Baseball-Highlights of Saturday's Major League Baseball games

(Adds late games) May 17 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Saturday's Major League Baseball games. - - Royals 1, Orioles 0 Danny Duffy flirted with a perfect game before giving up a hit with two out in the seventh inning as the Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles. The seventh began with left-fielder Alex Gordon, a three-time Gold Glove winner, making a diving catch of right fielder Nick Markakis' fly down the line. Moments later, Duffy's perfect game ended when Adam Jones hit a ground-ball single to center, extending his hitting streak to 12 games. Duffy, who had retired 20 straight before Jones' hit, threw 99 pitches, 67 for strikes, in seven-plus innings, walking none and striking out two. - - - Diamondbacks 18, Dodgers 7 The lowly Arizona Diamondbacks had a franchise high in runs and a season-high 21 hits as they thumped the Los Angeles Dodgers. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt's three-run homer in the seventh inning keyed Arizona's first victory over the Dodgers in seven home games, including two designated home games in Sydney, Australia. Arizona, which entered the game with the third-lowest winning percentage in the major leagues, knocked out Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw (2-1) after 1 2/3 innings, the second shortest start of the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner's career. - - - Cardinals 4, Braves 1 Shelby Miller finally found the command that has eluded him all season and had his best outing of 2014 as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves. He allowed only five hits, two walks and an unearned run over seven innings as the Cardinals matched their season-high winning streak of four games. Miller (6-2) struck out seven and threw 72 of his 101 pitches for strikes. He entered the game having issued 27 walks in 44 2/3 innings, with none of his eight starts lasting longer than six innings. - - Yankees 7, Pirates 1 Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann hit two-run homers and the New York Yankees matched a season-high with five homers in a big home victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Teixeira and McCann bookended New York's third straight win by connecting in the first and ninth inning, respectively. - - Mets 5, Nationals 2 Juan Lagares broke out a slump with two hits and three RBIs, and Bartolo Colon allowed only two runs in eight innings as the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals, the first victory over their division foes in the last 10 games. Center fielder Lagares, mired in a 5-for-27 slump entering the game, hit an RBI single in the first and a two-run home run in the third to give the Mets a 5-0 lead. - - Cubs 3, Brewers 0 Right-hander Edwin Jackson pitched seven shutout innings and Starlin Castro delivered a go-ahead RBI double as the Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers. Jackson (3-3) picked up his second win in four starts as he outdueled Brewers right-hander Matt Garza, a former Cub teammate. Garza (1-4) game up all three runs in the first inning. - - Astros 6, White Sox 5 Dexter Fowler delivered two critical insurance runs as part of his 3-for-4 performance and the Houston Astros held on to beat the Chicago White Sox. After walking and scoring as part of Houston's four-run first inning, Fowler smacked an opposite-field leadoff home run in the fifth before driving in right fielder George Springer with an RBI single in the seventh. The Astros (15-28) needed the additional runs because the White Sox (21-23) rallied for two in the top of the eighth. - - - Twins 4, Mariners 3 The Minnesota Twins got a quality start from right-hander Samuel Deduno and three RBIs from second baseman Brian Dozier in a win over the Seattle Mariners. At 21-20, the Twins are above .500 for the first time since they were 12-11 on April 26. - - - Tigers 6, Red Sox 1 The roaring Detroit Tigers won their 10th straight road game, the fifth on their current trip, cruising to a win over the Boston Red Sox. Right-hander Rick Porcello, who had a 10.42 ERA in five previous starts against Boston, worked eight solid innings for his sixth straight win and the sizzling Miguel Cabrera had a solo home run (his seventh homer of the year), an RBI single and a double for Detroit (26-12). Cabrera notched his 29th and 30th RBIs in the last 22 games. The first baseman is batting .374 with six homers over that span. - - - Phillies 12, Reds 1 Cole Hamels, supported by a rejuvenated Philadelphia attack, pitched seven strong innings to win his 100th career game as the Phillies battered the Cincinnati Reds. Left fielder Domonic Brown homered and drove in a career-high five runs and third baseman Cody Asche had three RBIs for Philadelphia, which stopped a four-game losing streak. - - - Athletics 6, Indians 2 Third baseman Josh Donaldson had three hits and three RBI and first baseman Brandon Moss had two hits, including a home run and three RBI, as the Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians. The win went to right-hander Dan Otero (4-0). He pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Scott Kazmir, who was ejected from the game in the second inning for saying something to home plate umpire Jerry Layne. - - - Blue Jays 4, Rangers 2 Shortstop Jose Reyes doubled with two out in the eighth to drive in left fielder Kevin Pillar for the go-ahead run as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers. - - - Padres 8, Rockies 5 The San Diego Padres built a big early lead and, thanks to a two-run pinch-hit homer by Carlos Quentin, withstood a Colorado charge to beat the Rockies. The Padres led 6-0 after three innings, scoring two runs in each of them off Jordan Lyles, who struggled with his control in his first poor start for the Rockies. He lasted 3 1/3 innings, allowed a career-high six walks and threw 92 pitches, just 46 for strikes. - - - Marlins 5, Giants 0 Right-hander Tom Koehler shut out San Francisco on four hits over seven innings and the Miami Marlins beat the Giants. Koehler, who entered the game with an 0-3 record and 4.15 ERA in four road starts, shut down a Giants team that had recorded 10 or more hits in three consecutive games - - - Angels 6, Rays 0 Left-hander C.J. Wilson pitched a five-hit shutout as the Los Angeles Angels defeated the Tampa Bay Rays. (Editing by Andrew Both)