues to throw well, allowing two runs or fewer in each of his last five starts.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CARDINALS 9, REDS 2 Dexter Fowler homered for the third straight game while Matt Carpenter and Paul DeJong also homered as the St. Louis Cardinals gained ground in their National League playoff push with a win over the Cincinnati Reds. Tommy Pham finished with two doubles, a single and two RBIs and Yadier Molina added a two-run double as the third-place Cardinals (79-72) gained a game on Colorado in the wild-card race.
PIRATES 6, BREWERS 4 Adam Frazier hit a two-run homer off Milwaukee closer Corey Knebel with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a victory. The Pirates tied it in the eighth on a throwing error by Knebel then ended a seven-game losing streak when Frazier homered into the first row of seats in the right-field stands.
INTERLEAGUE
RAYS 8, CUBS 1 Blake Snell gave up two hits in seven shutout innings and the Tampa Bay Rays ended the Chicago Cubs’ season-best seven-game winning streak. The Cubs, who had not lost since being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in a three-game series in Chicago on Sept. 8-10, are scheduled to open a four-game series in Milwaukee on Thursday night. They held a 3 1/2-game lead over the Brewers entering Wednesday.