Ichiro Suzuki hit a three-run homer in a five-run second inning as the Seattle Mariners beat the New York Yankees 8-3 Tuesday.
New York, 1-1 on a seven-game trip, dropped 2 1/2 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. The Yankees, who overcame a four-run deficit against the last-place Mariners in Monday's 7-4 win, lead Cleveland by half-game in the wild-card race and are one game in front of the Los Angeles Angels.
Richie Sexson scored the game's first run with a headfirst slide on Chacon's wild pitch. Yorvit Torrealba followed with an RBI grounder, and Suzuki homered for the second straight night and 15th time this season.
PHOTO: AP
Yankees pitcher Shawn Chacon said Suzuki's homer that made the score 5-0 did him in. He said he threw a changeup on a 3-1 pitch.
"I didn't get the pitch where I wanted to," Chacon said. "It wasn't that bad of a pitch, but he's a great hitter."
RED SOX 7, TAMPA BAY 6
Boston rallied from a five-run deficit and beat Tampa Bay 7-6 when Trot Nixon singled in the winning run with two outs in the ninth on Tuesday.
Making his first start at Fenway Park since April, Curt Schilling gave up five runs in the first two innings before settling down with four scoreless innings.
Boston trailed 5-0 after two innings and 6-4 in the eighth before tying it on Bill Mueller's RBI groundout and John Olerud's pinch-single.
There was one out in the ninth when David Ortiz was walked by Joe Borowski (1-1) and took third on Manny Ramirez's single off Danys Baez. Jason Varitek drew a walk and Johnny Damon hit a liner to right that was too hard for Ortiz to score.
Nixon followed with a similar shot, a little shallower, and it fell in for a single.
Mike Timlin (6-2) pitched one inning of perfect relief.
Julio Lugo, Carl Crawford and Jorge Cantu each had three hits for the Devil Rays.
Rangers 8, White Sox 6, Game 1
White Sox 8, Rangers 0, Game 2
At Arlington, Texas, Brandon McCarthy pitched two-hit ball over 7 2-3 innings for his first major league win and Jermaine Dye had two homers and six RBIs as Chicago salvaged the doubleheader split.
McCarthy (1-1) was called up from Triple-A Charlotte earlier in the day to make his sixth major league start. He held the Rangers hitless over the first 4 1-3 innings until Alfonso Soriano's double.
In the first game, rookie left-hander C.J. Wilson allowed one run and two hits in five innings of relief for his first major league win and Mark Teixeira drove in six runs and hit two two-run homers off 16-game winner Jon Garland.
Losses in the previous two games by the White Sox top starters -- Garland and Mark Buehrle -- left Chicago with 11 defeats in a 16-game span.
Bobby Jenks pitched 1 1-3 innings to finish the White Sox's eighth shutout of the season.
Dye had the 10th multihomer game of his career and first of the season while matching his career high for RBIs.
Chicago, which snapped a three-game losing streak, built a 3-0 lead after two innings against Edison Volquez (0-1) in his first major league start.
Athletics 2, Angels 1, 11 innings
At Anaheim, California, Bobby Kielty homered leading off the 11th inning to carry Oakland to its seventh straight win over Los Angeles.
Kielty's eighth homer, off Francisco Rodriguez (2-4), helped the A's move a season-high two games ahead of the Angels in the American League West.
Oakland won in extra innings for the second straight day and is 10-3 in extra-inning games this season. The Angels have lost five in a row.
Oakland's Barry Zito and Los Angeles' Bartolo Colon each allowed just one run over the first nine innings. Colon even pitched into the 10th, yielding to Rodriguez with a runner on third and one out.
Kiko Calero (4-1) pitched the 10th inning to get the win, then Huston Street pitched the 11th for his 18th save.
Ramon Castro capped a comeback with a three-run homer in the eighth inning and New York beat Philadelphia 6-4 on Tuesday.
The Phillies (70-62) fell into a tie with Florida, which beat St. Louis 7-6, in the National League wild-card race. The Mets and Houston (both 69-62) are a half-game back.
"Playing from behind, winning games, that's good for us," said Castro. "We always feel confident. Playing from behind, that's a big part of the game."
The Mets had trailed from the start after Kenny Lofton hit his first home run since opening day and Pat Burrell added a two-run shot in the first inning against Mets starter Jae Seo.
Carlos Beltran drove in two runs for the Mets with his 14th home run and a fifth-inning single.
Philadelphia led 4-2 in the seventh when Castro led off with a double against reliever Ryan Madson. The Mets loaded the bases on a hit batsman and a walk before Madson's wild pitch allowed Castro to score.
In the eighth, David Wright opened with a walk against reliever Ugueth Urbina (3-2). Victor Diaz also walked and Castro followed with his sixth homer.
Juan Padilla (1-0) got the victory and Braden Looper worked the ninth for his 28th save.
Nationals 3, Braves 2
At Atlanta, rookie Jason Bergmann earned his first major league win, leading a Washington bullpen that pitched 6 1-3 shutout innings.
After Washington starter John Patterson was limited to 2 2-3 innings by stomach cramps, Bergmann (1-0) pitched two shutout innings in his second major league appearance. Hector Carrasco also pitched two shutout innings and Gary Majewski gave up two hits but no runs in 1 1-3 innings. Chad Cordero worked the ninth for his 42nd save.
The Braves lead Philadelphia and Florida by 4 1/2 games in the NL East.
Atlanta got two runs off Patterson in the third.
Jose led off the fourth inning with his 24th homer off Jorge Sosa (9-3).
Cubs 6, Dodgers 3
At Chicago, Nomar Garciaparra hit a solo home run and drove in two runs to back Mark Prior.
Henry Blanco hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the sixth inning and had three RBIs for the Cubs, who won for the third time in 10 games.
Prior (10-5) allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings, struck out seven and walked none. Ryan Dempster pitched the ninth for his 20th save.
Jeff Kent and Mike Edwards hit solo homers for the Dodgers, who had won their previous three games. Brad Penny (6-9) gave up five runs and eight hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Mark Bellhorn switched sides on Tuesday, signing with the New York Yankees after winning the World Series with the Boston Red Sox last season.
The infielder was put on unconditional release waivers by Boston on Friday after he refused to accept a minor league assignment. He had been designated for assignment on Aug. 19.
Bellhorn played a pivotal role in Boston's comeback against the Yankees in last year's American League Championship Series, hitting a three-run homer in Game 6 and a solo shot in Game 7 to help the Red Sox become the first major league team to overcome a 3-0 series deficit. He also homered in Game 1 of Boston's World Series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
But this season, the strikeout prone second baseman hit just .216 with 109 strikeouts in 283 at-bats. He went on the disabled list with a sprained left thumb on July 18, a day after getting hurt while diving for Jason Giambi's grounder at Fenway Park, and missed the next 28 games.
The Yankees moved Carl Pavano from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL to make room for Bellhorn.
After slugging 27 homers for the Chicago Cubs in 2002, Bellhorn hit just .221 in 2003 during stops in Chicago and Colorado. The Red Sox -- who highly valued his ability to draw walks -- picked him up on the cheap for a player to be named that offseason and planned to platoon him with Pokey Reese at second base.
Bellhorn rebounded with a series of career highs in 2004: A .264 batting average, 82 RBIs, 93 runs and 88 walks -- good for third in the AL. He also hit 17 homers and posted a .373 on-base percentage.
He followed that up with three homers in Boston's run to the city's first world championship in 86 years. He batted .500 in the World Series sweep.
The eight-year veteran has a .238 career average with a .350 on-base percentage while playing for Oakland, Chicago, Colorado and Boston.
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