Torii Hunter and Rondell White homered on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning to help the surging Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians 9-4 on Thursday night and pull within one game of first place.
The Twins' sixth victory in seven tries moved them two games ahead of the Chicago White Sox in the wild-card race and one game behind the faltering Detroit Tigers in the American League Central. The last time Minnesota was within one game of first place was the second day of the season, April 5.
Hunter drove in four runs and finished with three hits, and White also had three hits. The win gave the Twins a lift one day after they learned that rookie sensation Francisco Liriano is done for the season because of an injury to his pitching arm.
General manager Terry Ryan said an MRI showed no structural damage to Liriano's left elbow, but added the Twins will be ultraconservative with the rookie, who went 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA.
Jesse Crain (4-5) yielded a tying, three-run homer to Andy Marte in the sixth, but worked 1 1-3 innings for the win.
Nick Punto put the Twins ahead, 5-4, with a sacrifice fly in the seventh off Jason Davis (3-2).
Yankees 7, Devil Rays 4
At New York, Robinson Cano hit a tiebreaking double in the seventh that sent New York over Tampa Bay.
The Yankees won their season-high sixth in a row and cut their magic number to six for clinching their ninth consecutive AL East title.
Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to 23 games, Hideki Matsui lined his first home run since missing more than 100 games because of a broken left wrist and Alex Rodriguez had a two-run single.
Rocco Baldelli homered twice and tripled for the Devil Rays in their fourth straight loss. Tampa Bay dropped to 2-25 on the road since July 1.
With light rain falling and showers in the forecast, Yankees manager Joe Torre scratched starter Wang Chien-ming (
Darrell Rasner (2-0) pitched four scoreless innings of one-hit ball for the win.
Ruddy Lugo (2-3) took the loss.
Angels 2, Rangers 1
At Arlington, Texas, Jose Molina's two-run homer in the fifth inning was enough offense for Los Angeles to beat Texas.
Red Sox 6, Orioles 5
At Baltimore, Mark Loretta singled home the tiebreaking run in the ninth inning and Boston took advantage of nine walks in a comeback victory over Baltimore.
Royals 10, Mariners 8
At Kansas City, Missouri, Ryan Shealy homered twice and drove in a career-high five runs to lead Kansas City past Seattle.
RSS