Yoenis Cespedes Lifts Mets Over Nationals; Toronto's Teoscar Hernandez Homers, Drives In 4 In 15-5 Rout Of KC

Players of the Day for Wednesday, April 18, 2018

American League

Hernandez: 4-6, HR, 4RBI

Boston continued to lead the AL East by three games after taking two straight from the Angels in LA, 10-1 and 9-0, but they're being dogged by the second place Blue Jays, who won their fourth straight with a 15-5 bombing of Kansas City, sweeping the Royals in Toronto.

Traveling to New York on Thursday for a four-game series, the Blue Jays find themselves 3 1/2 in front of the Bronx Bombers, and will be looking to expand their edge after splitting a four-game set with New York in the season's opening series.

A player who could play a big role in the series and maybe for the rest of the season is right fielder Teoscar Hernandez, who came up big in Wednesday's romp with a 4-for-6 effort consisting of two singles, a triple and a two-run homer, his first of the year, driving in four runs and scoring twice.

Hernandez was picked up from Houston last year mid-season, and played in 26 games for the Jays, socking eight home runs in 88 at-bats. This year he's only played four games because the Blue Jays have a loaded outfield, but 25-year-old Hernandez has tried to make his case despite limited playing time. He's batting .421 with six RBI.

The first of the four-game series opens Thursday in New York at 6:35 pm EDT.

National League

Cespedes Slams Nationals

In 2015, the Mets took the NL East, but, in the past two years, they've been overtaken by the Washington Nationals, winners of the division in 2016 and 2017.

Determined to give the Nats a run for their money, the Mets have broken well out of the gate, their 13-4 record the best in the National League, earning them a three-game lead over surprising Atlanta and Philadelphia. The Nationals have struggled to a 9-10 mark, despite taking the first two from the Mets in the series at New York.

In game three, Washington struck first, scoring three runs in the opening frame and taking a 4-2 lead into the eighth, but that was prior to the Mets' nine-run explosion in which they sent 11 men to the plate, capped off by a Yoenis Cespedes grand slam.

Cespedes was 0-for-3 going into the eighth, but singled with no outs and a man aboard, eventually coming around to score. When he went to the plate for the second time in the inning, the bases were loaded and Cespedes struck with his fourth home run of the season, a slam off Nationals' reliever A.J. Cole. The Mets prevailed, 11-3.

The four RBI gave Cespedes 17 on the year, one behind NL leader, Bryce Harper, who could only stand and watch from right field when Cespedes' blast carried into the left field stands of Citi Field.

With their lead in the division intact, the Mets travel to Atlanta for a four-game series beginning Thursday. The Nationals head across the country to start a three-game series with the Dodgers in LA, starting Friday.