Cardinals beat Mets 10-2 in clash of division leaders

St. Louis Cardinals’ Randal Grichuk hits a two-run double during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

NEW YORK — St. Louis’ Randal Grichuk produced a sharp performance turnaround to lead the Cardinals to a 10-2 win at the New York Mets on Tuesday in a clash of National League division leaders.

Grichuk struck out five times in Monday’s game but was a man transformed on Tuesday as he had three extra base hits and drove in three runs. St. Louis eked out its overall lead in the NL to 1-1/2 games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who suffered a shutout defeat at the hands of San Francisco.

In key interleague clashes, Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman delivered the dramatic winning homer in the tenth inning to beat the New York Yankees, and Kansas City shut out Cincinnati.

St. Louis manager Mike Matheny elected to load up his batting lineup with right-handers to face New York’s left-handed pitcher Jonathan Niese — leaving Jason Heyward, Matt Carpenter and Matt Adams on the bench — and it paid dividends.

Mark Reynolds homered among his three hits for the Cardinals.

St. Louis starter Michael Wacha (6-0) gave up only one scoring hit in seven innings to join the Mets’ Bartolo Colon and Seattle’s Felix Hernandez for most wins in the majors.

San Francisco notched a fourth straight win by defeating the Dodgers 2-0, cutting the gap at the top of the NL West to 3-1/2 games.

Buster Posey drove in a run for the Giants who have won 11 of their past 14 at home.

San Francisco starter Tim Hudson (2-3) pitched 6 1-3 scoreless innings; his first start without conceding a run since his first outing of the season.

Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman delivered a two-run shot with two outs in the 10th inning to give the Nationals an 8-6 comeback win against the Yankees.

Zimmerman’s fifth homer this season — and 10th game-ending homer of his career — improved the Nationals record in the month of May to 13-4.

His winning hit came off Yankees closer Andrew Miller (0-1) who had not conceded a run all season, converting all his prior 13 save chances.

Kansas City’s pitchers threw the team’s second straight shutout to beat Cincinnati 3-0, making it the first time the Royals had done that since 1992.

Yordano Ventura (3-3), who was 0-3 in his five previous starts, struck out six and walked none.

Reliever Kelvin Herrera gave up a walk in the eighth, but nothing else. Wade Davis worked a spotless ninth, claiming his seventh save in as many opportunities.

San Diego’s Derek Norris hit a two-run double in the eighth inning to lift the Padres to a 4-3 win against the Chicago Cubs.

With runners at first and third, Norris doubled to left field off Pedro Strop, who had just replaced James Russell (0-1).

Padres starter James Shields struck out 11 in seven innings, allowing two runs.

Tampa Bay’s Erasmo Ramirez won his second straight start by guiding the Rays to a 5-3 win against Atlanta.

Ramirez (2-1) gave up two hits and two walks and struck out five in five innings. He has a 2.25 ERA over his past nine appearances.

Asdrubal Cabrera homered for Tampa Bay.

Houston’s Chris Carter and Colby Rasmus each hit two-run homers to power the Astros past Oakland 6-4.

Carter hit his homer in the second to give Houston a 2-0 lead, and Rasmus extended the Astros’ advantage to 5-2 in the eighth.

Astros starter Roberto Hernandez (2-3) lasted six innings, giving up two runs, as Houston improved to 26-14; the franchise’s best-ever start over 40 games.

Minnesota built an early 7-0 lead then hung on to win 8-5 at Pittsburgh.

Brian Dozier got things started with a home run in the first inning and Trevor Plouffe hit a two-run shot in a six-run second.

Despite the defeat, the Pirates had the highlight of the day as Pedro Alvarez hit a 461-foot home run that landed in a boat docked along the Allegheny River beyond the right-field stands. Alvarez became just the third player to reach the water on the fly since PNC Park opened in 2001

Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun, Adam Lind and Aramis Ramirez hit consecutive home runs in a six run-third inning which gave the Brewers an 8-1 win at Detroit.

Los Angeles’ David Freese drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as the Angels edged Toronto 3-2.

Boston’s David Ortiz and Mike Napoli each homered and drove in two runs as the Red Sox defeated Texas 4-3.

Baltimore’s Jimmy Paredes homered and had a career-high four RBIs to lead the Orioles to a 9-4 victory over Seattle.

Cleveland ended a season-best six-game winning streak for the Chicago White Sox by beating the hosts 3-1, with Indians starter Trevor Bauer giving up one run in 7-1/3 innings to extend his strong record against the division rival.

Arizona’s A.J. Pollock had a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning to lift the Diamondbacks to a 4-2 win over struggling Miami.

Colorado ended Philadelphia’s six-game winning streak as Nick Hundley hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning to lead the Rockies to a 6-5 win.