Carlos Santana homered and Travis Hafner and Jack Hannahan each came through in the later innings on Wednesday night, helping to send the Indians to a 6-3 victory over the White Sox in Chicago.

The expectation is that Will Middlebrooks will one day occupy permanent residence at Fenway Park's hot corner. For now, the Red Sox's top prospect has been summoned to the big leagues on a temporary basis at a time when starting third baseman Kevin Youkilis is battling a back injury.

Carlos Beltran treated 35,987 on hand at Busch Stadium to a career-best seven-RBI performance as the Cardinals blasted the Pirates, 12-3, on Wednesday, one night after scoring 10 runs. Beltran drove home six of those runs with a pair of homers.

Ian Desmond's two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Nationals a 5-4 win over the D-backs at Nationals Park on Wednesday night. The victory snapped Washington's five-game losing streak.

Brandon McCarthy, transformed by data-driven adjustments, emerged as a frontline starter with those pitches. On Wednesday, in a 4-2 A's victory, he pitched like one.

The expected pitchers' duel on Wednesday never came to fruition, as the Braves and Phillies engaged in one of the biggest slugfests of the young season. Chipper Jones' 11th-inning walk-off two-run home run snapped Atlanta's seven-game losing streak to the Phillies, setting up Thursday's rubber match.

James Shields gutted one out, Luke Scott got a little help with a long ball and Joel Peralta recorded the final five outs to lead a 5-4 Rays win over the Mariners Wednesday night at Tropicana Field with 9,837 watching.

A plucky Orioles team continued to roll on Wednesday, silencing the Yankees, 5-0, for a series victory that keeps the 2012 club surprising the baseball world.

After scoring 22 runs in the first two games of the series, the Cardinals go for a sweep of the Pirates behind righty Jake Westbrook, who opposes lefty Erik Bedard on Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium.

The Indians will go for their fourth straight road series win in Thursday night's rubber game against the White Sox.

Jeff Niemann will try to lead the Rays to a four-game sweep of the Mariners on Thursday and extend the team's home winning streak to nine. Kevin Millwood will try to build off his last start to snap Seattle's losing skid.

Bryan LaHair has provided almost all of the power for the Cubs, but he and Jeff Samardzija got some help from Ian Stewart on Wednesday night to post a 3-1 victory over the Reds.

To manager Ned Yost, the winless 10-game homestand his team endured in April should have no bearing on Kansas City's first homestand of May. Danny Duffy has the ball for the Royals as they open a set against David Phelps — making his first Major League start — and the Yanks.

Ian Kennedy will try to run his consecutive win streak to double digits Thursday opposite Nationals starter Ross Detwiler.

Jeff Suppan pitched five shutout innings Wednesday for his first Major League victory since 2010 and the Padres won their first series of the season as San Diego defeated the Brewers, 5-0.

Ryan Dempster, who had been on the disabled list since April 17 with a quadriceps strain, will start for the Cubs on Thursday against the Reds in Cincinnati.

A bad Wednesday got worse for the Brewers when left fielder Ryan Braun limped off the field following a sixth-inning flyout and called it a day.