Cardinals Rip Nationals On Yadier Molina's Grand Slam; Yandy Diaz Leads Indians Over Royals

Players of the Day for Tuesday, September 4, 2018

American League

Diaz: 3B, HR, 2 RBI, 3 R

Yandy Diaz singled, tripled and homered in four at-bats, driving in a pair of runs and scoring three times as the Indians broke Kansas City's five-game winning streak with a 9-3 no-doubter.

The Indians also ended a three-game skid of their own, though with a the largest lead in the majors at 15 games in the AL Central division, nobody was particularly concerned.

Diaz, who didn't get an official at-bat this season until July 22, is batting .333 with one homer and 11 RBI in 21 games.

Mike Clevenger struck out 10 while holding the Royals to one run on three hits over six innings. Clevenger improved to 11-7.

The Indians and Royals close out the series in Cleveland Wednesday, 1:10 pm EDT. Cleveland's magic number to clinch the division is 10.

National League

Molina: Grand Slam

After dropping a 4-3 decision in 10 innings on Labor Day, the St. Louis Cardinals let their bats do the talking to the Nationals in game two of their three-game series in Washington, DC.

Cardinal batters stroked five homers in the 11-8 slugfest, three of them coming in the sixth inning, when Marcel Ozuna and Paul DeJong smacked back-to-back solo shots, followed by Patrick Wisdom's 426-foot moon shot. Ozuna also belted a solo dinger in the first inning.

In the ninth, Yadier Molina closed out the Cardinals' scoring, unloading a grand slam. Washington came back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the frame, as the Cards used seven pitchers.

Molina's slam was his 17th homer of the season, to go with 61 RBI and a .273 batting average.

While the Cardinals were taking down the Nats, Milwaukee was taking their second straight over the Cubs, reducing Chicago's lead in the Central division to three games. St. Louis lurks in third place, 4 1/2 out.

The rubber game of the series is scheduled for a 7:05 pm EDT start, Wednesday night.