MLB wrap: Ubaldo Jimenez dazzles as Indians beat Royals 9-0

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Cleveland Indians downed American League Central rival the Kansas City Royals 9-0 on Monday (Tuesday Manila time) after Ubaldo Jimenez pitched into the eighth inning and Ryan Raburn hit two home runs.

In the National League, the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 to end their four-game losing streak.

Raburn hit a three-run shot in the fifth inning and a solo homer in the eighth for Cleveland. He finished with four hits, while Jason Kipnis also went deep to pace a suddenly potent Indians offense.

Jimenez (1-2) allowed only two walks and an infield single by Billy Butler over his first seven innings. Otherwise, he kept the Royals off balance in a dazzling start that brought back memories of the pitcher who once threw a no-hitter for the Colorado Rockies.

Houston's Carlos Corporan homered among his four hits and drove in four runs in the Astros' decisive 9-1 victory over the New York Yankees.

In their first game in the Bronx as an AL team, the Astros peppered Andy Pettitte (3-2) for 10 hits and seven runs, both season highs for the left-hander. Brandon Barnes and Corporan had two-run doubles and Barnes added an RBI single and a double. Barnes and Corporan each set career highs for hits and RBIs.

The Astros had 17 hits in improving the AL's worst record to 8-18. Lucas Harrell (3-2) pitched 6 1-3 innings to get the victory.

In other games, Prince Fielder's slammed a three-run homer to lead the Detroit Tigers over the Minnesota Twins 4-3 for their fourth straight, while Michael Saunders homered in his first at-bat since coming off the disabled list in the Seattle Mariners 6-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Atlanta's Andrelton Simmons hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, then made an eye-popping play to start the ninth as the Braves beat the Washington Nationals.

Atlanta beat the Nationals for the eighth straight time dating to last season. The Braves swept three games at Washington earlier this month.

Washington's Stephen Strasburg ended his career-worst streak of losses in four straight starts. He allowed two runs in six innings.

Mat Latos outpitched Adam Wainwright at St. Louis, extending his scoreless innings streak to 17 games as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Cardinals 2-1.

Joey Votto and Xavier Paul each had RBIs and Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect ninth for his sixth save, finishing off the third road victory in 11 games for the Reds and handing St. Louis its third straight loss.

Yadier Molina had three of the Cardinals' seven hits.

At Milwaukee, pitcher Yovani Gallardo hit one of five home runs for the Brewers downed the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-4.

Gallardo (3-1) also allowed just three hits over seven innings, retiring his final 13 batters while improving to 10-2 against Pittsburgh. He and Norichika Aoki hit consecutive homers in the fourth before Carlos Gomez and Yuniesky Betancourt repeated the feat in the fifth.

Jean Segura also connected for the Brewers, who added three triples and matched a season high for runs.

Also, the Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres 5-3, the San Francisco Giants defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4, the Florida Marlins were 4-3 winners over the New York Mets in 15 innings and the Colorado Rockies trounced the Los Angeles Dodgers 12-2.