Royals Beat Cards, Cubs Drop Loss To Mets

BY ESPN

To hear Kendrys Morales tell it, luck is finally on his side. But the Kansas City Royals' designated hitter/outfielder has been more than just lucky the past week.

Morales homered and recorded his sixth straight multi-hit game on Thursday to lead the Royals to a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Kansas City won for the fourth time in five games and took the two-city, four-game series three games to one.

"Things are falling for me," Morales said.

Indeed. Brandon Moss and Jhonny Peralta homered for the Cardinals who have lost their last seven home games -- their longest losing streak since Aug. 2-15, 1983.

Wade Davis recorded his 19th save in 21 opportunities.

Morales, a designated hitter playing right field for the second straight night, doubled in the sixth inning off Mike Leake (5-6) to push the lead to 3-1. Morales, who went 3 for 4, has 16 hits in 24 at-bats over the six-game run. He went 12 for 16 in the series and started in the outfield for the first time since 2008.

Since going 1 for 15 in a four-game set with Cleveland on June 2-5, Morales has been on fire. He was hitting .191 on June 5, but has gone 32 of 69 since to push his average to .262.

Mets 4, Cubs 3

A streak or two of celebration whipped cream was still stuck in Brandon Nimmo's hairline as he peeled off his baseball socks in the clubhouse Thursday night.

Plenty of time to clean up, the Mets rookie figured. For now, he just wanted to hang onto this feeling.

Yoenis Cespedes socked a colossal home run , Jeurys Familia pitched out of a huge jam in the ninth inning and Nimmo keyed a three-run rally in the seventh that sent New York past the Chicago Cubs 4-3 in their first meeting since last year's NL Championship Series.

"I'm just ecstatic," Nimmo said after his first big league home game. "I'm just overjoyed and so thankful right now."

Chicago put runners on second and third with no outs against Familia, who got two strikeouts and a bases-loaded popup for his 27th save, most in the majors.

He screamed and pumped his arms repeatedly after Javier Baez popped up to end it.

White Sox 6, Twins 5

Since racing to a 23-10 start, nothing has been easy for the Chicago White Sox. Even after moving back above .500 Thursday, they were stung by another injury to a young player.

J.B. Shuck's two-out single scored the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning, Todd Frazier hit his 23rd home run and the White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 6-5.

But on what should have been a special day for Matt Davidson, he broke his right foot rounding first after an RBI single in his White Sox debut.

"You could see it when he went from second to third," manager Robin Ventura said. "I know he's not a good runner, but it was remarkably poor at that point."

The former Arizona first-round pick was traded to Chicago before the 2014 season but had two poor years in the minors before this month's selection as a Triple-A All-Star.

After the sides mutually agreed not to do a contract extension last October, making Drummond a restricted free agent this summer, ‎Detroit's No. 1 offseason priority was always securing Drummond's future as quickly as possible.