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Red Sox share lead in AL East

Edgar Renteria drove in two runs with a broken-bat single in the ninth inning, and the Boston Red Sox regained a share of first place in the American League East by defeating the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 Saturday.

After Trot Nixon and Tony Graffanino hit one-out singles off B.J. Ryan (1-4), Johnny Damon drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases for Renteria, who blooped a single to left that broke a 2-2 tie.

Jonathan Papelbon (2-1) worked the eighth, and Mike Timlin gave up an RBI double to Jay Gibbons with two outs in the ninth before retiring Javy Lopez on a flyout to deep right for his 11th save, his second in two games.

Boston is tied with the New York Yankees tied for the division lead at 90-64 with eight games left.

Melvin Mora homered for the Orioles, who have lost seven straight. Baltimore stranded 11 runners, twice leaving the bases loaded and twice failing to bring home runners from second and third.

Blue Jays 7, Yankees 4

At New York, bruised by a line drive again, Jaret Wright (5-4) was ineffective and Toronto ended New York's five-game winning streak.

Left fielder Hideki Matsui and second baseman Robinson Cano made costly errors for the Yankees, who lost for only the second time in 13 games.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 46th homer and drove in three runs for the Yankees.

Angels 7, Devil Rays 3

At Anaheim, California, Steve Finley hit a three-run homer in the second off Doug Waechter (5-11) and Jarrod Washburn (8-8) won for the first time in a month by allowing two runs -- both in the first -- and six hits in six innings.

Los Angeles which leads second-place Oakland by four games.

Indians 11, Royals 4

At Kansas City, Jhonny Peralta, Ronnie Belliard, Grady Sizemore and Coco Crisp homered as Cleveland beat Kansas City to win for the 17th time in 19 games.

The Indians hold a 1 1/2-game lead over New York and Boston in the wild-card race and remained 1 1/2 games behind Chicago in the AL Central.

Ezequiel Astacio, starting in place of the injured Roger Clemens, allowed four hits in six innings and the Houston Astros increased their lead in the National League wild-card race with an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

Craig Biggio matched his career high with his 24th homer, a solo shot in the first inning, and drove in another run, and Lance Berkman also homered.

It was the ninth win in 11 games for Houston, which extended its lead to two games over Philadelphia in the wild-card race. The Astros also moved five games ahead of Florida.

Nomar Garciaparra hit a two-run homer for the Cubs, who were officially eliminated with the loss. Carlos Zambrano (14-6) gave up six runs and nine hits in 6 1-3 innings, snapping his career-best, six-game winning streak.

Reds 3, Phillies 2

In Cincinnati, Philadelphia was unable to overcome a three-run deficit and lost to Cincinnati, falling two games behind Houston in the NL wild-card race.

Eric Milton (8-14) rebounded from the shortest start of his eight-year career to beat his former team, and Adam Dunn backed him up with a two-run homer.

The Phillies scored a run in the seventh and another in the eighth to get within one run, but David Weathers pitched a perfect ninth as Philadelphia had its three-game winning streak snapped.

Weathers blew a four-run lead against the Phillies on Friday, but bounced back to earn his 15th save in 19 opportunities.
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