Fernando Tatis Jr moved into the joint lead for the most home runs this season as he led the San Diego Padres to a 4-3 win over the New York Mets in MLB on Thursday.
Tatis returned from a minor injury, described as "tightness around his midsection", to hit his 17th home run of the 2021 season when his long shot to center field was spilled over the fence by Mason Williams to make it 2-0 in the third inning.
Jurickson Profar drove in another in the fourth inning, before Tatis added their fourth run in the fifth inning, fearlessly racing home from third to home base after catcher James McCann's fumble.
Tatis touched the plate in the nick of time as McCann threw to pitcher Taijuan Walker to leave the Padres 4-0 up and despite a late Mets rally, they held on for another win.
The Padres improve to 35-23, while the Mets are 27-22 as they continue their seven-game road trip.
Table toppers face off, Meadows empties the bases
Joc Pederson homered into the bay as the National Central leaders, the Chicago Cubs, went down 7-2 to the frontrunners in the National West, the San Francisco Giants.
Leading off for the Cubs, Pederson was spectacularly caught on the fence by Giants center fielder Steven Duggar.
Pederson had more success later when he hit a moon shot out of Oracle Park and into the neighbouring bay for the kayakers to collect.
Brandon Crawford turned the game around for the Giants, finishing with two runs, two hits and four runs batted in (RBI).
Gerrit Cole had a tough day at the office as Austin Meadows starred for the Tampa Bay Rays in a 9-2 win over the New York Yankees.
Meadows emptied the bases at the top of the seventh inning, to finish with two runs, two hits and five RBI. Meadows has now hit 14 home runs this season.
Cole conceded five hits from his five innings before being withdrawn, while Ryan Yarbrough snapped the Rays streak of 731 games without a pitcher throwing a complete game, sending down nine innings with six strikeouts.
There were no Shohei Ohtani heroics as the Los Angeles Angels lost 6-2 to the Seattle Mariners, while the Milwaukee Brewers made it six wins from their past seven with a 7-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Rangers' horror road stretch
The Texas Rangers allowed 11 runs as their losing streak extended to nine games with an 11-6 defeat to the Colorado Rockies. The Rangers have conceded 55 runs across those nine games, all on the road.
White Sox whacking homers
Jake Lamb, Yasmani Grandal and Tim Anderson all homered for the Chicago White Sox in a fine display of hitting in their 4-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Thursday's results
Atlanta Braves 5-1 Washington Nationals
Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox 5-1 Houston Astros
Colorado Rockies 11-6 Texas Rangers
Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 Miami Marlins
Milwaukee Brewers - Arizona Diamondbacks
Kansas City Royals - Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox 3-1 Detroit Tigers
Cincinnati Reds 4-2 St Louis Cardinals
Seattle Mariners 6-2 Los Angeles Angels
San Francisco Giants 7-2 Chicago Cubs
San Diego Padres 4-3 New York Mets
Cubs at Giants
The San Francisco Giants (35-21) and the Chicago Cubs (32-24) meet again the second game of their compelling six-game series.