David Ortiz Drives in Six as Boston Keeps Pace with Yankees; Joey Votto Leads Reds to 10-0 Thumping of Phillies

Players of the Day for Saturday, May 18, 2013

American League

Ortiz: 2HR, 6RBI

It's not even June, but the Yankees and Red Sox are playing like it's September.

Robinson Cano cracked a pair of homers as the Yankees topped the Blue Jays, but David Ortiz, who's been hotter than Beyonce in spandex, smashed a couple of his own and added an RBI single to drive in six runs, leading the Red Sox past the Twins, 12-5.

The Red Sox won their fourth straight and took the second in a three-game series at Minnesota which concludes Sunday afternoon at 2:10 pm EDT.

Ortiz got the Sox on the board with a three-run crank in the first inning and singled home another run in the third. With Boston leading 7-5, Ortiz put the game away in the seventh inning, with a two-run blast to right field. For good measure, he also walked and scored on a sac fly in the ninth.

Riding a six-game hitting streak, Ortiz is batting .362, which would be second in the league if he had enough qualifying at-bats. He is 10th in RBI with 29, after driving in six on Saturday.

Boston trails the Yankees by one game in the AL East, and has a 2 1/2 game edge over third place Baltimore, which lost its fourth straight, falling to the Rays, 10-6, when closer Jim Johnson couldn't nail down the save.

National League

Joey Votto

Continuing to close ground on the Cardinals in the NL Central, the Cincinnati Reds won for the eighth time in their last 10 games, evening their series at Philadelphia at a game apiece with a 10-0 plundering of the Phillies.

The Reds are just 1 1/2 back of St. Louis after the Cardinals dropped a 10-inning, 6-4 decision to the Brewers.

Joey Votto raised his batting average to .346 - second-highest in the league - with a 4-for-4 effort, socking his sixth home run of the season along with a double and two singles, driving in two and scoring twice. Votto has hit safely in his last seven games.

Bronson Arroyo shut out the Phillies for 7 2/3 innings on five hits, fanning six, while evening his record at 4-4.

The series concludes Sunday at 1:35 pm EDT.

Today's Trivia: In 2010, a National Leaguer almost hit for the triple crown, leading the league in home runs (42) and RBI (118), but finishing tied for fifth in batting with a .312 average. Who was this star?

Yesterday's Answer: Washington's Gio Gonzalez led the majors with 21 wins in 2012.