MLB: Davis leads Orioles to win
Chris Davis hit three home runs for the Baltimore Orioles in a 6-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
He had a chance, in the eighth inning, to join the 16-strong club of players who have hit four homers in a game but could not repeat the earlier heroics as Brad Lincoln struck him out.
The Orioles are prominent among teams seeking wild-card places in the American League, standing just one-and-a-half games behind the second-placed Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.
The Rays were edged out 5-4 by the Oakland Athletics on the back of a two-run homer from Jonny Gomes.
AL West front-runners the Texas Rangers crushed the Minnesota Twins 8-0 in Arlington as Adrian Beltre hit for the cycle - a single, double, triple and home run.
The Seattle Mariners saw their eight-game winning run halted by the Chicago White Sox after a dramatic ninth inning.
From 7-2 behind, the Mariners surged 8-7 ahead amid chaos in the outfield, but the White Sox, for whom Adam Dunn hit two earlier home runs, scrambled home.
The Boston Red Sox put a run of four defeats behind them to beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3, while the New York Yankees, top of the AL East, were guided to a 3-1 road victory over the Cleveland Indians by a two-run home run from Nick Swisher.
The Los Angeles Angels eked out a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers.
The Washington Nationals, armed with the best record of all Major League sides, were beaten 4-2 by the Philadelphia Phillies.
But their closest rivals at the top of the NL East, the Atlanta Braves, could not close the six-and-a-half-game gap. Despite a pair of home runs from Freddie Freeman, Atlanta succumbed 5-3 in San Francisco to the Giants.
It was a good night for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who put a three-game skid behind them to pummel the Miami Marlins 11-4, sparked by a three-run homer in the first inning from Andre Ethier.
The St Louis Cardinals trail Cincinnati in the NL Central, but they narrowed the gap to six games by toppling the Reds 8-5 at Great American Ball Park. Allen Craig hit a three-run homer for St Louis.
In Chicago, the Cubs beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3.
The Milwaukee Brewers ratcheted up a fourth straight win as they overcame the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5.
The New York Mets fell 7-1 to the Houston Astros, while the San Diego Padres blanked the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 to improve their run to five straight wins.