CHICAGO -- Rookie slugger Pete Alonso hit his 26th homer to set the NL record for most homers before the All-Star Game as the New York Mets routed the Chicago Cubs 10-2 on Saturday.

Alonso broke a tie with Los Angeles' Cody Bellinger (2017). He's still seven short of Mark McGwire's major league record 33 accomplished in 1987.

Todd Frazier and Wilson Ramos also homered for the Mets, who won consecutive road games for the first time in over two months.

Zack Wheeler (6-5) allowed one run on five hits in seven innings to bounce back after losing his previous two starts. The right-hander retired 15 straight batters from the second through the sixth.

Alonso went 2 for 4 with a walk and tied Darryl Strawberry (1983) for the Mets' rookie record for homers in a season.

Jeff McNeil went 2 for 4 with three RBI.

New York is 17-26 on the road this season and last won back-to-back away games on April 11 and 12 in Atlanta.

Jason Heyward went 3 for 4 as NL Central-leading Chicago dropped back-to-back home games for the first time in nearly a month.

Cubs starter Jose Quintana (4-7) was roughed up for nine runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. The left-hander allowed a career-high tying three homers despite a steady wind blowing in from right to left at Wrigley Field.

Backup catcher Victor Caratini, who started at first, came in the ninth to make his fourth pitching appearance with Chicago. He tossed a 1-2-3 inning and provided a highlight with a running grab of a dribbler toward third and a jump throw to first to nail Ramos to end the inning.

New York scored in each of the first six innings. Alonso began the barrage with a solo blast in the first. McNeil made it 3-0 with two-run single in the second. Frazier's two-run homer in the third made it 5-0 and provided a comical moment.

After connecting on a 3-1 pitch, Frazier didn't think he hit it well enough to get through the wind. He tossed his bat in frustration and jogged toward first. He was surprised when it reached the bleachers and pumped his fist in celebration.

McNeil added an RBI double in the fourth to make it 6-0. In the fifth, Michael Conforto had an RBI single and Ramos followed with a two-run shot to chase Quintana.

In the sixth, Frazier drove in a run with a two-out infield single against reliever Rowan Wick to make it 10-0.

GETTING CLOSE?

After throwing a scoreless inning on Friday for Triple-A Iowa, Craig Kimbrel was scheduled to pitch again Saturday night to go back-to-back for the first time since finalizing a three-year, $43 million deal with the Cubs on June 7.

If all goes well, Kimbrel's next outing could be in the majors.

"We'll see how he feels in a couple of days," manager Joe Maddon said. "That'll be very indicative of what we can or cannot do, or when."

TRAINER'S ROOM

Mets: RHP Noah Syndergaard (right hamstring) was scheduled to throw a bullpen on Saturday. He is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list on Wednesday . INF Jed Lawrie (left knee and hamstring) is doing some baseball activities, but it's unclear when he'll be ready for rehab games. "It sounds like they're treating the left leg from the hip all the way

down to the knee," manager Mickey Callaway said. "It's improving. We just don't have a timeline."

UP NEXT

Mets ace Jacob deGrom (4-6, 3.26 ERA) faces Cubs lefty Cole Hamels (6-2, 2.85) in the finale of the four-game series on Sunday. After taking a two-hitter into the ninth against the Braves on Tuesday, deGrom looks for back-to-back wins. Hamels allowed one run in seven innings for a no-decision Tuesday against the White Sox.

ST. LOUIS -- The last time the Angels' Albert Pujols homered at Busch Stadium, it was a championship season. When he did it Saturday, it wasn't the World Series, but it sure felt like it.

Pujols, 39, homered in the seventh inning off Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson, setting off another celebration in a weekend that's been full of them, all for a visiting player who left St. Louis nearly eight years ago.

"Trying to walk around the bases and get to the plate, and trying to get in the dugout and hold everything in," Pujols said. "Man, that was hard.

"It's gonna be up there for me -- for my career, for my family, my wife Deidre and my five kids and my friends and family that are here in town. It's just a moment that I will treasure forever."

It was Pujols' first long ball at Busch since he left the Cardinals after helping the franchise to its 11th World Series crown in 2011. Pujols returned to the ballpark in Friday's game, kicking off two days of standing ovations, tips of the cap and, after the homer, a curtain call.

Angels manager Brad Ausmus was asked if he had ever seen a curtain call for a player on the road team in a big league game.

"No," Ausmus said, after thinking it over. "I don't believe I have."

The Cardinals won the game 4-2, which made it easier for Pujols' old friends to enjoy the reunion.

"What a special moment for him, the whole stadium and really Cardinal Nation," Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. "Listen, he's an icon, a living legend. Very few of them have a chance to come back and perform."

Hudson said he was fine with the crowd's reaction.

"It's no disruption; the guy deserves that ovation," the pitcher said. "He's done a lot for this organization, and I think he's a staple as a Cardinal player."

It was Pujols' 111th career home run at Busch, the third venue in St. Louis to bear that name. That's 23 more than second-place Matt Holliday. It was his first time going deep in St. Louis since Sept. 22, 2011, a regular-season game against the Mets. Pujols homered five times during the Cardinals' championship run that season, but all came on the road.

Pujols' homer also set a record for dingers in interleague play, breaking the mark he shared with Hall of Famer Jim Thome (65). Pujols moved into a tie with Alex Rodriguez for the most career RBIs in interleague play with 216.

There was little doubt Pujols would make a curtain call as he rounded the bases amid a roar unheard for a player visiting the home venue of a fan base that likes to refer to itself as the best in baseball. He bounded up the steps almost immediately after returning to the dugout, setting off another round of raucous cheers.

"I came out right away," Pujols said, laughing. "I knew they were gonna wait for that. It's just a special moment."

Before that, as Pujols touched home plate, he performed his ritual of touching his chest and pointing to the sky with both hands. Standing nearby was catcher Yadier Molina, one of Pujols' former Cardinals teammates and one of his best friends. As Pujols crossed the plate, Molina literally brought him back to earth: He scooped up some dirt and threw it at Pujols.

But in this week of mass adoration in the Gateway City, Molina was only kidding around. After fessing up to the dirt toss, Molina said, "I'm happy for him."

Based on appearances at Busch Stadium on Saturday afternoon, so was the rest of St. Louis.

"Too bad we lost the game," Pujols said. "But we were able to do something special for the fans. It's been amazing."

Cincinnati Reds slugger Derek Dietrich was hit by an MLB record sixth pitch in one series, after getting nailed with a 71 mph changeup from Brewers reliever Alex Claudio in the top of the fifth inning of the division rivals' game Saturday in Milwaukee.

It's the sixth time in three games against the Brewers that Dietrich was hit by a pitch, already an MLB record for one series with one game still to be played on Sunday.

"It's funny, the guys were asking me, 'How many of those do you think you're getting hit by and how many did you try to get hit by?'" Dietrich told MLB.com following Friday's game. "I was like, 'Well, I don't really try to get hit by any of them. If they come up and in, they come up and in.' It just kind of happens. It's part of the game. I've never really shied away from it. Guys try to get out of the way. I don't try to get out of the way. I hold my ground. I stay in the box.

"Getting on base is big whether it's a walk, hit, hit by pitch, it doesn't matter. When you're on base, you're creating chaos. The way we're hitting now, it's important."

Dietrich now has been hit with 15 pitches over the course of the season, which leads the majors.

The Tampa Bay Rays' intention to explore the possibility of holding home games in the Tampa area during temperate spring months and for the remainder of the season in baseball-starved Montreal drew a reaction that can best be summed up in one word.

Huh?

That is a reasonable question. There are plenty more of those. Here are a dozen that explain what makes the Rays' plan not nearly as crazy as it may sound -- and the roadblocks standing in the way.

How likely is this to actually happen?

Put it this way: A few hours after the news broke that Major League Baseball's executive council granted permission to the Rays to pursue a two-city solution, St. Petersburg, Florida, mayor Rick Kriseman said he would not grant the team permission to discuss any proposal with Montreal. The Rays' lease with Tropicana Field, which is located in St. Petersburg, runs through 2027. "This is getting a bit silly," Kriseman said.

So, clearly, the deal is dead, right? Of course not. Kriseman is doing the exact same thing the Rays did when they pursued the idea in the first place: trying to secure the best deal. For more than a decade, Rays owner Stuart Sternberg has sought a new stadium deal from St. Petersburg, then Tampa, to replace the domed monstrosity that is the Trop. The efforts have failed.

Sharing the Rays isn't the nuclear option. That would be Sternberg announcing his intentions to relocate and trying to negotiate a way out of the lease. But this is clearly a warning -- the Rays are running out of patience, and with attendance still low despite on-field success, they believe the path to viability in the Tampa Bay area must include a new stadium. If that's in concert with a second new stadium in Montreal, it would put a significant dent in the Rays' local-revenue issues and leave other markets open for expansion.

Put it this way: If this were truly a pure leverage play, with Tampa Bay using the threat of a move as a cudgel, would MLB owners allow a potential expansion city to be straight-up used and run the risk of incensing it? Because that is in play here for Montreal if the Rays turn around, negotiate with entities in the Tampa Bay area and leave behind Stephen Bronfman and Mitch Garber, both deep-pocketed, well-connected men who desperately want baseball back in Montreal. With potential billion-dollar expansion fees at play, the last thing MLB wants to do is alienate whales who might be willing to pay it.

Why is this a good plan?

The Tampa Bay area would not lose big league baseball and Montreal would gain it. That's the very simple answer.

If the Rays are not posturing -- and again, feigning interest like this would be an awfully dangerous play for a very disciplined ownership and front office group -- then both fan bases wind up in better scenarios. Rays fans wouldn't need to go to the Trop and would have the assurance of the team having a long-term lease in place, and Montreal would have baseball for the first time since the Expos left in 2005 as well as the security that the team wouldn't leave again.

In Montreal, the Rays would find something they've longed for: a loving, fully embracing fan base. And while the concept of dual-city teams is (almost) entirely foreign, the idea of fans loving a team any less because it's not present as much doesn't compute. Montreal craves baseball. This is baseball. The city is not going to reject the Rays because they play half their games elsewhere.

Now, it's possible the Tampa Bay area doesn't want the Rays. The attendance is crummy, even when the team isn't. But it's difficult to believe that a metropolitan area as big as the Tampa Bay area would allow one of 30 teams to slip away. And that's at stake here.

What are the roadblocks?

There are plenty. All have feasible solutions that sound reasonable. Combined, though, they make the two-city solution complicated and fragile.

(1) Getting a stadium in Montreal: This is pretty far down the road. While it's not checked off the list, a potential partnership between the Rays and the Bronfman-Garber consortium is natural.

(2) Settling on a site for a stadium in the Tampa area: This has not been easy. Politicians also might not want to be the ones who let baseball leave town.

(3) Securing funding for a stadium in the Tampa area: This wouldn't be easy, either. Politicians also might not want to be the ones who let baseball leave town.

(4) Convincing the other 29 owners it is the right plan: Getting a group of billionaires on board takes plenty of work -- particularly when some of those billionaires' businesses can be impacted by yours.

(5) Solving the territorial-rights question: Is Toronto really going to let a division rival waltz right in and monopolize the country's second-largest city and, really, an entire province?

(6) Placating the players: The Rays are tired of playing in front of empty crowds at the Trop ... but are they tired enough to move midseason and pay significantly higher taxes?

(7) Selling the fans: We know what we know, and when something comes along that we don't know, it's scary.

So ... each city gets 40 games or so?

It's too early in the process to know what sort of a split would satisfy all parties. Part of the allure of sharing teams, sources said, would be taking advantage of the cities' contrasting climates. By June, average high temperatures in the Tampa area tend to climb to about 90 degrees. Avoiding similar temperatures in July, August and early September would allow a domeless stadium in the Tampa Bay area -- something that would significantly lessen costs on a stadium that could have a price tag upward of $1 billion. One potential proposal includes a soccer-style stadium, with a smaller capacity that could bring costs down to near $600 million.

Average temperatures in Montreal, on the other hand, top out around 80 degrees, even in the summer months, before dipping in mid-September. Schedule makers could theoretically go home-heavy with the Rays in the season's first half, giving the Tampa Bay area a chance to pack in Florida home games before the team migrates to Canada in June.

Why would a city build a new stadium to have a team for a partial season?

This is the multi-hundred-million-dollar question. For Montreal, the answer is fairly clear: Bronfman and Garber, who have been at the forefront of the efforts to bring baseball back to Montreal, support the split-team concept. They have secured a potential site for a stadium. They are not wedded to the idea that a baseball team must have 81 home games. While the Montreal market showed an ability to support that when Bronfman's father, Charles, owned the Expos, there is an argument that a finite number of games at an optimal time of year could juice interest.

Selling St. Petersburg, Tampa or wherever the Rays try to find a new stadium in their current metropolitan area on this seems the far more daunting task. The Rays continue to seek public money to build a new stadium in Florida, and even if the supply-and-demand play above happens to work and creates more per-game revenue for the Rays, they haven't been able to get a stadium built for 81 games. Will a city really accede with half the dates?

That's a reasonable question. It also may be secondary to another: Is the Tampa Bay area willing to let its MLB team leave?

When could this happen?

Realistically? Not particularly soon. It has taken the Rays more than a decade to reach this point because of failed stadium negotiations ... and they still would need to receive a commitment to build a stadium, not to mention wiggle out of their current stadium deal. They also would need to ensure that Montreal's half came to fruition. Not to mention all of the other potential pitfalls.

One source said 2023 is the earliest target date, though 2024 would be more realistic. And that's if everything falls into place.

How would TV rights work?

Quite well for the Rays, one would think, because they would get the benefit of multiple TV markets. The reality isn't nearly as clean: As much of a threat as the stadium situation in the Tampa Bay area is to the plan's viability, the territorial-rights issue is potentially menacing, too.

In baseball, every team is assigned a specific area to which it owns the rights to broadcast. When the Expos left, all of Canada became the Blue Jays' territory. No baseball team controls as large of an area as the Blue Jays. Teams guard their territories fiercely.

Look at what happened when the Expos moved. Even though the Nationals were in a different league, their fight with the Baltimore Orioles over television revenue continues years after it started. Not only would the Rays be encroaching on Toronto's territory, the teams both play in the American League East.

There are ways around this impediment, of course. Lots and lots and lots of loonies and toonies.

Has anybody ever tried this before?

Actually, yes. In 2003 and 2004, the Montreal Expos played 22 games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the early 1970s, the NBA's Kings split home games between Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. Even the White Sox took a nine-game-a-year sojourn to Milwaukee for a couple of years before the Brewers moved to town.

But something like this? Two cities, more than 1,300 miles apart, in different countries, no less? No. Definitely not for half a season.

Would the Rays actually be able to spend money on players?

Well, certainly more than they do now. The Rays' opening-day payroll was somewhere in the $65 million range, among the lowest in baseball. The reason is not just the 14,546 fans per game they draw at the Trop -- the second-lowest average in the major leagues. The Rays missed the local-television-contract boom that enriched a handful of smaller-market teams when they re-upped their deals recently.

Montreal wouldn't turn the Rays into the Yankees or Red Sox, but it would offer a robust corporate base and a rabid group of fans frothing for the return of baseball and presumably giddy to buy season tickets. No longer would the Rays have any reason to operate on the cheap.

Who would host postseason games?

In their 36-year history, the Expos made the playoffs once. In the Rays' 22-year history, they have made the playoffs four times -- and gotten out of the first round once. Let's not get ahead of ourselves now.

(The real answer, according to a source: "If they can get a deal like this done, that will be a very first-world problem.")

What would it mean for the players and their families?

Retired closer Brad Ziegler said it would never work. So did Amanda McCarthy, the wife of longtime pitcher Brandon McCarthy. Kaycee Sogard, whose husband, Eric, plays for the Blue Jays, said: "This is what baseball-wife nightmares are made of."

Polarizing as the two-city solution is writ large, it might bring out the biggest chasm among those directly affected by it. That said: It's not an impossible sell for players. Greater revenues would lead to the team spending more money. More money spent on players is good for players. And if it takes a little extra to help make the inconvenience of an in-season move more palatable, well, as one veteran player who was open to playing for a two-city team said Thursday: "Money always solves problems in this game."

A few other pluses: Montreal is widely recognized as an incredible city -- one that players would love to play in. The Rays are very good now and have one of the two best farm systems in baseball, meaning they're likely to be good for a long, long time.

But, yeah. It's true. Some players would automatically -- and understandably -- not be willing to play for the ... uh ... the ... hold on. This team doesn't have a name.

Seriously, man. Enough with the details. Here's what the world really wants to know: What would this shared team be named?

That's the sort of question to be answered after dealing with the political brawling and stadium-funding fights and union approval and myriad other topics of far greater import.

The Tampa Bay Rays of Montreal isn't bad. The Snowbirds would work, and the logo potential is off the charts. The Tampa Bay Ehs is pretty inspired. (Thanks to @CespedesBBQ for collecting these.)

But if they're not nicknamed the Ex-Rays, it will constitute the greatest missed opportunity for a truly perfect portmanteau in the history of the English language.

Second seed Alfie Hewett will face fellow Briton Gordon Reid in the Queen's wheelchair tennis final.

Former French Open and US Open champion Hewett, 21, beat compatriot Dermot Bailey, who was making his Queen's debut, 6-2 6-3 in the last four.

Paralympic gold medallist Reid beat Sweden's Stefan Olsson 4-6 6-3 7-5 in a semi-final which lasted two hours and nine minutes.

Hewett and Reid, 27, will play together in the doubles later on Saturday.

You can watch the wheelchair finals live on connected TVs, the BBC Sport website and app.

Ashleigh Barty is one win from becoming world number one after beating Barbora Strycova to reach the final of the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham.

The French Open champion will replace Naomi Osaka at the top of the rankings if she wins the title on Sunday.

Barty, who won her maiden singles Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, beat the Czech world number 51 6-4 6-4.

The 23-year-old Australian will face Germany's Julia Gorges - her doubles partner - in the final.

"It's nice to be in another final. It's been a hell of a year so far," said Barty.

"Whatever happens happens. We're having a really good time at the moment and hopefully we can go one more tomorrow."

World number 19 Gorges beat Croatia's Petra Martic 6-4 6-3 in the second semi-final.

Barty and Gorges withdrew from their doubles semi-final against fourth seeds Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Demi Schuurs because of a right arm injury to the Australian, but said there was no concern for her fitness in the singles final.

Roger Federer will play David Goffin in the Halle Open final as he bids for a 10th title at the tournament.

The Swiss, 37, beat Andy Murray's Wimbledon doubles partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3 6-3 in the semi-final.

Belgian world number 33 Goffin, 28, reached his first ATP tour final since 2017 with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 win against rising Italian star Matteo Berrettini.

Federer - the top seed at Halle - has won eight Wimbledon titles, with the last of these coming in 2017.

But it has not been a straightforward run on grass in Germany for the 20-time Grand Slam champion so far, who dropped a set against both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Roberto Bautista Agut in earlier rounds.

Goffin knocked out world number five and home favourite Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals on Thursday, but has lost seven of his last eight meetings with Federer.

France's Gilles Simon reached his first final of the season after coming through another long match against fourth seed Daniil Medvedev at Queen's.

The world number 38 came from a set down to win 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-3 in two hours and 39 minutes.

Simon, 34, played the longest Queen's match since records began when he beat Nicolas Mahut in the quarter-finals in three hours and 20 minutes.

"It was hard to recover for this one," said Simon.

"It was tough until the end with long rallies. It was a tough match. But you relax a bit when you're really tired and you've played a long match."

Simon could now become the first Frenchman to claim the Queen's title when he faces either Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime or Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in Sunday's final.

Medvedev, at a career-high 13 in the world rankings, was the first Russian to reach the semi-finals of the tournament in the professional era.

The 23-year-old appeared to struggle with injury throughout the match, icing his shoulder during changeovers several times and holding his back in pain.