Eduardo Escobar Homers Twice As Twins Top Royals, 17-0; J.D. Martinez Leads Arizona To 9th Straight

Players of the Day for Saturday, September 2, 2017

American League

Escobar: 3B, 2HR, 6RBI

In their 17-0 rout of the Royals, the Minnesota Twins got to Kansas City pitchers early and often, scoring 10 runs in the first two innings, evening the three-game series in Minneapolis at a game apiece.

While Joe Mauer was going 4-for-4, his cross-diamond teammate, third baseman Eduardo Escobar, was swinging with power, going 3-for-5 with a triple and a pair of homers, driving in six runs.

Escobar's triple came with the bases loaded in Minnesota's six-run second inning. He mashed a solo shot to center in the fifth inning and completed the scoring for the day with a three-run blast to left in the seventh.

Minnesota's win kept them in control of the second wild card. With the Yankees topping the Red Sox, 5-1, the Twins remained a game back of New York, the top wild card.

The series finale is scheduled for a 2:10 pm ET start, Sunday afternoon.

National League

Martinez: HR, 4 RBI

There is no team hotter than the Arizona Diamondbacks right now, as they won their ninth straight game taking the second of their three-game series with a 6-2 victory at Colorado.

J.D. Martinez, who was plucked from the Tigers mid-July and played his first game as a Diamondback on July 19, got Arizona off to a quick start with a three-run homer in the first inning, adding an insurance run with an RBI single in the ninth.

Martinez has 14 home runs as a Diamondback and had 16 when he was in Detroit, giving him 30 on the year, to go with a combined 73 RBI. In 96 games, the seven-year veteran right fielder is batting .277.

Arizona's winning streak dates back to a 3-2 win in the final game of a four-game series with the Mets. Since then, Arizona has swept the Giants and Dodgers, and are on the verge of doing the same to the Diamondbacks, their main competitor in the wild card chase.

The win pushed Arizona's hold on the first wild card to 5 1/2 games over their NL West rivals. Colorado leads Milwaukee by 1 1/2 for the second slot.

Game three is Sunday at 3:10 pm ET. Whether Arizona wins or not, they head back to LA for a final regular season meeting with the Dodgers, a three-game set, beginning Monday.