Two Homers By Mike Moustakas Lead Royals to 7th Straight; Atlanta Expands NL East lead as Freddie Freeman Homers Twice

Players of the Day for Tuesday, July 30, 2013

American League

The Kansas City Royals are red hot. Problem is, the two teams in front of them in the Central division - Detroit and Cleveland - are just as hot, having won four and six straight, respectively.

Mike Moustakas

So, despite the Royals taking their seventh straight with a 7-2 victory over the fast-fading Twins, they gained no ground in the race and remain seven games off the Tigers' pace.

Mike Moustakas keyed the win for the Royals, belting a three-run, two-out homer in the third inning, putting the Royals up by a 4-1 score. He homered again in the eighth inning, with the bases empty, driving in four runs in the win.

Despite the Royals having a strong season (52-51), Moustakas' numbers are down. He has only nine homers and a mere 24 RBI in 90 games, with over 300 at-bats.

The Royals will try to make it eight straight when they meet the Twins in game two of their three-game series, Wednesday night at 8:10 pm EDT at Target Field in Minneapolis.

National League

Freddie Freeman

As far as the Atlanta Braves are concerned, it seems like the NL East is clearly their division. Everybody else are just spectators.

The Braves won their fifth in a row Tuesday, taking an 11-3 decision over the Rockies at Turner Field in Atlanta.

Freddie Freeman touched off a pair of homers, belting a solo shot in the first inning and putting the icing on the Braves' cake with a three-run blast in the seventh.

The two home runs gave him 13 on the season and four RBI upped his total to 69, tied for sixth-best in the NL.

Atlanta improved it's already-largest lead in the majors to a full ten games as second place Washington fell to Detroit, 5-1.

The Braves and Rockies meet for game three of their four-game set Wednesday night, at 7:10 pm EDT.

Today's Trivia: In their Hall of Fame careers, who had more triples, Lou Brock or Rickey Henderson? (answer tomorrow)

Yesterday's Answer: The most doubles in a single season since Joe Medwick set the mark at 64 in 1936 was achieved by Colorado's Todd Helton, who had 59 in 2000.