NEW YORK: New York’s Masahiro Tanaka pitched seven scoreless innings to steer the Yankees to a 5-0 win against Toronto on Sunday, snapping their five-game losing sequence and edging within 3-1/2 games of the Blue Jays in the race for top spot in the American League East division.
Elsewhere, AL Central leader Kansas City lost to Baltimore to see its division lead cut to an even 10 games, while Houston boosted its narrow lead in the AL West with a remarkable last-out rally to beat the Los Angeles Angels.
The Los Angeles Dodgers maintained their healthy buffer atop the National League West by edging Arizona, while St. Louis retained its fragile NL Central lead by defeating Cincinnati.
Tanaka (12-6) struck out seven, walked none and threw 76 of 108 pitches for strikes. He is 3-0 with a 2.54 ERA in his past four starts. His efforts prevented the Yankees suffering a series sweep at the hands of their chief AL East rival.
“I had a sense of having some of the better stuff early on in the game,” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “I just try to be resilient, not give in, and attack. My mindset was I’m not going to let these guys sweep us.”
Dustin Ackley homered and had three RBIs for the Yankees, who sent Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (10-11) to his first loss since before the All-Star break.
Baltimore’s Chris Davis hit his league-leading 42nd home run of the season to help the Orioles beat Kansas City 8-2, keeping a pulse in their playoff hopes.
The Royals have lost seven of nine and dropped their third straight series for the first time this season.
Baltimore’s Jonathan Schoop added two solo homers among his three hits.
Los Angeles’ Zack Greinke pitched eight scoreless innings to lower his major league-leading ERA to 1.61, helping the Dodgers beat Arizona 4-3.
Greinke (17-3) won his fourth straight game and eighth in the past nine starts, striking out eight. Of his 24 outs recorded, only one was a fly ball.
St. Louis’ Tommy Pham hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the sixth inning and Matt Adams added a two-run drive in a five-run eighth which helped lift the Cardinals from a 2-0 deficit to beat Cincinnati and avoid a four-game sweep.
The Cardinals, on their worst stretch this season, had lost eight of 10 going into the series finale and has been outscored 20-3 in the first three games of the series.
Adams’ homer, as a pinch-hitter, was his first long shot in over two months.
Houston’s Jed Lowrie hit a three-run homer to complete an astounding five-run rally with two outs in the ninth inning which gave the Astros a stunning 5-3 win against the Los Angeles Angels.
Preston Tucker started the rally with a two-strike solo homer for the Astros, who got five consecutive hits off Angels closer Huston Street (3-3), the AL saves leader.
George Springer tripled and scored on Jose Altuve’s single before Carlos Correa got an infield single when his grounder got stuck in the webbing of the second baseman’s glove.
Lowrie then hit his shot to the short right-field corner. Right fielder Kole Calhoun reached into the crowd to try to take the catch but came up empty, sending the Houston dugout into a wild celebration.
The Astros have a 1 1-2 game lead over the Rangers in the AL West and open a four-game series at Texas on Monday.
Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison hit a winning single in the 11th inning to give the Pirates a valuable 7-6 win against Milwaukee.
Harrison’s hit off Tyler Thornburg (0-1) kept the Pirates within 2-1/2 games of St. Louis in the NL Central, and opened a four-game margin for the NL wild-card lead over the Chicago Cubs, who start a four-game series at the Pirates on Tuesday.
The Brewers had runners at the corner bases with one out in the 11th but Jared Hughes (3-1) induced Scooter Gennett to hit into an inning-ending double play.
San Francisco’s Mike Leake pitched six strong innings and hit a three-run homer to help the Giants beat San Diego 10-3 and complete a three-game sweep.
Leake (10-8) allowed four hits and two walks over six-plus innings.
Minnesota’s Torii Hunter hit a three-run homer and an RBI single to power the Twins to a 7-0 win against the Chicago White Sox, who they have shut out four times this season.
Twins starter Kyle Gibson (10-10) went 7 2-3 scoreless innings, striking out seven and walking just one.
Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard homered and drove in three runs as the Phillies won 7-4 to dent the Chicago Cubs’ wild-card ambitions.
New York’s Daniel Murphy hit a tying three-run homer in the ninth against Ryan Kelly and Kirk Nieuwenhuis scored the tiebreaking run on a throwing error to give the Mets a 10-7 win against Atlanta.
Boston’s Rusney Castillo had a go-ahead two-run single in the 13th inning to lift the Red Sox over Tampa Bay 2-0 in a dour contest.
Texas’ Adrian Beltre homered twice to drive in five runs and Choo Shin-soo also went deep as the Rangers beats Oakland 12-4.
Cleveland and Detroit split their double-header, with the Indians taking the opener 7-2 and the Tigers winning 9-2 in the night game.
Washington’s Max Scherzer (12-11) won for the first time since July 30, pitching eight scoreless and walk-less innings to lead the Nationals past Miami 5-0.
Colorado’s Nolan Arenado hit a sacrifice fly to give the Rockies a 3-2 win against Seattle.
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