Jake Cave homered twice, C.J. Cron went deep and the surging Minnesota Twins set a major league record for home runs on the road in a 10-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.
Cave led off the third with drive off Dylan Cease (3-7) to give Minnesota 139 homers away from home, eclipsing the mark of 138 set by San Francisco in 2001. Cron, the next hitter, followed with a homer to center.
Cave added a shot in the seventh for his second career multi-homer game, increasing the Twins’ overall total to 261. The record for homers in a season, 267, was set last year by the New York Yankees.
Cron doubled and had three RBIs in a three-hit game, and Nelson Cruz drove in three runs as the AL Central leaders won their fifth straight. In sweeping a three-game series with sliding Chicago, Minnesota (82-51) moved to 31 games above .500 for the first time since September 2010.
José Berrios (11-7) cruised to his first victory in nearly a month. He allowed three runs on seven hits and struck out eight in six innings.
José Abreu had four hits for the White Sox.
RAYS 9, ASTROS 8
HOUSTON (AP) — Ji-Man Choi hit a two-run double, Travis d’Arnaud homered and drove in four runs, and Tampa Bay beat Houston to avoid a three-game sweep.
Astros star Jose Altuve hit a tiebreaking solo leadoff homer in the sixth, his 25th, but Tampa Bay scored three runs in the seventh to make it 8-6. Tommy Pham had an RBI single off Chris Devenski (2-3), and Choi brought in two more with a drive to center.
Houston ended a seven-game winning streak, and the Rays snapped a season-high four-game road skid.
Jose De Leon (1-0) earned the win for the Rays, who used seven pitchers. Emilio Pagan earned his 15th save.
The Rays and Astros exchanged solo homers in the third, with Austin Meadows hitting his 24th and George Springer answering with his 28th to make it 2-2.
Abraham Toro led off the bottom of the ninth with his first career homer to make it 9-8 before the Rays held on.
INDIANS 2, TIGERS 0
DETROIT (AP) — Mike Clevinger struck out 10 in eight innings, and Francisco Lindor homered to lift Cleveland past Detroit.
Cleveland swept the three-game series and is 15-1 against the Tigers this year. The Indians won 14 straight against Detroit.
Clevinger (10-2) allowed four hits and no walks in his longest outing of the season. He was lifted after 115 pitches, and Brad Hand worked a perfect ninth for his 33rd save in 38 chances.
Lindor opened the scoring in the third with a solo homer off Daniel Norris (3-11) and added a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
ATHLETICS 9, ROYALS 8
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jurickson Profar homered and drove in three runs and Seth Brown added two RBIs as Oakland beat Kansas City.
Everybody in the A’s starting lineup had a hit or drove in a run, bailing out starter Chris Bassitt, who failed to survive the fifth before turning the game over to Yusmeiro Petit (4-3). Liam Hendriks earned his 17th save.
Glenn Sparkman (3-10) also failed to make it through the fifth for Kansas City, allowing seven runs, nine hits and a walk. He also hit a pair of batters in losing his fifth straight decision.
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