Cardinals Roll To Win Over Marlins, Cubs Drop Loss To Dodgers

Jaime Garcia made a mistake against Giancarlo Stanton and later took a misstep on his way to scoring. Otherwise, he and the St. Louis Cardinals rolled again.

Jason Heyward homered for the third consecutive game, Kolten Wong added a two-run shot and the Cardinals topped the Miami Marlins 6-1 on Wednesday night -- improving baseball's best record to 47-24.

Heyward hit a three-run homer, his ninth of the season, in the seventh to blow the game open. The Cardinals had just one hit in the first six innings against Miami starter Mat Latos (2-5), that hit being Wong's ninth home run in the third.

Garcia (3-3) allowed one run -- the Stanton homer, his major league-leading 27th -- in seven innings for the Cardinals, lowering his ERA to 1.69.

Garcia singled and eventually scored in the eighth but grimaced and began to limp shortly before crossing the plate. He came out of the game, but afterward Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said it was merely because of a cramp and didn't believe there was reason for concern.

Justin Turner had the best season of his career last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and then he kept working on his swing over the winter. All that hard work is paying off.

Turner and Adrian Gonzalez homered, and Los Angeles snapped Chicago's four-game win streak with a 5-2 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday night.

"Justin's been that guy that I've been able to put in all different spots in the order, play in a number of spots in the field, use him in different ways," manager Don Mattingly said. "So he's a valuable piece for us, that's for sure."

Gonzalez connected for a leadoff drive in the second and Turner belted a three-run shot in the third, helping Los Angeles bounce back after it scored just two runs in the first two games of the four-game series. Joc Pederson added an RBI single in the eighth for the NL West leaders, who had lost four of five overall.

Turner was let go by the Mets in December 2013, and then signed a minor league deal with Los Angeles. He set career highs with seven homers and a .340 batting average in 109 games last year, and the drive against the Cubs was his fourth in the last six games and No. 10 on the season.

Twins 6, White Sox 1

Phil Hughes and the Minnesota Twins were undeterred by Chris Sale's strikeout streak for the Chicago White Sox. Why would they be, with all due respect to the lanky left-hander? Sale has become one of baseball's best pitchers, but not against the Twins this year.

Hughes pitched eight strong innings on his birthday and Minnesota beat Sale for the third time this season, overcoming 10 more strikeouts by the three-time All-Star in a 6-1 victory Wednesday.

"He's definitely pitched very well against us a lot of times, so it's hard to say you have his number -- but this year obviously we've had some success," said Kurt Suzuki, who had two hits and an RBI for the Twins.

Sale (6-4) reached double digits in strikeouts for the seventh straight game, the longest stretch since Randy Johnson in 2001. Sale was trying to become the first pitcher in modern major league history with at least 12 strikeouts in six consecutive starts.

Wednesday, June 24 Scoreboard

Cleveland 8, Detroit 2

Toronto 1, Tampa Bay 0 (F/12)

New York Yankees 10, Philadelphia 2

Minnesota 6, Chicago White 1

Los Angeles Angels 2, Houston 1 (F/13)

Washington 2, Atlanta 1 (F/11)

Cincinnati 5, Pittsburgh 2

Boston 5, Baltimore 1

St. Louis 6, Miami 1

Los Angeles Dodgers 5, Chicago Cubs 2

Oakland 8, Texas 2

Milwaukee 4, New York Mets 1

Arizona 8, Colorado 7

Kansas City 8, Seattle 2

San Francisco 6, San Diego 0

Thursday, June 25 Schedule (All Times Central)

Chicago at Detroit, 12:08 p.m.

Baltimore at Boston, 12:35 p.m.

Oakland at Texas, 1:05 p.m.

New York at Milwaukee, 1:10 p.m.

Los Angeles at Chicago, 1:20 p.m.

Arizona at Colorado, 2:10 p.m.

San Diego at San Francisco, 2:45 p.m.

Atlanta at Washington, 3:05 p.m.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

St. Louis at Miami, 6:10 p.m.

New York at Houston, 7:10 p.m.