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Lieber and Yankees rally to overcome the Red Sox

Starter Jon Lieber of the Yankees pitches to the Red Sox during the first inning at Yankee Stadium in New York, Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Jon Lieber no-hit the Red Sox until David Ortiz's two-out home run in the seventh inning as the New York Yankees roughed up Derek Lowe in a 14-4 win Saturday that stopped Boston's momentum.

Jorge Posada hit a two-run single in a five-run first inning and later hit a solo homer, Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer and Bernie Williams had a home run and three RBIs as the Yankees restored their AL East lead to 3 1/2 games.

"To come back and win this game was very important," Gary Sheffield said.

Lieber (12-8) improved to 5-1 this year following Yankees' losses and won for the fourth time in five decisions. He allowed just one runner in the first six innings against the highest-scoring team in the majors, on a third-inning walk to Doug Mientkiewicz. With New York leading 13-0 and the crowd roaring with every out in anticipation of something special, Ortiz sent a two-out pitch deep over the fence in left.

Dave Roberts added a two-run, ninth-inning homer off Lieber, who allowed four hits in 8 1-3 innings before Scott Proctor allowed an RBI double to Doug Mirabelli.

"Obviously, it was a major letdown," Lowe said.

Lowe (14-12) allowed eight of 11 batters to reach, losing his second straight start after winning five consecutive decisions. He left after he was hit on the lower right leg by a Rodriguez comebacker, and was charged with seven runs -- six earned -- in one inning-plus, his shortest outing since July 3, 1997. X-rays were negative.

Orioles 12, Twins 3

In Minneapolis, Miguel Tejada homered twice and drove in five runs, and rookie Daniel Cabrera threw six strong innings for Baltimore's win over Minnesota.

After winning nine straight games, the Twins have been outscored 23-5 in two games by the Orioles -- keeping the celebration of their third consecutive AL Central title on hold for a bit. Minnesota's magic number to clinch remained at three before the second-place Chicago White Sox hosted the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.

Athletics 7, Mariners 4

In Seattle, Tim Hudson beat the Seattle Mariners for the third time this season and Eric Chavez hit his 29th homer for Oakland, which moved two games ahead of Anaheim in the AL West.

Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-5 with his 200th single. He has 236 hits this season, 21 from tying the season record set. Suzuki broke the major league mark for singles in a season Friday.

White Sox 9, Tigers 8, 12 innings

In Chicago, Joe Borchard scored from second base on Aaron Rowand's infield single in the 12th inning to give Chicago a victory over Detroit.

Borchard and Rowand each hit two-run homers in the 10th inning after Dmitri Young and Carlos Pena hit two-run shots in the top half to give Detroit an 8-4 lead.

With one out in the 12th, Borchard was walked by Al Levine (3-4) and advanced to second on a groundout. Rowand then hit a grounder to third baseman Brandon Inge and just beat the throw to first for a hit.

Borchard never stopped running and scored without a throw when Pena turned to question first base umpire Jeff Nelson's call of safe.

Damaso Marte (5-5) pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings for the win.

The St. Louis Cardinals became the first major league team to clinch a playoff spot this season, winning the NL Central for the third time in five seasons.

A few hours after the Cardinals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-0 Saturday, the playoff berth was clinched when San Francisco lost to San Diego 5-1. When the Chicago Cubs lost 6-5 at Cincinnati, the division title was assured.

St. Louis (97-50) can only be matched in the division by the Cubs (81-65), who lost the season series with the Cardinals 11-8. In addition, the Giants' loss meant that the second-place teams in both the NL East and NL West will have 96 wins or fewer.

Because of that, if the Cardinals and the Cubs were to finish in a tie, both would be guaranteed playoff berths. Under baseball's rules, St. Louis would be awarded the division title because it won the season series.

Chris Carpenter left with an injury in the fourth inning, but four relievers helped St. Louis complete a six-hitter.

Carpenter appeared to have been hurt making a throw to first on Danny Bautista's grounder for the first out in the fourth. He left after the next batter, Shea Hillenbrand, singled.

Padres 5, Giants 1

In San Francisco, Barry Bonds added another home run to his impressive total a day after hitting career homer No. 700, but San Diego's Jay Payton hit a tiebreaking three-run shot in the seventh to lead the Padres past the Giants.

Bonds led off the second inning with a solo homer to right-center on the first pitch he saw from Padres left-hander David Wells (12-7), the 43rd homer of the season for the six-time NL MVP.

Bonds also struck out in the fourth, grounded out in the seventh and struck out in the ninth.

Payton homered off Jason Schmidt (16-7), who has only one win in his last six starts.

Trevor Hoffman got the final out with a runner on first and second for his 39th save, passing Dennis Eckersley for third place on the career saves list with 391.

Rockies 8, Dodgers 1

In Denver, Joe Kennedy pitched seven innings of four-hit ball and had a two-run triple in a five-run seventh, helping Colorado beat LA.

Los Angeles managed just five hits and has lost five of seven to see its lead over the Giants shrink from six games just a week ago.

Todd Helton was 4-for-5 and is 7-for-9 in two games since an 0-for-11 slump, Choo Freeman had a two-run single in the seventh inning and Colorado had 16 hits to end a four-game losing streak.

Kennedy (9-6) walked six, and stranded runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings before giving up Jose Hernandez's 12th homer, a solo shot in the fourth.

Kennedy left after allowing one run in his final start before beginning a five-game suspension for an altercation Aug. 15 with Pittsburgh's Jason Kendall.
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