Paul Goldschmidt, Jason Kubel Power Arizona Past Reds, 11-5; Red Sox Down Tigers on 4-for-5, 5 RBI Output from Shane Victorino

Players of the Day for Friday, June 21, 2013

American League

Expanding their lead to two games over the Orioles in the AL East, the Boston Red Sox evened their series with the visiting Tigers with a 10-6 victory Friday night.

Victorino: 5 RBI

Recently returned from a stint on the DL, Shane Victorino went 4-for-5, getting things started with a solo homer in the first inning off Tiger starter, Doug Fister, followed by three one-base raps which kept the merry-go-round of Red Sox runners on the base paths going.

Victorino singled home two in the fourth, another in the sixth and grounded into a fielder's choice to tally his fifth RBI of the game in the eighth inning. Miguel Cabrera went 4-for-4 and smashed his 20th homer of the season - a three-run belt - in the fifth, to draw the Tigers within a run at 6-5, but Victorino and the Sox just kept hitting and scoring, knocking out 17 hits off five Tiger hurlers.

With the Orioles losing to Toronto, 7-6, on Rajai Davis' RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, the Red Sox may soon have to concern themselves with the Blue Jays, who are still in last place, but have pulled themselves to the .500 mark with nine straight wins and are just seven games back.

The O's and Blue Jays play a 1:07 pm EDT day game at the Rogers Centre. The Red Sox continue their series with the Tigers at 7:15 pm EDT on Saturday.

National League

Paul Goldschmidt

Arizona got all over Cincinnati starter, Johnny Cueto, knocking him out in just 4 1/3 innings on 11 hits and seven earned runs, en route to an 11-5 win in the the opener of a weekend series at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Jason Kubel

Paul Goldschmidt tied Philly's omonic Brown for second place in NL home runs with his 18th and 19th of the season and drove in three runs, going 3-for-5. Goldschmidt, the NL leader in RBI, upped his total to 65.

Jason Kubel added to the 15-hit Arizona assault, banging out a double and three singles in five at-bats, scoring three runs and driving in one.

The win kept the Diamondbacks in first place in the NL West, 2 1/2 clear of San Diego, winners of eight of their last ten. The Reds dropped into third place, 1/2 game behind the Pirates, who trail the Cardinals by three games in the Central division.

Cincinnati will try to even the series when the two teams take the field at 4:15 pm PDT, Saturday.

Today's Trivia: Who won more MVP awards, Willie Mays or Hank Aaron? (answer tomorrow)

Yesterday's Answer: Hall of Famer Wade Boggs won the AL batting title five times. In 1983 he hit .361, followed by four straight titles from 1985 to 1988, in which he hit .368, .357, .363 and .366, respectively.