DENVER -- Yoenis Cespedes hit three home runs, including a grand slam, and had a career-high seven RBIs and the New York Mets overpowered the Colorado Rockies 14-9 on Friday night.
Travis d'Arnaud and Michael Conforto also had home runs in the seventh inning in the Mets' first five-homer game since Sept. 5, 2014, against Cincinnati.
Cespedes led off the eighth with a chance to tie the major league record for most home runs in a game. He singled off reliever Tommy Kahnle for his fifth hit of the game, a career best.
He came up again with two outs in the ninth to face Rafael Betancourt and hit a drive to right-center field that Carlos Gonzalez had to chase down near the warning track, making a running catch (see full story).
Byrd, Bumgarner power Giants past Pirates
PITTSBURGH -- Madison Bumgarner homered in his second straight start and struck out six in 6 1/3 innings to lift the San Francisco Giants to a 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.
Bumgarner crushed a Jeff Locke (6-8) fastball 418-feet over the wall in left field in the second inning, a two-run shot that gave the Giants an early four-run lead and all the cushion Bumgarner would need on the mound. Bumgarner (15-6) allowed two runs on five hits, walking one while winning his fourth consecutive decision. Santiago Castilla worked the ninth for his 30th save.
Marlon Byrd had three hits, including a two-run home run, in his debut with San Francisco after being acquired in a trade with Cincinnati on Thursday.
MLB
Michael Morse scored twice for the Pirates, who lost for just the second time in their last nine games (see full story).
Twins use big 8th-inning to rally past Orioles
BALTIMORE -- Kurt Suzuki hit a two-run single in the eighth inning to cap a comeback against All-Star reliever Darren O'Day and carry the Minnesota Twins past the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 Friday night.
Baltimore was 51-1 when leading after seven innings, and O'Day (5-2) entered with a 1.15 ERA and a run of 11 straight scoreless appearances.
A walk, a pop single down the right-field line and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases for Eddie Rosario, who delivered a fly to right. All three runners advanced, and Suzuki followed with a bloop past the drawn-up infield.
Casey Fien (3-5) worked 1 2/3 innings, Trevor May pitched the eighth and Kevin Jepsen struck out the side for his sixth save, the first since coming to Minnesota from Tampa Bay in a July 31 trade (see full story).
Cueto stumbles as Red Sox beat Royals
BOSTON -- When you're the defending AL champion and you have a double-digit lead in the division, it's easy to shrug off a two-game slump.
Johnny Cueto had his worst start since coming to Kansas City, the Royals committed a pair of errors and they managed just four hits against a rookie making his fourth start on Friday as they fell to the Red Sox for the second straight night.
"No aspect of our game was tremendously good tonight," manager Ned Yost said after the 7-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox. "It's rare when it happens, but it happens."
The Royals entered the series against last-place Boston with a 14-game lead in the division and a five-game winning streak (see full story).
Montero, bullpen lead Cubs to win over Braves
CHICAGO -- By now, Joe Maddon's Chicago Cubs aren't fazed by an early deficit.
Not when they've shown a propensity all season for turning them into victories.
Kris Bryant and Miguel Montero had consecutive RBI doubles in the sixth as the Cubs extended Shelby Miller's winless skid to 17 games with a 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Friday.
Anthony Rizzo added an RBI single in the seventh for Chicago.
The Cubs, who remain in the thick of the NL wild-card chase, erased an early, 3-1 deficit, taking the lead in the two-run sixth (see full story).