Baseball-Highlights of Sunday's Major League games

(Adds later games) Aug 31 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Sunday's Major League Baseball games. - - - Cardinals 9, Cubs 6 In a series mostly marked by Chicago Cubs homers, St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday provided some thunder of his own at a sold-out Busch Stadium. Holliday's bases-loaded two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning snapped a 6-6 tie and capped a St. Louis rally from a 5-0 deficit. Holliday, whose solo homer in the fourth started the comeback, drilled a 1-2 pitch off reliever Carlos Villanueva (5-7) and past third baseman Luis Valbuena into left field. It scored second baseman Pete Kozma and first baseman Daniel Descalso, giving Holliday nine RBIs in the last two games and 10 for the four-game series. - - - Orioles 12, Twins 8 J.J Hardy hit his fourth career grand slam and the rampant Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins for their fourth consecutive victory. Nelson Cruz connected for his league-leading 35th home run as the Orioles (79-56) pounded 18 hits and increased their lead over the Yankees to nine games in the American League East. Baltimore catcher Caleb Joseph had a career-high four hits, while left-hander Wei-Yin Chen (14-4) allowed four runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings to get the win. - - - Reds 3, Pirates 2 Chris Heisey homered twice while Johnny Cueto limited the Pittsburgh Pirates to two runs in eight innings as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates. Cueto (16-8) tied for the league lead in victories. He allowed two runs, nine hits, one walk and struck out six. - - - Blue Jays 4, Yankees 3 Jose Bautista extended his home run streak to five consecutive games as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees. Designated hitter Derek Jeter, playing his final game in Toronto before he retires at the end of the season, hit a soft line drive to second to end the game and give Casey Janssen his 20th save of the season. - - - Mets 6, Phillies 5 Catcher Anthony Recker hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the sixth inning and the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies in a game between two teams out of playoff contention. - - - Red Sox 3, Rays 0 Clay Buchholz won for the first time in six weeks as the Boston Red Sox downed Tampa Bay Rays. Buchholz allowed just three hits and struck out six to improve to 6-8 in a subtly dominating performance. The complete game was his second of the season and first since July 13. - - - White Sox 6, Tigers 2 After making a slew of moves in the morning, the Chicago White Sox finished a four-game series against the Detroit Tigers strong with a comfortable afternoon win at U.S. Cellular Field. The White Sox split the series by beating the Tigers after trading former designated hitter Adam Dunn to the Oakland Athletics and calling up a couple of prospects a day ahead of rosters expanding for the final month. Aided by three Tigers fielding errors in the first two innings, Chicago scored twice in the first and three times in the second to give starter Jose Quintana a quick 5-0 lead. The left-hander took it from there, limiting Detroit (74-62) to just two runs on six hits in his seven innings and departing with a four-run lead. - - - Astros 3, Rangers 2 Matt Dominguez smacked a game-tying home run in the eighth inning and Jose Altuve capped a four-hit game with a game-winning RBI single as the Houston Astros defeated the Texas Rangers at Minute Maid Park to claim the four-game series. Dominguez cranked his 15th home run of the season off Rangers left-hander Neal Cotts (2-8) after Cotts doused an Astros uprising by retiring Houston catcher Jason Castro with the bases loaded to close the seventh. - - - Mariners 5, Nationals 3 Dustin Ackley and the Seattle Mariners overcame two home runs from Washington slugger Bryce Harper to beat the Nationals and avoid a three-game sweep. Ackley's three-run home run in the top of the fifth inning put Seattle on top 4-3, the Mariners' first lead since the second inning of Friday's series opener. That was enough on a night when Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma gave up three solo home runs, two of them to Harper, in six innings. - - - Dodgers 7, Padres 1 Los Angeles left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu came off the disabled list to hold the San Diego Padres to one run on four hits over seven innings and the Dodgers broke open a one-run game with four runs in the top of the eighth to beat the Padres at Petco Park. The Dodgers had lost the first two games of the series on walk-off, extra-inning hits. Ryu (14-6), who had been sidelined since Aug. 14 with a right hip strain, needed only 84 pitches to navigate his seven innings. He struck out seven and did not issue a walk. - - - Giants 15, Brewers 5 The San Francisco Giants completed their demolition of the Milwaukee Brewers, getting four hits and two RBIs from Hunter Pence and three hits and three RBIs apiece from Pablo Sandoval and Andrew Susac. By sweeping the three-game, weekend series, the Giants earned their sixth consecutive win and kept pace with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West race. The first-place Dodgers (77-60) lead the second-place Giants (74-62) by 2 1/2 games. - - - Braves 1, Marlins 0 Left-hander Alex Wood pitched eight scoreless innings and matched his career high with 12 strikeouts in Atlanta's win over the Miami Marlins. A second-inning homer by catcher Evan Gattis produced the game's only run. Wood (10-10) retired the last eight men he faced before turning the game over to closer Craig Kimbrel, who pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 41st save. It was the first time in 61 games that Miami was shut out. - - - Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 2 Second baseman Aaron Hill had three hits and two RBIs and Nolan Reimold had his first career pinch-hit home run to help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies. Reimold's two-run homer off left-hander Jorge De La Rosa (13-10) gave Arizona a 4-1 lead in the seventh inning, sparking a four-run inning that included Hill's RBI double and left fielder Mark Trumbo's RBI single. - - - Angels 8, A's 1 It was more than just a sweep. It was how the Los Angeles Angels took four games from the Oakland A's over the weekend, concluding with Sunday's rout at Angel Stadium. The Angels thoroughly dominated the reeling A's, outscoring them 18-4 in the series. Sunday it was Matt Shoemaker blanking the A's on five hits over seven innings, improving to 14-4 and extending his personal scoreless-innings streak to 23 1/3 innings. - - - (Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)