St. Louis' Goldschmidt hits 2 more HRs, in Triple Crown talk

CHICAGO (AP) — Paul Goldschmidt slugged his 32nd and 33rd homers and had five RBIs and Corey Dickerson set a franchise record for consecutive hits in the St. Louis Cardinals' 8-3 win over the Chicago Cubs on Thursday.

Goldschmidt, Dickerson and Tommy Edman collected three hits apiece as the NL Central-leading Cardinals won for the 10th time in their last 12 games and concluded a 6-2 trip. The Cardinals collected 16 hits even without slugger Nolan Arenado, who returned to St. Louis to attend the birth of his first child.

St. Louis starter Dakota Hudson (7-6) pitched a season-high seven innings of five-hit ball. Neither Albert Pujols nor Yadier Molina were in the lineup in their final visit to Wrigley Field.

Marcus Stroman (3-6) was tagged with the loss, giving up 11 hits.

Goldschmidt leads the NL in batting average (.339) and RBIs (105) and is second to Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies (35) in home runs.

Dickerson set an expansion-era franchise record with 10 hits in 10 consecutive plate appearances.

MARINERS 3, GUARDIANS 1

SEATTLE (AP) — Mitch Haniger hit a three-run home run in the first inning to account for all of Seattle’s offense and Marco Gonzales tossed six strong innings in Seattle's 3-1 win over Cleveland.

Haniger stayed hot at the plate, taking Cleveland starter Triston McKenzie (9-10) deep to left-center field just three batters into the game. Haniger has homered in three of the past four games and is hitting .313 in 17 games since coming off the injured list.

Cleveland’s only run off Gonzales (9-12) came in the first when Steven Kwan doubled and scored on José Ramírez’s infield groundball. Gonzales retired 16 of his final 18 batters — including 12 straight. Andrés Muñoz got his third save.

McKenzie retired 18 of the final 20 batters he faced, ending the day with four strikeouts and just three hits allowed.

RAYS 8, ANGELS 3

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Drew Rasmussen won his third consecutive start, Manuel Margot got four hits and Tampa Bay beat Los Angeles Angels to complete a four-game sweep.

Rasmussen (9-4) gave up one run, six hits and struck out nine over 5 1 /3 innings.

Isaac Paredes hit a two-run homer during a five-run third for Tampa Bay, which has won 11 of 13 and holds the top AL wild-card spot.

Taylor Ward hit a solo home run in the fourth for the Angels, who have lost nine of 10.

Patrick Sandoval (4-9) allowed five runs — one earned — and five hits over six innings in his first start since a four-hit shutout of Detroit last Friday.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports