NEW YORK (AP) - Wilmer Flores launched a grand slam, Asdrubal Cabrera homered from both sides of the plate and even Bartolo Colon had two helpful hits while pitching the New York Mets to a 9-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
Jose Reyes and Cabrera opened the Mets' half of the first inning with consecutive home runs, only the second time the franchise has accomplished the feat. Trying to make a significant move in the crowded NL wild-card race, New York (65-63) opened a 10-game homestand by winning for the fifth time in its past six.
The 43-year-old Colon (12-7) carried a two-hitter into the eighth inning. He also lashed two sharp hits that delighted the crowd, a leadoff double in the fifth and a line-drive single in the sixth.
The pudgy pitcher scored both times, first ahead of Flores' third career slam and then in front of Cabrera's second homer of the night. The switch-hitting shortstop became the first Mets player to go deep from both sides in one game since Carlos Beltran at Colorado on May 12, 2011.
Phillies left-hander Adam Morgan (1-8) took the loss.
INDIANS 12, RANGERS 1
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Corey Kluber pitched six strong innings for a career-best sixth straight victory and Abraham Almonte hit two run-scoring doubles, helping Cleveland rout Texas in a matchup of division leaders.
The Indians (73-54) snapped a three-game losing streak, which had tied a season high, and pulled within a game of the Rangers (75-54) for the best record in the American League a night after losing 9-0 to Texas ace Cole Hamels.
Adrian Beltre hit a solo homer in the sixth for the AL West-leading Rangers, but Kluber (14-8) struck out the other three hitters in the right-hander's final inning to finish with seven strikeouts. The 2014 AL Cy Young winner has a 1.75 ERA over the nine starts covering the winning streak.
Martin Perez (8-10) was the loser.
TIGERS 4, ANGELS 2
DETROIT (AP) - Justin Verlander pitched into the eighth inning and Justin Upton homered for the fourth time in five games to lead Detroit past Los Angeles.
The Tigers have won five straight to move back into contention in the AL Central and wild-card races.
Upton was hitting .226 when Tigers manager Brad Ausmus held him out of the starting lineup for three days last week. Since returning Saturday, he's batting .417 with seven extra-base hits and 11 RBIs.
Verlander (14-7) allowed two runs and four hits in 7 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out eight in his ninth straight quality start. Francisco Rodriguez got the last four outs for his 36th save.
Ricky Nolasco (4-12) was the loser.
MARINERS 3, WHITE SOX 1
CHICAGO (AP) - Chris Sale struck out 14 but got outpitched by Felix Hernandez and the Seattle bullpen, and the Mariners beat Chicago to end a three-game skid.
Hernandez (9-4) improved to 5-0 in eight starts since returning from the disabled list, throwing 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Sale (15-7) gave up five hits and walked none in his fifth complete game of the season. He retired the final 16 batters, striking out 10 of them.
Sale struck out six straight in the sixth and seventh innings, one shy of Joe Cowley's team record.
Franklin Gutierrez hit a solo home run and Adam Lind added an RBI double off Sale.
Todd Frazier's 32nd home run in the seventh was one of eight hits off Hernandez.
NATIONALS 8, ROCKIES 5
WASHINGTON (AP) - Jayson Werth and Daniel Murphy hit solo homers and drove in two runs each, and Gio Gonzalez earned his 100th career victory in Washington's win over Colorado.
Gonzalez (9-9) threw six innings and allowed two runs and four hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
Nick Hundley hit a three-run homer for the Rockies.
While Gonzalez hit the century mark, Rockies rookie Jeff Hoffman (0-2), remains in search of his first major league win. Hoffman allowed a homer to the second batter he faced when Werth went deep for the second time in twos many days and the 18th time this season.
Murphy gave the Nationals a 4-2 lead in the fifth with his team-leading 25th homer. The solo blast gave the Nationals second baseman 500 career RBIs.
ASTROS 5, RAYS 4
HOUSTON (AP) - Carlos Correa and Evan Gattis hit back-to-back homers in the ninth inning to lift Houston past Tampa Bay.
Mikie Mahtook's first homer this season, a towering shot with two outs in the ninth inning, had put the Rays on top before Houston's dramatic comeback.
Correa connected on the first pitch in the ninth inning from Alex Colome (1-4) on a home run to the seats in right field to tie it 4-4. Gattis then fought through eight pitches before sending the ninth to right field for his 21st homer that gave Houston the win.
Ken Giles (2-3) was the winner.
Jake Marisnick homered in the second for Houston.
ROYALS 6, RED SOX 3
BOSTON (AP) - Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon homered, and Ian Kennedy allowed one run through five innings and Kansas City beat Boston.
Kansas City has won 11 of its last 12 games and is 18-6 in August.
Kennedy (9-9) had a chance set a club record by allowing one or fewer runs in six straight outings of at least six innings. But he left with a runner on after 5 1/3 innings and wound up charged for two earned runs in the game. He finished with nine strikeouts.
Kelvin Herrera earned his 10th save.
Lorenzo Cain added a solo homer in the eighth inning.
Steven Wright (13-6) took the loss.
CARDINALS 3, ATHLETICS 1
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Jedd Gyorko homered and Luke Weaver pitched six strong innings to earn his first major league win as St. Louis beat Oakland.
Gyorko's 423-foot shot in the first extended the Cardinals' home run streak to 15 games, the longest active streak in the majors, and made it 2-0 after just two batters.
Weaver (1-1) gave up one run and four hits in a career-high six innings in his home debut for the Cardinals. Five of his seven strikeouts were looking.
Yonder Alonso's solo homer in the second inning was the A's only run.
Seung Hwan Oh got the last three outs for his 13th save helping the Cardinals get their first interleague win at home in eight tries this season.
Ross Detwiler (1-3) took the loss.
YANKEES 14, ORIOLES 4
NEW YORK (AP) - Rookie Gary Sanchez homered for the eighth time in nine games and drove in four runs to help New York beat Baltimore.
Mark Teixeira and Chase Headley also went deep for the surging Yankees, who moved five games over .500 for the first time this season.
Sanchez, who had three hits, had a two-out single in the bottom of the first. Teixeira followed with a towering shot into the right-field bleachers off Yovani Gallardo to give New York a 2-1 lead.
The Yankees broke the game open against Gallardo (4-6) with a six-run second. The right-hander was charged with eight runs over 1 1/3 innings, the shortest start of his 10-year career.
Luis Cessa (4-0) gave up three runs and five hits over six innings in his second big-league start.
Manny Machado homered twice for the Orioles, giving him 31 for the season.
BLUE JAYS 15, TWINS 8
TORONTO (AP) - Russell Martin and Justin Smoak each homered and drove in five runs and Toronto handed Minnesota its eighth straight loss.
Josh Donaldson and Darwin Barney also homered. Francisco Liriano had his first win with Toronto to help the Blue Jays take a one-game lead in the AL East.
Trevor Plouffe hit a solo homer for the last-place Twins.
Smoak connected off Pat Dean (1-4) in the second inning and Donaldson followed three batters later with his 30th. Barney homered off Andrew Albers to begin a four-run sixth for the Blue Jays. Martin capped the inning with a three-run double off Pat Light.
PIRATES 5, BREWERS 3
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Jordy Mercer's first career grand slam capped a five-run sixth inning that started with two errors by Milwaukee third baseman Jonathan Villar, and Pittsburgh held off the Brewers.
Villar bobbled a bouncer by Andrew McCutchen to open the sixth, then threw wildly to second after making a diving stab on Gregory Polanco's hard shot.
Starling Marte followed with an RBI double off starter Matt Garza (4-6) to break a scoreless tie. Three batters later, Mercer cleared the bases with his homer to left-center.
The Brewers rallied in the bottom of the sixth behind a three-run shot from rookie shortstop Orlando Arcia, his first in the big leagues.
Pittsburgh's problematic bullpen barely held on from there to back starter Ryan Vogelsong (3-3). Domingo Santana popped out to end the game with the potential tying run at second.
Tony Watson escaped the jam for his ninth save.