Bengie Molina hit a solo home run and Ervin Santana pitched 6 2-3 strong innings to help Los Angeles clinch the American League West title with a 4-3 victory over Oakland on Tuesday.
Los Angeles won Monday's opener 4-3, then came back from an early one-run deficit Tuesday to eliminate the A's from postseason contention.
Santana (11-8) allowed seven hits and struck out seven in winning his third straight start as the Angels reached the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time in franchise history.
Juan Rivera added an RBI double, Robb Quinlan singled in a run and Chone Figgins had an RBI single as the Angels won the fifth division title in club history with their 10th win in 11 games.
Francisco Rodriguez allowed a leadoff homer to Marco Scutaro in the ninth but earned his 16th straight save and 43rd overall.
Joe Kennedy (3-5) lasted only 3 2-3 innings.
Orioles 17, Yankees 9
At Baltimore, Jay Gibbons and Javy Lopez homered to help Baltimore end a nine-game losing streak and keep New York and Boston tied for first place in the AL East.
Gary Sheffield hit two homers and six-RBIs for New York in the game that lasted 4 hours, 16 minutes.
New York's third loss in 16 games, combined with Boston's split of a day-night doubleheader with Toronto, left them tied with five games left, including a three-game series at Fenway Park to close the regular season.
The Red Sox and Yankees are tied at 92-65 with Cleveland in the wild-card standings.
The Yankees trailed 5-1 before Sheffield hit a two-run homer in the third inning. He put New York ahead 7-5 in the fourth with his 11th career grand slam.
Red Sox 3, Blue Jays 1, Game 1
Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 5, Game 2
At Boston, Russ Adams hit a sacrifice fly to break an eighth-inning tie as Toronto rallied to win the second game of the doubleheader with Toronto.
Tim Wakefield (16-11) pitched seven strong innings to give Boston a 3-1 victory in the day game. But the loss in the nightcap kept the Red Sox tied for first in the AL East with New York.
Frank Catalanotto had four hits, and Adams had two hits to go with sacrifice flies in the eighth and ninth innings to snap Boston's four-game winning streak. Jason Frasor (3-5) struck out two in 1 1-3 innings as five relievers combined for 5 2-3 innings of scoreless relief. Miguel Batista got two outs for his 31st save.
Boston led 3-0 and 5-2 before the Blue Jays tied it in the seventh.
Curt Schilling allowed five runs and 10 hits in 6 1-3 innings for his third consecutive no-decision. Edgar Renteria had five hits on the day, and David Ortiz had three RBIs to bring his major league-leading total to 143.
Devil Rays 5, Indians 4
At Cleveland, Scott Kazmir held Cleveland to one run in six innings and Julio Lugo hit a three-run homer to lead Tampa Bay and prevent Cleveland from gaining ground on Chicago in the AL Central.
Former Indians pitcher Danys Baez got his 40th save by getting Ronnie Belliard to hit into a game-ending double play with the tying run on third, handing Cleveland consecutive losses for the first time since Sept. 3-4.
The loss kept the Indians two games behind the first-place White Sox, who lost their second straight to Detroit. Cleveland is tied with Boston and New York for the wild-card lead.
Tigers 3, White Sox 2
At Detroit, Omar Infante and Craig Monroe homered and Detroit beat first-place Chicago.
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