INTERLEAGUE

Molina’s 4 RBI lift Cardinals over slumping Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Yadier Molina looked perfectly comfortable in the No. 2 spot in the lineup.

Batting second for only the third time in his career, Molina homered and drove in four runs to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the slumping Kansas City Royals 6-3 on Monday.

Molina hit a two-run home run in the first inning and doubled home a run in the third before his sacrifice fly in the fourth scored Pete Kozma.

“Yadier is pretty flexible,” Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said. “We like him wherever he hits. Today he did a nice job hitting in the second position.”

Molina had batted fifth 40 times and sixth seven times this year.

“It doesn’t matter for me,” he said. “I’ve got the same approach: I’m going to be aggressive.”

While the Cardinals own the best road record in the majors at 19-9, the Royals dropped their ninth consecutive home game - one shy of the franchise record set last year.

“We’re playing good,” Molina said. “We’ve got some good offense. Right now, we’re seeing the ball pretty good. We’re finding some holes. We’re showing the people we’ve got a pretty good team. Hopefully we can continue to do that for the rest of the season.” ATHLETICS 4, GIANTS 1 Josh Donaldson hit a two-run home run to back Dan Straily’s strong start, and host Oakland beat San Francisco. Straily (3-2) pitched 6 innings of one-run ball, allowing 4 hits and 1 walk. Buster Posey’s ground out in the sixth inning drove in San Francisco’s only run.

RAYS 10, MARLINS 6 Kelly Johnson hit two three-run home runs and host Tampa Bay handed Miami its sixth consecutive loss. Johnson also doubled, singled and stole a base.

MARINERS 9, PADRES 0 Aaron Harang (2-5) threw a four-hitter, Jason Bay hit his first career lead off home run and Michael Morse added a three-run shot as part of host Seattle’s four-run first inning as the Mariners beat San Diego.

TWINS 6, BREWERS 3 Joe Mauer wound up with a home run instead of a double after umpires went to video replay, and Minnesota beat host Milwaukee. The Twins led 4-3 when Mauer led off the seventh with a long fly to left field.Mauer stopped at second base, and the umpires went to review the drive. The ball hit the padding atop the fence and then appeared to strike a back wall, making it a home run. The second base umpire was Angel Hernandez, who was the chief in Cleveland earlier this month when an umpiring crew mistakenly failed to reverse a call on the field and rule a home run.

ASTROS 3, ROCKIES 2 (12) Brandon Barnes hit a two-out RBI, ground-rule double in the 12th inning to lift host Houston to a victory over Colorado. Paul Clemens (2-2) struck out two in a scoreless 12th for the victory.

TIGERS 6, PIRATES 5 Justin Verlander (4-6) struck out 13 in seven innings and Jhonny Peralta had four hits to lead host Detroit over Pittsburgh.

ORIOLES 6, NATIONALS 2 Jason Hammel held host Washington to two runs in his longest start of the season and Baltimore beat Washington.

REDS 4, INDIANS 2 Joey Votto hit a tie-breaking home run in the eighth inning, lifting host Cincinnati over Cleveland. Shin-Soo Choo, traded from the Indians to the Reds in the offseason, hit a leadoff home run in the first.

DIAMONDBACKS 5, RANGERS 3 TylerSkaggs, just called up from the minors, struck out nine in six scoreless innings and host Arizona held on to beat Texas in the opener of a doubleheader.

METS 2, YANKEES 1 Daniel Murphy hit a go-ahead single in the eighth after being denied a home run two innings earlier, and the New York Mets rallied to beat the rival Yankees.

CUBS 7, WHITE SOX 0 Jeff Samardzija (3-6) threw a two-hitter and Julio Borbon hit a two-run home run to help the visiting Chicago Cubs get the victory.

RED SOX 9, PHILLIES 3 Dustin Pedroia and Mike Napoli homered in the first inning as host Boston jumped out to an early lead and coasted to a victory over Philadelphia. Jacoby Ellsbury had hits in each of the first three innings for the Red Sox.

BLUE JAYS 9, BRAVES 3 Edwin Encarnacion went 2 for 5 with 5 RBI hit a three-run home run, Colby Rasmus and J.P. Arencibia each had a two-run shot and host Toronto beat Atlanta.

DODGERS 8, ANGELS 7 Jerry Hairston Jr.’s RBI single scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, Adrian Gonzalez went 4 for 4 and scored four runs, and the host Los Angeles Dodgers rallied to beat the Angels.

Monday’s games INTERLEAGUE Baltimore 6, Washington 2 Detroit 6, Pittsburgh 5 Cincinnati 4, Cleveland 2 Houston 3, Colorado 2, 12 inn.

Minnesota 6, Milwaukee 3 St. Louis 6, Kansas City 3 Tampa Bay 10, Miami 6 Arizona 5-5, Texas 3-4 Oakland 4, San Francisco 1 Seattle 9, San Diego 0 Toronto 9, Atlanta 3 Chicago Cubs 7, Chicago White Sox 0 NY Mets 2, NY Yankees 1 Boston 9, Philadelphia 3 LA Dodgers 8, LA Angels 7

Sports, Pages 16 on 05/28/2013

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