Morrison Leads Rays Past Cardinals, Phillies Beat Cubs

By ESPN

Logan Morrison reached a milestone, helped his team win and paid tribute to his late father.

Morrison blasted two home runs to reach 31 this season, his second coming in the 10th inning to lead the Tampa Bay Rays past the Cardinals 3-2 on Sunday.

"Exciting win for us obviously," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "It kind of started with LoMo, ended with LoMo and then a lot of good Chris Archer in the middle. . It's also really good to see LoMo get going. He got to the 30 homer mark and then got 31, so maybe he's going to start adding on here quickly. But tough, tough ballgame."

Morrison's father, Tom, died in 2010 after a battle with cancer. Morrison wore his parents' names on the patch on his shoulder for Major League Baseball's Players Weekend. The Rays first baseman acknowledged his father after his home runs.

"He was always the guy pushing me and driving me to be better," Morrison said. "He even framed a poster of Cal Ripken that said `perseverance' under it. I mean, shoot, that pretty much sums up today, where my career has gone and where it is now. Just keep going. Keep persevering and keep going."

Morrison drove a 97-mph fastball from Sam Tuivailala into the right-center field bleachers with one out in the 10th. His 31 homers are a career high.

"I was looking for a heater," he said. "Just trying to take a nice, easy swing at it, relax, and let him do the work for me basically. I barreled it up and it went out for me."

Sergio Romo (3-1) threw a scoreless ninth, and Alex Colome worked a scoreless 10th for his major league-leading 39th save in 44 chances.

All five runs in the game were scored on solo homers.

The win was the Rays' third in four games and fifth in seven as they attempt to chase down a wild-card spot. Tampa Bay improved to 8-5 in extra innings.

Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer allowed one run and five hits over seven innings. The right-hander struck out eight and walked one.

Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn allowed two runs and six hits over seven innings, striking out eight and walking three.

Morrison hit his 30th homer this season in the fourth. Brad Miller's homer in the seventh made it 2-0.

"Having never done it before, 30 is a pretty special club," Morrison said. "Hopefully I can keep swinging it and get into an even more special club."

Kolten Wong went deep in the eighth to make it 2-1. It was his second homer in three games and fourth of the season.

The Rays loaded the bases in the eighth against three Cardinals relievers, but John Brebbia struck out Miller to end the threat.

Matt Carpenter tied it in the eighth with his 17th homer this season.

"Any loss when you go to extra innings isn't going to be good ... but just solo shots hurt us today," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "We just couldn't finish like we needed to."

Phillies 6, Cubs 3

Big-hitting rookie Rhys Hoskins homered yet again -- and he added a game-changing diving catch to his repertoire.

Hoskins went deep for the fifth straight game, and his stellar grab started a triple play in the fifth inning, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.

"Their guy (Hoskins), who's going to the Hall of Fame next week, makes another play," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "He beats you with the bat. He beats you with the glove."

Hoskins led off the eighth with a drive to left-center to give him 11 home runs in his first 18 games over 64 at-bats, becoming the fastest in major league history to reach 11 homers. Yankees Shane Spencer and Gary Sanchez, who previously shared the mark for fastest to 11 homers, needed 81 at-bats.

Hoskins, who has 24 RBI, was called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Aug. 10. He's batting .297 and slugging .828, with 11 walks and 13 strikeouts.

"I don't think I've ever seen a young guy look that profound at home plate," Maddon said. "Look at his walk to strikeouts. That's the part that tells me he can sustain, not necessarily this pace, but he can sustain because he doesn't strike out. He will accept his walks. He doesn't expand the strike zone. He uses the whole field. He's a big guy with short movements to the ball. Pretty impressive."

Hoskins' only blemish was a seventh-inning error after moving to first base.

"He made an error finally at first base to prove he is actually human," Maddon said.

Hoskins is taking his early success in stride.

"Is anyone having deja vu?" he joked. "To be honest, I'm just coming to the ballpark every day with the same mindset. Good stuff just keeps happening."

Nick Williams also homered for the Phillies, who have gone deep in nine straight games, hitting 20 homers over that span.

Nick Pivetta (5-9) allowed three runs on six hits in five innings to get the win. Hector Neris worked a perfect ninth for his 16th save in 19 chances.

Anthony Rizzo had a pair of RBI for the NL Central-leading Cubs, who began play three games in front of Milwaukee.

White Sox 7, Tigers 1

Fourteen months after his major league debut, Lucas Giolito finally earned his first victory.

He threw seven scoreless innings to reach the milestone, and Matt Davidson hit a three-run homer to help the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 7-1 on Sunday.

"It's a huge relief. Last year didn't go the way I wanted it to," said Giolito, who went 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in six appearances last season with Washington. "Now I get the opportunity back up here again, I just want to take that opportunity and do everything I can to take advantage of it."

Giolito (1-1) limited the Tigers to three hits in his second start with the White Sox after they acquired him in a December trade with the Nationals for outfielder Adam Eaton. The right-hander had never pitched past the sixth in five previous major league starts.

"We did a good job of filling up the strike zone with honestly all four of my pitches," Giolito said.

Yolmer Sanchez had three hits for the White Sox, who have won four of five and took two of three from Detroit.

Ian Kinsler hit his 14th home run for the Tigers, who lost for the 16th time in 21 games.

Matthew Boyd (5-8) allowed five runs and seven hits in six innings. He was 0-2 with a 10.19 ERA in five previous appearances this month and made some mechanical adjustments before Sunday's start. Boyd has given up 16 earned runs in 20 innings against Chicago this season.

"It wasn't perfect, but I liked what I saw," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "The simplification of his delivery will work well moving forward."

Giolito struck out four to match his career high and recorded his first quality start.

"He wasn't one of these young pitchers that comes up throwing 95 to 97 mph," Ausmus said. "He hit 92, 93, but he pitched. He did a nice job."

Davidson hit his 23rd homer this season and his first since July 31 after missing three weeks with a right wrist contusion. The three-run shot put the White Sox ahead 5-0 in the third.

"Good thing the pain's gone," Davidson said.

Jose Iglesias' fly ball down the left-field line was initially called a grand slam in the seventh before the umpires conferred and ruled it foul without a review or argument from the Tigers. Iglesias grounded out to leave the bases loaded.

"Off the bat, it was a little scary," Giolito said. "But then I saw it sail foul and I'm like, all right, strike one."

Kevan Smith added a sacrifice fly and Sanchez had an RBI single in the eighth off the Tigers' Zac Reininger, who made his major league debut.

Sunday, August 27 Scoreboard

New York Yankees 10, Seattle 1

Minnesota 7, Toronto 2

Cleveland 12, Kansas City 0

Pittsburgh 5, Cincinnati 2

Miami 6, San Diego 2

Baltimore 2, Boston 1

Colorado 3, Atlanta 0

Philadelphia 6, Chicago Cubs 3

New York mets 6, Washington 5

Chicago White Sox 7, Detroit 1

Tampa Bay 3, St. Louis 2 (F/10)

Houston 7, Los Angeles Angels 5

Oakland 8, Texas 3

Milwaukee 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 2

Arizona 11, San Francisco 0

Washington 5, New York Mets 4

Monday, August 28 Schedule (All Times Central)

Cleveland at New York Yankees, 6 p.m.

Seattle at Baltimore, 6:05 p.m.

Miami at Washington, 6:05 p.m.

Atlanta at Philadelphia, 6:05 p.m.

Boston at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs, 7:05 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Kansas City, 7:15 p.m.

Detroit at Colorado, 7:40 p.m.

Oakland at Los Angeles Angels, 9:07 p.m.

San Francisco at San Diego, 9:10 p.m.