NEW YORK -- Yoenis Cespedes homered with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the New York Mets a 2-1 victory over the Miami Marlins on Monday night.Jose Reyes dashed home to score the tying run in the eighth on a dangerous collision at the plate. Two innings later, Cespedes, who sat out Sundays loss to Philadelphia after his nagging right quadriceps flared up, launched a no-doubt drive to left-center on a 1-1 pitch from Nick Wittgren (4-3).The Mets pulled even with Miami for second place in the NL East. With its seventh victory in nine games, New York remained 2 1/2 games behind St. Louis for the leagues second wild card.Rookie left-hander Josh Smoker (1-0) struck out two in a perfect inning for his first major league win.CARDINALS 6, BREWERS 5MILWAUKEE -- Stephen Piscotty scored on a throwing error in the ninth inning after Carlos Martinez struck out a career-high 13, leading the St. Louis past Milwaukee.With two on and nobody out in the ninth, Yadier Molina dropped down a bunt. Reliever Tyler Thornburg (5-5) threw to third base for a force out, but Jonathan Villars throw to first was wild, allowing Piscotty to score.After Martinez held Milwaukee to one run over six innings, the Brewers scored four runs in the seventh to take a 5-3 lead. St. Louis tied it in the eighth on a two-run homer by Randal Grichuk off Corey Knebel.Seung Hwan Oh pitched a perfect ninth for his 14th save. Miguel Socolovich (1-0) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to pick up his first win.Jedd Gyorko and Kolten Wong each hit solo home runs for the Cardinals.INDIANS 1, TWINS 0, 10 INNINGSCLEVELAND -- Jason Kipnis 10th-inning single scored Chris Gimenez as Cleveland handed Minnesota its 11th straight loss.Kipnis lined a 1-0 pitch from Brandon Kintzler (0-1) with one out to left-center to finally break up the scoreless game.Abraham Almonte pushed a bunt past Kintzler and beat the throw to first to start the inning. Gimenez fouled off two bunt attempts before poking a single through the right side with Almonte moving to second.Third baseman Miguel Sano fielded Rajai Davis slow roller. Third base umpire Ron Kupla ruled Sano tagged Almonte and the call was upheld after a Cleveland challenge.Kipnis then hit the second pitch from Kinztler for the game-winner.Zach McAllister (3-2) worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the 10th, retiring Max Kepler on a fly ball to end the inning.TIGERS 4, WHITE SOX 3DETROIT -- Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift Detroit.Justin Upton also went deep for the Tigers, who pulled within a game of Baltimore for the American Leagues second wild card.Detroit trailed 3-2 after a solo homer in the seventh by Chicagos Tyler Saladino, but Saltalamacchias towering drive to right-center off Nate Jones (5-3) put the Tigers ahead.Justin Wilson (4-4) got the win in relief, and Francisco Rodriguez pitched a perfect ninth for his 37th save in 40 chances.Saladino drove in all three Chicago runs. James Shields allowed two runs and six hits in six innings.RED SOX 9, RAYS 4BOSTON -- Rick Porcello became the majors first 18-game winner and the first Red Sox pitcher in 70 years to open a season 13-0 in Fenway Park, going seven solid innings in Bostons victory over Tampa Bay.Mookie Betts hit his 30th homer, a solo shot, and drove in two runs for the Red Sox, who hold the ALs first wild-card spot but had lost four of five. Brock Holt had three hits and drove in two runs, Travis Shaw had three hits and Chris Young added a tiebreaking two-run double for Boston.Porcello (18-3) allowed three runs and six hits, striking out seven without issuing a walk.Matt Andriese (6-6) took the loss, giving up a season-high seven runs in four-plus innings. The Rays, buried in last in the AL East, have lost three of four.NATIONALS 4, PHILLIES 0PHILADELPHIA -- Tanner Roark threw seven impressive innings, Jayson Werth hit a solo homer and Washington beat Philadelphia.Roark (14-7) allowed four singles and struck out five. Marc Rzepczynski tossed a perfect eighth and Mark Melancon finished off the four-hitter.Phillies rookie Jake Thompson (1-4) allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings. It was the longest and best of his five career starts.Werth lined a solo shot to left in the first against his former team.Bryce Harper raced home from first on Anthony Rendons single to left-center to make it 2-0 in the first. Clint Robinson and Trea Turner had RBI singles off Frank Herrmann in the ninth.BLUE JAYS 5, ORIOLES 1BALTIMORE -- Josh Donaldson hit his fourth homer in two days and Jose Bautista also went deep in support of Marco Estrada, leading Toronto past Baltimore.The Blue Jays lead the third-place Orioles by four games in the AL East. Baltimore has lost four out of five and is clinging to the second wild card.Donaldson hit a solo homer in the fourth to tie it 1-1. The AL MVP had three homers in a 9-6 win over Minnesota on Sunday.Estrada (8-6) allowed one run and four hits with four strikeouts over seven-plus innings. The Blue Jays have won three of his four starts against the Orioles this year.J.J. Hardy provided Baltimores only run with his eighth homer in the third.Baltimore left-hander Wade Miley (8-11) allowed three runs and five hits while tying a season high with nine strikeouts over seven innings.ROYALS 8, YANKEES 5KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Dillon Gee kept the Royals momentum going with six sharp innings, Alcides Escobar hit a three-run homer and Kansas City beat the New York Yankees.Gee (6-7) allowed only four hits and a run in the latest impressive start by the Royals staff, helping the reigning World Series champions win for the 18th time in 22 games.Lorenzo Cain, Kendrys Morales and Alex Gordon drove in runs off Michael Pineda (6-11) during a five-hit salvo in the first inning. Pineda then retired 15 straight before getting into a two-on, no-outs jam in the seventh that led to Escobars homer off reliever Blake Parker.Starlin Castro drove in two runs for the Yankees, the second in a four-run eighth inning that forced Kansas City manager Ned Yost to summon fill-in closer Kelvin Herrera.RANGERS 6, MARINERS 3ARLINGTON, Texas -- Yu Darvish struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings and Carlos Beltran homered among three hits, helping Texas beat Seattle.The American League-leading Rangers won the first of six straight games at home against the two teams chasing them in the AL West and dropped the Mariners into third place, a game behind Houston and 9 1/2 back of Texas.Darvish (5-3) easily outpitched fellow Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma for his third straight win, leaving to a standing ovation with a 6-1 lead in the seventh after throwing 110 pitches, the most since his return from Tommy John surgery.Sam Dyson struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 30th save, giving Texas 13 strikeouts.Iwakuma (14-10) lost his third straight start while matching his shortest outing of the season at three innings.ASTROS 6, ATHLETICS 0HOUSTON -- Jose Altuve homered, Joe Musgrove and three relievers combined on a four-hitter as Houston beat Oakland.Musgrove (2-2) struck out seven, walked three and allowed three hits over 5 1/3 innings, and then Luke Gregerson, Pat Neshek and Brad Peacock closed things out. Musgrove had allowed 13 runs over his last two starts.Houston closed within two games of the second AL wild card with the win and Baltimores loss.As starter Sean Manaea (5-9) left after 3 1/3 innings with a right rhomboid strain.Altuve hit his second homer in two games to lead off the sixth and extend Houstons lead to 3-0.Alex Bregman hit a two-run single and Carlos Correa had an RBI single as part of a three-run seventh. Sam Steel Jersey . Following a lopsided 5-2 loss against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, Paul MacLean told reporters that "theres a lack of focus, theres a lack of leadership and theres a lack of preparation" with his struggling team. That came on the heels of Bryan Murray taking the unusual step of going into the locker room at the Prudential Center and addressing the players himself. George Parros Jersey . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. https://www.cheapducks.com/ . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. Dave Karpa Jersey . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night. Chris Pronger Jersey . - Connor McDavid scored 53 seconds into overtime as the Erie Otters came from behind to defeat the visiting Guelph Storm 4-3 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Lets hope that someday, when we think of Jose Fernandez, we can remember the smile, we can remember the charisma, we can remember the special joy he brought to every day he ever spent on a baseball field.But right now, its just too hard to get beyond the sadness. How do we even put that sadness into words as we try to process the incomprehensible news of the passing of one of baseballs shining stars, at the far-too-young age of 24?We will always have Fernandezs remarkable numbers to remind us of what he had already accomplished in a career that would last a mere 76 trips to a big league mound. But how do we measure what it is weve lost, what the Miami Marlins have lost, what the sport of baseball has lost?Where was this man heading in life? Where was he heading in baseball? Its like asking, How high is the sky? Because for Jose Fernandez, life had no limits. Every day, he looked at the world and thought, Why not? Ask anyone who ever spent five minutes around him. They would be the first to tell you there were four words in the dictionary he could never accept:That. Cant. Be. Done.So of course he made it out of Cuba, no matter how many attempts it took. Of course he jumped straight from the Florida State League to the big leagues at 20 years old. Of course he made it back from Tommy John surgery in just 13 months and looked as if hed never missed a start. Of course he would make 42 starts at home in his career and lose only two of them.This was the essence of Jose Fernandez. He approached every day thinking only of what he could do, what he would do. His world was filled only with possibilities. So on this day, the cloud above us is darkened by all those painful thoughts of what might have been. And its going to take a very long time to stop asking ourselves that question: What might he have been had he lived the rich, full life he deserved?He could have been Pedro Martinez. He was that talented. He was that unique. He was that irrepressible. He had that much natural pitching genius inside of him.Four years into his career, he had an ERA+ of 150 -- which is incredible. If youre not familiar with that stat, it compares each pitcher to the other pitchers of his time, and the average pitcher is graded at 100. So that tells you how much better Fernandez was than anyone around him.But maybe this will tell you more: Among right-handed pitchers whose careers began sincee World War II, do you know how many had a better ERA+ through 70 starts or more? That would be none.dddddddddddd. Zero. Behind Fernandez youll find the likes of Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver and Roger Clemens. Fernandez was off to a greater career start than all of them. Wow.But with this man, the what might have been scenarios shouldnt merely be confined to what he could have accomplished on a pitchers mound. This was a guy who was going to make a mark on the planet.People were drawn to him. People who spanned every spectrum of American life. His teammates. His coaches. The Latino community of South Florida. Kids. And when he pitched, when Jose Day arrived in Miami, there was nothing like it. Nothing.In the 2014 and 15 seasons, his starts in Miami drew an average of 26,938 ticket buyers. When anyone else pitched, the average attendance was 21,113. That difference computes to 27.6 percent more customers roaring through the turnstiles when Fernandez pitched than for any other game.?He would bounce around the field on those days with the joy of a kid ripping open his birthday presents. His chance to take that baseball and work his magic couldnt come soon enough. And that exuberance rubbed off on everyone who laid eyes on him.Hes unique, his first manager, Mike Redmond,?once told me. Hes not the kind of guy where you come in and hes sitting at his locker with his game face on and you cant talk to him. I mean, hes hitting in the cage, hes bunting in the cage, hes in my office, hes sitting on the couch, hes talking to me about a couple of hitters. Then hes out, and hes back in. Hes joking with the guys. Hes all over the place.So hes unique. I never played with a guy like that, man. And thats how he is every day. ... Just that day that he gets the ball, he cant wait. He just really loves to pitch.There is nothing sadder, in life or in sports, than unfulfilled potential. So to have the life of this man -- with this sort of talent, this much possibility, this sense of joy, this unending love of living every day -- be cut short so soon, it is even harder to comprehend than it is to accept.Maybe someday, well be able to focus again on that talent and that joy. But right now, this just feels like one of the saddest sports stories of our lifetimes. ' ' '