The Cardinals kicked off the first inning of a series against the Pirates with back-to-back blasts and a bruise, but St. Louis left with a 9-1 win Friday behind another strong performance from Lance Lynn and two homers by Carlos Beltran.

The Detroit Tigers have over a century of history, and a lot of pitching greats are a part of it, but none of them struck out 17 batters in a game. When Anibal Sanchez fanned Dan Uggla for the fourth time on his 121st pitch of the night, he took the single-game franchise record from the great Mickey Lolich. No Tigers right-hander had struck out more than 15 in a game.

The Rangers refused to cool down Friday as they rode seven scoreless innings from rookie starter Justin Grimm to their 16th win of the season in a 4-3 defeat of the Minnesota Twins.

The Yankees were dealt two serious early blows to their starting battery but hung around to pick up the win, taking advantage of 10 walks to weather three Toronto homers and post a 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays on Friday at Yankee Stadium.

A trio of home runs — by Hector Gimenez, Tyler Greene and Conor Gillaspie — helped Jake Peavy pick up his third win in five starts as the White Sox rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Rays on Friday night in Chicago.

The “BOSTON” home jersey that David Ortiz wore while making his now-famous speech to open the first homestand after the Boston Marathon bombings went for $37,400 after 62 bid attempts, and an overall amount of $310,741 was raised in the Boston BStrong auction with all net proceeds going to One Fund Boston.

Kyle Kendrick pitched a three-hit shutout, Ryan Howard unloaded a three-run homer to center to culminate a four-run sixth inning, and the Phillies, winning for only the fourth time in 12 games, opened their five-game trip with a 4-0 victory over the Mets on Friday night at Citi Field.

Is Jordan Zimmermann the best pitcher in the Nationals’ rotation? As of right now, the answer is yes. Zimmermann pitched his second complete game of the season as the Nationals blanked the Reds, 1-0, at Nationals Park on Friday night.

Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli fractured his right hand on Ivan Nova’s fifth pitch on Friday, and by the third inning, the right-hander also departed the game against the Blue Jays with pain in his right elbow.

Anthony Rizzo had quite the homecoming on Friday night. After going hitless on Thursday, the Parkland, Fla., native had his second career multi-home run game, going yard twice in the first three innings to lift the Cubs over the Marlins, 4-2, in front of a crowd of 16,017 at Marlins Park.

Chris Davis hit a home run and drove in two, Nate McLouth and Nick Markakis each drove in two runs and the Baltimore Orioles opened their 11-game West Coast swing with a 10-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night.

Armed with a two-run lead following Trevor Cahill’s impressive outing, the D-backs’ bullpen bounced back from its recent rough stretch and held on to a 3-2 victory over the Rockies at Chase Field on Thursday.

The D-backs went into this four-game series against division-rival Colorado with a Major League-high seven blown saves, though a strong showing on Thursday night led to a narrow 3-2 win.

Yoenis Cespedes went 1-for-4 with an RBI single, one run scored and two strikeouts Thursday in a rehab appearance for the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.

Carlos Peguero hit the third-longest home run in Safeco Field history, Kyle Seager went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs and Brandon Maurer shut down the Angels as the Mariners claimed a much-needed win on Thursday night.

I’m discussing the late, great Crosley Field, because I had a flashback earlier this month. There I was, watching the movie “42” about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball on April 15, 1947, with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and I kept getting chills. Not so much from the script, which was good, but from the scenes, which were great.

Nick Tepesch’s perfect game was broken up in the fifth inning, and he gave up one run in 6 2/3 frames as the Rangers defeated the Twins, 2-1, on Thursday. Elvis Andrus’ RBI double provided the deciding run.