Toronto: David Ortiz hit the 452nd and 453rd home runs of his career to move past Boston great Carl Yastrzemski into 36th place on the all-time list as the Red Sox won their fifth straight game on Monday with a resounding 14-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Ortiz matched Yastrzemski with a two-run blast to centre off left-hander Brad Mills in the fourth, then broke the short-lived tie with another two-run shot off Mills in the fifth, his 21st and 22nd homers of the season.
It was the third multi-homer game of the season for Ortiz and the 44th of his career.
Mike Napoli followed Ortiz’s second shot with his 12th homer, the fourth time this season Boston have gone back-to-back.
At New York, Miles Mikolas earned his first win as a starter, pitching into the eighth inning and leading the Texas Rangers to a 4-2 victory over the sloppy Yankees.
Trailing by a run with none on and two outs in the sixth, Texas got run-scoring singles from Geovany Soto, Rougned Odor and Choo Shin-soo to go ahead in only its third win in 17 July games.
Adrian Beltre drove in the Rangers’ first run with a fielder’s choice in the third inning on one of New York’s five errors.
Miami’s Garrett Jones drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the 10th inning to lift the Marlins over the Atlanta Braves 3-1, while Ryu Hyun-jin pitched seven strong innings and Adrian Gonzalez reached base five times in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In other games, Adam Duvall hit a two-run homer to spoil Cliff Lee’s return from the disabled list as the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-4, the Minnesota Twins edged the Cleveland Indians 4-3, the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 3-1 and the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Cleveland Reds 5-2.
Ian Desmond tied a career high with five hits, including a two-run homer as the Washington Nationals trounced the Colorado Rockies 7-2, the Detroit Tigers overcame the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3, the Seattle Mariners beat the New York Mets 5-2and the Baltimore Orioles were 4-2 winners over the Los Angeles Angels.
