ST. LOUIS: St. Louis’ Jhonny Peralta hit a tiebreaking home run in the sixth inning and the National League-leading Cardinals hung on to edge the New York Mets 3-2 on Friday as Major League Baseball resumed from the All-Star break.

The victory moved the Cardinals 3-1/2 games clear of Central Division rival Pittsburgh for the NL lead, as the Pirates lost to Milwaukee.

Another highly anticipated NL series between East Division-leading Washington and the West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers got off to an unusual start as the opening game was suspended after five innings due to a lighting failure.

American League leader Kansas City resumed from the break by splitting a double-header against the Chicago White Sox, taking the day game but then being shut out in the nightcap.

St. Louis’ Peralta, one of six Cardinals players to compete in the All-Star game, barely cleared the fence on a two-out drive to give the hosts the lead for good. Mets left fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis just got his glove to the ball but could not stop it going over.

Cardinals starter Lance Lynn (7-5) allowed only one run in seven innings and outpitched New York’s Noah Syndergaard (4-5) who gave up two runs in seven frames.

Milwaukee’s Mike Fiers gave up only a solo homer in seven solid innings to steer the Brewers past Pittsburgh 4-1.

Fiers(5-7) walked only one and struck out seven.

Gerardo Parra doubled in the first and scored. His double in the fifth scored Scooter Gennett, who had been hit by a pitch and advanced on a sacrifice by Fiers, who also contributed at the plate.

The Nationals-Dodgers game was delayed three times because of a lighting malfunction and finally suspended with the Nationals up 3-2 after five innings.

The game will be resumed on Saturday prior to the scheduled second match of the series.

The first stoppage — caused by a bank of lights on the third-base side going out — came in the fourth inning and lasted 1 hour, 22 minutes and play resumed for only nine minutes before they went out again for 40 minutes.

Upon resumption, Washington scored twice in the bottom of the fifth before the lights went out for the last time and the game was suspended.

Chicago’s John Danks pitched six scoreless innings to guide the White Sox to a 2-0 win against Kansas City to earn a split of the double-header.

Danks (5-8) exited to loud cheers with a 2-0 lead after he issued a walk to start the seventh. David Robertson got the last three outs for his 20th save of the season.

The Royals won the day game 4-2. Mike Moustakas hit a solo homer in the fifth on the 12th pitch of his at-bat to give the Royals a 2-1 lead, and Alex Rios capped a two-run sixth with his drive after Chicago had tied it.

Toronto’s Josh Donaldson hit a two-run home run and Justin Smoak soon added a three-run shot to power the Blue Jays to a 6-2 win against Tampa Bay.

Both homers came in a five-run fifth, the majors-leading 19th time the Blue Jays have scored at least five runs in an inning.

Donaldson went 1 for 2 with two walks and raised his RBI total to 62, tying him with New York’s Mark Teixeira for the AL lead.

Houston’s Jose Altuve and rookie Carlos Correa drove in a run apiece to help the Astros to an early lead and they held on to edge state rival Texas and snap a six-game losing skid.

Jake Marisnick and Altuve hit back-to-back doubles in the third to push Houston’s lead to 2-0. Marwin Gonzalez singled, but Altuve was thrown out at home plate. Gonzalez advanced to second and scored on Correa’s single to make it 3-0.

The Los Angeles Angels beat Boston 1-0 thanks to a walk-off homer by baseball’s man of the hour Mike Trout.

Fresh off winning his second straight All-Star MVP award, Trout drove a pitch from Red Sox closer Koji Uehara (2-4) over the fence in left-center for his AL-leading 27th homer of the season.

Boston pitcher Wade Miley retired his first 16 batters before and was on track for a no-hitter until the seventh but that still was not enough for the Red Sox.

Minnesota’s Trevor Plouffe hit a grand slam in the sixth inning to help the Twins beat Oakland 5-0.

Plouffe connected for his second career grand slam, both this year, and did it against A’s All-Star pitcher Sonny Gray (10-4). Gray had only given up five homers this year before Brian Dozier went long leading off the game and then giving up the four-run shot to Plouffe.

Twins starter Ervin Santana (1-) worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third and won in his third start since returning from an 80-game doping suspension.

New York’s Alex Rodriguez hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning as the Yankees downed Seattle 4-3.

Atlanta ended a five-game skid by beating the Chicago Cubs 4-2, with Eury Perez driving in two runs with a bases-loaded, tiebreaking single in the eighth inning.

Detroit’s J.D. Martinez made a terrific catch against the wall in right field, then homered two innings later to help the Tigers defeat Baltimore 7-3.

Arizona shortstop Cliff Pennington’s throwing error allowed the go-ahead run to score in the 12th inning, handing San Francisco a 6-5 victory.

Cincinnati’s Mike Leake pitched six effective innings and drove in three runs to lead the Reds past Cleveland 6-1.

San Diego pitcher James Shields won for the first time in six weeks to guide the Padres past Colorado 4-2.

Philadelphia’s Jeff Francoeur hit a three-run home run in a four-run eighth inning which lifted the Phillies to a 6-3 win against Miami.