Print

Mail

wiki links

White Sox boost lead in AL Central

Puerto Rican Jorge Posada, right, of the Yankees hits a three-run home run on a pitch by John Maine of the Orioles at Yankee Stadium in New York on Tuesday. PHOTO: AFP

Joe Crede hit two home runs, including a game-winning shot leading off the 10th inning, and the Chicago White Sox increased their lead in the American League Central to 3 1/2 games with a 7-6 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday.

Crede turned on a 1-0 pitch from David Riske (3-4), sending it an estimated 422 feet to left for his 19th homer. It was the fifth game-ending homer of Crede's career and his first since last September against Kansas City.

Dustin Hermanson (2-4) pitched a scoreless 10th for the win.

Red Sox 15, Devil Rays 2

At St. Petersburg, Florida, David Ortiz hit his AL-leading 45th and 46th homers and drove in four runs to help Boston hang on to first place in the AL East.

Manny Ramirez also homered twice to drive in three runs and join Ortiz, Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek with four hits for the Red Sox, who remained one-half game in front of the New York Yankees, who beat Baltimore 12-9.

"The standings don't mean anything right now," Kevin Millar said. "You fight until the end and see where the chips lay."

Boston finished with 21 hits and tied an AL record with four players with four apiece. The Red Sox are the first team to accomplish the feat since Minnesota did it against Cleveland in June 2002.

Ortiz hit two-run homers off Seth McClung (6-11) in the first and third innings, giving him home runs in three straight at-bats over two games and his second consecutive four-RBI game against the Devil Rays.

Curt Schilling (7-8) allowed two runs and six hits, struck out seven and walked one in seven innings to improve to 2-3 in six starts since returning to the rotation on Aug. 25. The six-time All-Star gave up a solo homer to Jorge Cantu in the first.

Yankees 12, Orioles 9

At New York, Gary Sheffield hit a grand slam and drove in six runs, Jorge Posada added a three-run homer and New York kept the pressure on in a pair of playoff races with a victory over Baltimore.

Aaron Small (9-0) was not sharp, but didn't need to be to remain unbeaten. The Yankees gave him plenty of early support by scoring four runs in the first and five more in the second, taking advantage of some horrendous Baltimore defense.

The Yankees have won eight of nine and is 24 games above .500 for the first time this season. New York remained a half-game behind first-place Boston in the AL East, and improved to a half-game back of Cleveland in the wild-card race.

Small allowed four runs and 10 hits in five-plus innings, the shortest of his eight starts this season. He became the first pitcher to win his first nine decisions for the Yankees since Tommy John in 1979.

Baltimore rookie John Maine (2-2) didn't get an out in the second inning.

Angels 2, Rangers 1

At Anaheim, Bartolo Colon won his AL-leading 20th game, becoming the first Angels pitcher to reach that mark since Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1974, and Los Angeles defeated Texas.

The Angels won their fourth straight and remained 1.5 games in front of Oakland in the AL West. The Athletics beat Minnesota 8-3.

Colon (20-7) held the Rangers, who had won five in a row, scoreless through 6 2-3 innings. The right-hander gave up one unearned run and four hits, struck out four and walked none in seven innings. Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his 39th save.

Texas' Juan Dominguez (3-5) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings.

Athletics 8, Twins 3

At Oakland, Joe Blanton won his third straight start, Jason Kendall drove in three runs to match his season high and Oakland beat Minnesota.

Mark Ellis added a two-run single for the A's, who remained 1.5 games behind AL West-leading Los Angeles.

Barry Bonds turned jeers to cheers with an upper-deck homer in his 2005 road debut, then drew a walk before Moises Alou's go-ahead, three-run shot in the ninth inning of the San Francisco Giants' 4-3 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.

Bonds hit his 706th homer off Livan Hernandez (15-8) in the fourth inning, and that was the only run the right-hander allowed heading into the ninth. Bonds is third on the career home run list behind Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714).

"Hopefully, I can just hang onto it as long as I can until the end of the season," Bonds said.

"It's amazing to see," said Jack Taschner (2-0), who pitched a scoreless eighth for the win. "Barry comes up, they boo, then Barry hits a home run and they all start cheering. It's amazing. It obviously doesn't affect him very much."

Armando Benitez escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth for his 17th save.

Astros 7, Pirates 4

At Pittsburgh, Andy Pettitte made his shortest start in 2 1/2 months, but still won his seventh in a row and kept Houston in the NL wild-card lead with a victory over Pittsburgh.

The Astros won their sixth in seven games as Brad Ausmus drove in four runs, three on consecutive doubles off left-hander Tom Gorzelanny (0-1), who was making his major league debut.

Pettitte (17-9) never finds it very difficult to beat the last-place Pirates, who, despite their 62-89 record, had won three in a row against Houston -- all by shutout.

Braves 4, Phillies 1

At Atlanta, Jorge Sosa overcame a career-high six walks to pitch 6 2-3 shutout innings and push Atlanta closer to its 14th straight division title.

The Phillies lost ground on two fronts, falling six games behind the Braves in the NL East and two games behind Houston in the wild-card race. Atlanta, on the other hand, reduced to six its magic number for adding another division title to a streak that began in 1991.

Sosa (13-3) won for the fifth time in six starts, solidifying a spot in Atlanta's possible postseason rotation. Rafael Furcal had three hits, scored twice, drove in a run and picked up his career-high 43rd stolen base.

Cory Lidle (11-11) lasted 5 2-3 innings, giving up five hits and two runs.

Mets 3, Marlins 2, 12 innings

At New York, Mike Jacobs delivered a two-out single in the 12th inning, driving in David Wright with the winning run as New York dented Florida's wild-card hopes.

Florida remained third in the wild-card chase, but dropped three games behind Houston.

Wright's two-out double against Brian Moehler (6-10) was the Mets' third hit of the game and their first since the seventh inning. After the Marlins intentionally walked Mike Piazza, Jacobs hit a ball into the right field corner and Wright scored easily.

Aaron Heilman (4-3), the fourth New York pitcher, threw two innings for the win.

Rockies 20, Padres 1

At Denver, Matt Holliday hit two homers and drove in a career-high eight runs as Colorado handed San Diego its most lopsided loss of the season.

Holliday's RBIs tied the franchise record, as did Colorado's 20 runs. The beneficiary of the Rockies' big night was Jamey Wright (8-16), who was recently demoted to the bullpen but got a spot start because of an injury to Kim Byung-hyun.

The loss dropped the first-place Padres to 75-75, five games ahead of San Francisco in the NL West.
This story has been viewed 1686 times.