>>Brandon Moss' Blast Sends Cardinals Home Winners
Brandon Moss hit a three-run walk-off home run with two outs in the ninth inning for an 8-5 win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
The NL Central-leading Cardinals have won nine of 10 and lead the division by six games. They've won nine in a row over Washington, coming from behind the last two nights.
After a very slow start since coming from Cleveland, Moss is starting to put things together. All three homers with St. Louis have come in the last six games, and his drive off Casey Janssen (1-4) was his fifth career walk-off.
Janssen took the loss on Monday, allowing four runs in two-thirds of an inning.
Mitch Harris (2-1) worked the last two innings, allowing two hits. He was among three minor league call-ups Monday.
Ryan Zimmerman homered and Anthony Rendon had a two-run double in a four-run third for Washington.
The Cardinals scored three runs on one hit in the bottom of the third and tied it with two runs on one hit with an error in the eighth.
Both starters lasted just 2 2-3 innings. Nationals rookie Joe Ross gave up one hit but had a season-high six walks and was charged with three runs. Cardinals call-up Marco Gonzales allowed four runs on seven hits with lots of solid contact.
Carlos Villanueva replaced Gonzales and restored order, allowing one hit in 3 1-3 innings with a season-high six strikeouts.
Matt Holliday took batting practice at Busch Stadium for the first time since straining his right quadriceps muscle and lined several homers. Lefty Tim Cooney will be shut down after three weeks of inactivity following an appendectomy.
Max Scherzer (11-11, 2.88) tries to shake off a forgettable August in which he was 0-3 with a 6.43 ERA and surrendered seven homers in five starts.
Michael Wacha seeks his 16th victory and was 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA in August.
>>Schwarber's Blast Powers Cubs To Win
Rookie Kyle Schwarber put an end to the first slump of his major league career on Tuesday night.
Schwarber hit a two-run homer with two out in the seventh inning, lifting the Chicago Cubs to a 5-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Kris Bryant had three hits and two RBIs for the Cubs, who had dropped five of six. Miguel Montero had two hits, and Fernando Rodney (1-0) got his first win since he was acquired in a trade with Seattle on Thursday.
The Reds led 4-3 before Dexter Fowler singled and Schwarber followed with a drive into the bleachers in left-center on a 3-2 pitch from Burke Badenhop (1-4). It was his 13th homer in 48 major league games.
Joey Votto hit his 26th homer for the Reds, who had an 8-21 record in August. Votto reached three times and is batting .399 with 59 walks in 44 games since the All-Star break.
Votto's first-inning drive gave Dan Haren nine consecutive appearances of allowing at least one home run. But Haren settled down and allowed two runs and four hits in five innings.
Fernando Rodney allowed Eugenio Suarez's tiebreaking homer in the seventh, but Schwarber's drive in the bottom half got him the win. Hector Rondon pitched the ninth for his 25th save in 29 tries.
Cincinnati right-hander Anthony DeSclafani went 5 2-3 innings and gave up three runs and four hits while striking out seven and walking two. He is 0-3 with a 4.55 ERA in his last five starts.
Reds RHP Raisel Iglesias faces Chicago RHP Jason Hammel. Iglesias (3-6, 3.92 ERA) has six straight quality starts, while Hammel (7-6, 3.42 ERA) is coming off an August when he was 1-2 with a 6.31 ERA.
>>Sano Sparks Twins To Victory
Miguel Sano's towering home run tied the game for Minnesota in the seventh inning, and two Chicago errors aided the go-ahead rally in the eighth for the Twins in an 8-6 victory Tuesday night over the White Sox.
Promoted straight from Double-A two months ago, Sano had three hits to raise his batting average to a team-best .295. He has 41 RBIs.
Eduardo Escobar's leadoff double, his third hit, started the trouble for Zach Duke (3-5), who threw away a sacrifice bunt attempt by Kurt Suzuki for one run. Third baseman Tyler Saladino let a grounder go through his legs, and the Twins scored twice more on a single and a sacrifice fly.
Kevin Jepsen (3-6) pitched a perfect eighth inning for the win. Glen Perkins recorded his 32nd save, his first in 16 days, despite a three-hit ninth that included an RBI single by Saladino.
Avasail Garcia's two-run homer in the sixth inning gave Chris Sale and the White Sox a 5-4 lead, but Ventura pulled the lanky left-hander with one out in the seventh for hard-throwing righty Nate Jones for the right-handed heart of Minnesota's order. Sano drove a full-count, two-out changeup from Jones into the second deck.
Sale had 10 strikeouts for the White Sox, his 13th start this season with double digits. The last major league pitcher to strike out at least 10 batters that many times in a year was Randy Johnson, who had 13 such starts in 2004 for Arizona.
The White Sox send LHP Carlos Rodon (6-5, 4.15 ERA) to the mound Wednesday. LHP Tommy Milone (6-4, 3.86 ERA) starts for the Twins.
>>Baez, Wada Added To Cubs Roster
The Chicago Cubs have added infield prospect Javier Baez and three others from Triple-A Iowa before Tuesday night's game against the Cincinnati Reds.
With rosters expanding, Chicago recalled pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada and selected the contracts of outfielder Quintin Berry and reliever Trevor Cahill from Iowa. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Cubs designated relievers James Russell and Rafael Soriano for assignment.
Outfielder Austin Jackson, acquired Monday from Seattle, was added to the active roster.
Baez, 22, is one of Chicago's top prospects but struggled during a brief stint in the major leagues last year. In 52 games, Baez hit nine home runs but struck out 95 times and batted.169.
This season at Iowa before being recalled, Baez hit .324 with 13 home runs in 70 games. He's in the lineup, batting seventh and playing second base.
