American League
Mike DiFelice hit three doubles as Kansas City and the New York Yankees combined to set an American League record with 19 two-base hits in the Royals' 12-9 victory Monday.
PHOTO: AP
The teams broke the AL mark of 18 doubles by Cleveland and Minnesota on July 13, 1996. The major league record is 23 by St. Louis and the Chicago Cubs on July 12, 1931.
Mike Sweeney, Joe Randa and DiFelice all doubled during a four-run eighth inning off Yankees newcomer Bret Prinz. After the Royals set a team record with 11 doubles, the Yankees made sure the game broke the league record for doubles as Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi hit them in the ninth inning.
"It's just one of those wild nights that can't be explained in baseball," said Randa. "I promise you, nobody comes to the plate planning to hit doubles. They just happen."
DiFelice drove in three runs as the Royals won their third successive game, taking advantage of the Yankees' battered bullpen to send New York to its third straight loss. The Yankees had not lost at Kansas City since Sept. 6, 2000.
"It's just a freak night," said Sweeney. "But we got a win. Every night's been a new hero."
The winner was D.J. Carrasco (4-4), who pitched 1 2-3 innings of hitless relief. Sterling Hitchcock (1-3) took the loss.
Devil Rays 4, Orioles 3
In St. Petersburg, Florida, pinch-hitter Jared Sandberg doubled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting Tampa Bay over Baltimore.
Julio Lugo singled with one out off Hector Carrasco (1-3) and B.J. Ryan relieved. After Carl Crawford popped out, Sandberg doubled into the left-center gap for the victory.
Travis Harper (2-6) worked two scoreless innings.
Tampa Bay tied it at 3 when Travis Lee hit a two-run, two-out homer off reliever Eric DuBose in the eighth.
Twins 5, Indians 3
In Minneapolis, Luis Rivas hit a two-run homer and Kyle Lohse pitched smoothly into the ninth inning to lead Minnesota over Cleveland for its fourth straight victory.
Lohse (9-9) won his third consecutive start for the Twins, who improved to just 3-5 against the Indians this year. They're 17-8 since the All-Star break -- the second-best record in the majors in that time.
LaTroy Hawkins relieved and gave up a single to Ryan Ludwick before getting Travis Hafner to ground into a double play. Hawkins got his first save since 2001.
In the sixth, Torii Hunter was hit by a pitch without incident. Hunter was ejected on July 4 for walking toward Indians pitcher Jason Davis after a pitch came high and inside.
Last year, Hunter was fined and suspended three games for throwing a ball back at Cleveland pitcher Danys Baez, who had hit him with a pitch.
Jake Westbrook (5-7) gave up five runs and eight hits in six innings.
Angels 10, White Sox 8
In Anaheim, California, Bengie Molina tied a career high with four RBIs as Anaheim survived a ninth-inning meltdown by closer Troy Percival to hold off Chicago.
Down 10-4, the White Sox got five straight hits off Percival to start the ninth inning. Frank Thomas hit his 28th homer and Jamie Burke's RBI single with one out pulled Chicago within two runs.
But Percival escaped further damage with the bases loaded, striking out Roberto Alomar and retiring Carlos Lee on a popup to end it.
The Angels stopped a three-game losing streak and won for only the sixth time in 26 games since the All-Star break.
Ben Weber (3-1) pitched 1 2-3 innings for the victory, retiring all five batters he faced.
Bartolo Colon (10-10) took the loss.
Rangers 9, Tigers 3
In Arlington, Texas, Todd Greene's two-run homer keyed a five-run fifth inning, and Joaquin Benoit pitched five relief innings after a rain delay to lead Texas over Detroit.
Benoit (7-5) allowed three runs and six hits in just his third relief appearance of the season. Texas starter John Thomson had to leave the game in the second inning when a downpour stopped play for nearly two hours.
Steve Sparks (0-5) allowed six runs and eight hits over four innings in relief of Detroit starter Wilfredo Ledezma.
Athletics 4, Red Sox 0
In Oakland, California, Tim Hudson pitched a two-hitter, handing Pedro Martinez his first loss in three months as Oakland pulled even with Boston atop the AL wild card race.
Hudson (11-4) struck out seven and walked just one in a masterful display of control and ground-ball pitching. He retired 15 of 16 in the middle innings, and he finished his sixth career shutout by retiring the final seven hitters.
Martinez (8-3) struck out seven but pitched just five innings on an apparently strict pitch count. He hadn't lost since May 9 -- a span of 13 starts.
Blue Jays 5, Mariners 3
In Seattle, Vernon Wells hit a solo home run and Mark Hendrickson held Seattle to two runs over 6 2-3 innings as Toronto beat the Mariners.
Carlos Delgado hit a two-run single with the bases loaded as Toronto scored four runs in the third inning to build a 5-1 lead.
Delgado has 112 RBIs, tying him with Colorado's Preston Wilson for the most in baseball.
Hendrickson (7-8) held Seattle to two runs on nine hits, striking out three and walking one.
After Rey Sanchez drove a liner into Hendrickson's left arm, Dan Reichert relieved and pitched 1 1-3 innings. Reichert was replaced by Jason Kershner after Randy Winn's infield single to start the ninth, and when Ray Sanchez's one-out sacrifice fly made it 5-3, Aquilino Lopez came on and struck out Bret Boone with runners at the corners for his fourth save in six chances.
Seattle's Joel Pineiro (13-7) lost his second straight start after going 8-0 in his previous nine.
National League
Wade Miller outpitched Kerry Wood and Jeff Kent hit a two-run double Monday as the Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs 3-1.
Craig Biggio homered for the Astros, who maintained their two-game lead over St. Louis in the National League Central after the Cardinals beat the Pirates 6-4. The third-place Cubs fell 3 1/2 games back.
Miller (9-10) gave up five hits and a run in six innings, striking out nine batters. Octavio Dotel pitched two scoreless innings, and Billy Wagner worked the ninth for his 34th save in 37 chances.
Wood (11-9) allowed seven hits and three runs in seven innings. He also struck out nine and reached 1,000 career strikeouts faster than any major league pitcher, achieving the milestone in his 134th game.
"I got outpitched. This means nothing right now," Wood said of his strikeouts. "We're chasing a pennant and we lost a big game."
Kent, 10-for-19 (.526) against Wood entering the game, broke a scoreless tie in the fifth. After singles by Geoff Blum and Jeff Bagwell, he drove a ball over Doug Glanville's head in center.
"You just try to get as many scrape runs as you can because he's not going to give you very many," said Kent. "He's a heck of a pitcher. We had to have our `A' game against him today."
Sammy Sosa doubled in the sixth, moved to third on a single by Aramis Ramirez and scored on a single by Eric Karros.
Dodgers 9, Marlins 3
In Miami, Dontrelle Willis retired only six batters and gave up seven runs, including a three-run homer by Adrian Beltre that helped Los Angeles beat Florida.
In a rare show of offense by the Dodgers, their first eight hitters reached base in the third inning as they scored six times. Nine runs matches their best since April 20.
Willis (11-3) lasted only two-plus innings, matching his shortest outing. The rookie's ERA rose from 2.56 to 3.10, and in five starts since the All-Star break it's 6.48.
Odalis Perez (8-9) allowed two runs and seven hits in eight innings and retired 13 batters in a row. An .050 hitter, he also walked and scored the run that put Los Angeles ahead to stay.
The Marlins, who have lost two successive games for only the second time since June 17-18, fell one-half game behind idle NL wild-card leader Philadelphia. The Dodgers are three games behind.
Cardinals 6, Pirates 4
In Pittsburgh, Albert Pujols and Bo Hart homered in the first inning as St. Louis, relying again on solo homers, held on to beat Pittsburgh.
Edmonds twice threw out runners at the plate, including Abraham Nunez in the eighth with the potential go-ahead run on base. The Pirates had four consecutive singles in the eighth, yet didn't score as relievers Pedro Borbon and Cal Eldred each retired a batter with the bases loaded.
The Cardinals won despite being outhit 17-10.
Miguel Cairo and Scott Rolen also homered for the Cardinals, who hit four solo homers in the first four innings off Kip Wells (5-6) a night after hitting three solo shots in beating the Atlanta Braves 3-2. Pujols' homer was his 32nd and his ninth in 21 career games at PNC Park. He extended his hitting streak to 25 games.
Expos 3, Rockies 1
In Montreal, Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-run homer and Zach Day pitched six strong innings to lead Montreal over Colorado.
Montreal, which returned from a 1-5 road trip, improved to 27-16 at Olympic Stadium.
Colorado lost its third consecutive game, falling to 19-42 on the road to begin a seven-game trip.
Guerrero followed Jose Vidro's one-out double in the third inning off Jason Jennings (10-10) with a drive over the center-field wall for his 14th homer.
Day (6-4) struck out a career-high seven while allowing five hits, including Chris Stynes' RBI double in the third. Rocky Biddle pitched the ninth for his 28th save in 33 opportunities.
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