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.
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.
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