John Olerud hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the eighth inning against his former team, and the New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners 6-4 on Saturday for their fourth straight win.
After Esteban Loaiza wasted a three-run lead and fell behind 4-3, the Yankees tied the score in the seventh with John Flaherty's RBI double off Jamie Moyer.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Shigetoshi Hasegawa (4-5) hit Gary Sheffield with a pitch leading off the eighth, then allowed Bernie Williams' double. George Sherrill intentionally walked Ruben Sierra with one out to face Olerud, who is hitting .333 with 11 RBIs in nine games with the Yankees.
Gary Sheffield and Williams homered, Paul Quantrill (6-2) won, and Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth for his major league-leading 40th save.
Athletics 6, Royals 1
In Oakland, California, Mark Kotsay made a run-saving sliding catch on Ruben Mateo's blooper to center to preserve a tie in the top of the sixth, then homered off Brian Anderson (2-10) to lead off a five-run bottom half.
Damian Miller went 3-for-3 with a three-run double on reliever Scott Sullivan's first pitch, and Rich Harden (7-5) won his fourth straight decision, allowing one run and five hits in six inning.
Blue Jays 7, Orioles 2
In Toronto, Josh Towers (8-4) allowed two runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings to beat his former team and win for the sixth time in seven starts. Justin Speier and Kerry Ligtenberg finished with hitless relief as Toronto stopped a four-game losing streak and improved to 2-4 since John Gibbons replaced the fired Carlos Tosca as manager.
Baltimore, which had won four straight at Toronto, lost for just the second time in 12 games overall. Joe Borkowski (3-3) gave up four runs and eight hits in four innings.
Indians 7, Twins 1
In Cleveland, the Indians pulled within one game of the AL Central lead, scoring four runs in the first inning and beating Minnesota behind home runs by Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez.
Cleveland, which has not shared the division lead this late in the season since 2001, could tie the first-place Twins with a victory yesterday.
The Indians have won six straight and 10 of 11, gaining seven games on the Twins in 10 days. Minnesota, which has lost eight of 10, had a season-high, six-game lead over the Indians and Chicago White Sox after last Sunday's games.
Jake Westbrook (11-5) won for the fifth time in six starts, giving up one run and five hits in seven innings.
Kyle Lohse (5-10) allowed seven runs and seven hits in five innings, losing his second straight start.
Red Sox 4, White Sox 3
In Boston, David Ortiz's second homer of the game broke an eighth-inning tie, Curt Schilling got his first home win in seven weeks, and Boston beat Chicago.
Manny Ramirez hit his 30th homer and is tied with Ortiz for the AL lead.
Schilling (14-6) gave up consecutive first-inning homers to Timo Perez and Carlos Lee but improved to 8-1 at Fenway Park. He had been 0-1 in three home starts since beating Philadelphia on June 27.
Keith Foulke finished with a hitless ninth for his 19th save.
Ortiz homered off Jon Adkins (2-3) with one out in the eighth.
Rangers 6, Devil Rays 5
In Arlington, Texas, Kevin Mench hit a go-ahead home run in the fifth inning and Gary Matthews Jr. added a solo shot to lead Texas over Tampa Bay.
Doug Brocail (2-1) relieved starter Mike Bacsik to the start the fifth inning and allowed two unearned runs that tied the score 5-all but got the win. Brian Shouse, Frank Francisco, Carlos Almanzar and Francisco Cordero combined with four innings of one-hit relief, with Cordero getting three outs for his 35th save and 15th in a row.
Mench's homer off Franklin Nunez (0-1) scored the decisive run for Texas, which remained 11 games behind Oakland in the AL West and one game back of Boston in the wild-card race.
Angels 11, Tigers 8
In Anaheim, California, Chone Figgins hit a tiebreaking two-run homer and drove in four runs, leading Anaheim over Detroit.
With a revamped lineup, the Angels had 17 hits.
Figgins' fourth homer of the season triggered a five-run sixth inning against rookie Roberto Novoa (1-1).
David Eckstein, Jose Guillen and Robb Quinlan also homered for the Angels, whose other four-homer game this season was at Dodger Stadium on June 25.
Carlos Pena homered twice for the Tigers, who also got home runs from Rondell White and Ivan Rodriguez.
Kevin Gregg (5-1) pitched 2 1-3 innings in relief of starter Ramon Ortiz, and got credit for the victory despite giving up Rodriguez's 16th homer and Pena's 17th in the seventh.
Francisco Rodriguez inherited a bases-loaded, one-out jam from Brendan Donnelly in the eighth and got out of it by striking out Ivan Rodriguez and White. Rodriguez finished up with a scoreless ninth for his ninth save in 15 chances.
Chipper Jones homered twice and pinch-hitter Julio Franco had a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning to lead the Atlanta Braves over St. Louis 9-7 Saturday, only the third loss in the Cardinals' last 11 games.
In a matchup of Major League Baseball division leaders, Andruw Jones and Rafael Furcal also homered for the Braves, who opened a season-high eight-game lead over second-place Philadelphia in the NL East. Furcal had four hits.
Albert Pujols homered twice for St. Louis, raising his total to 35 and tying for the major league lead.
St. Louis, 12 1/2 games ahead of second-place Chicago in the NL Central, took a 7-6 lead with an unearned run in the seventh off Antonio Alfonseca (6-4) on an error by Furcal. Ray King (4-2) was the loser, and John Smoltz got four outs for his 29th save.
Cubs 2, Dodgers 0
Wood (7-5) homered, and allowed four hits and struck out seven in eight innings as Chicago won for just the third time in eight games.
He hit his seventh homer in 305 career at-bats in the third inning off Kazuhisa Ishii (11-6), a drive into the left-field bleachers against a 25kph wind. Chicago added a run in the fifth when Michael Barrett tripled leading off and scored on Corey Patterson's two-out single.
Giants 7, Phillies 6
Yorvit Torrealba hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning off former-Giant Felix Rodriguez (4-6).
Cody Ransom, Dustan Mohr and Marquis Grissom also homered for San Francisco, which has won three in a row for the first time in a month. The Giants moved within 6 1/2 games of the Dodgers.
Jason Christiansen (2-2) got two outs in the seventh, and Dustin Hermanson got three out for his second save.
Philadelphia dropped eight games behind Atlanta and 4 1/2 games behind the Cubs.
Pirates 6, Rockies 1
In Pittsburgh, Jose Castillo drove in a career-high three runs to back a wild Oliver Perez, and Pittsburgh beat Colorado.
Other results: Marlins 11, Brewers 1; Mets 4, Diamondbacks 3; Expos 8, Astros 3; Reds 11, Padres 5.
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