Ken Griffey Jr capped his Seattle homecoming with two home runs, passing Mark McGwire for seventh place on the major league career list in the Cincinnati Reds' 3-2 loss to the Mariners on Sunday.
Griffey connected off Miguel Batista for his 583rd and 584th home runs to pass McGwire.
Ben Broussard hit a two-out, two-run double off Bronson Arroyo in the sixth inning to tie the score and Willie Bloomquist executed a perfect suicide squeeze in the seventh to put Seattle ahead.
PHOTO: AP
Eric O'Flaherty (4-0) pitched a scoreless seventh to get the win and J.J. Putz got four outs for his 21st save in 21 chances.
Arroyo (2-9) lost his seventh consecutive decision despite allowing three runs or fewer for the fourth time in the skid.
Devil Rays 9, Dodgers 4
At St. Petersburg, Florida, Edwin Jackson beat his old team for his first win in almost two years, leading Tampa Bay to victory.
Jackson (1-8), acquired by Tampa Bay from Los Angeles in a five-player deal in January 2006, allowed two runs and nine hits over six innings in stopping a franchise record-tying eight-decision losing streak to begin a season.
Ty Wigginton homered off Kuo Hong-chih (
Giants 7, Yankees 2
At San Francisco, Barry Bonds scored twice on sacrifice flies, Noah Lowry (7-6) pitched two-hit ball into the sixth inning and San Francisco beat Mike Mussina (3-5).
Rogers Clemens walked Bonds on five pitches and allowed Nate Schierholtz's sacrifice fly while pitching the seventh inning -- his first regular-season relief appearance since he was a rookie with the Boston Red Sox 23 years ago. He left with the Yankees trailing 4-1.
Red Sox 4, Padres 2
At San Diego, starter Josh Beckett became MLB's first 11-game winner and Boston worked over Jake Peavy to beat San Diego in a matchup of two of the game's top pitchers.
Jason Varitek tripled and homered for the American League East leaders, who took two of three from the Padres.
Blue Jays 5, Rockies 0
At Toronto, Dustin McGowan's bid for the second no-hitter in Blue Jays history ended when Jeff Baker singled leading off the ninth inning, and Toronto beat Colorado to complete a three-game sweep.
McGowan lost his chance at the majors' third no-hitter this season when Baker lined an 0-1 pitch up the middle for a base hit.
Twins 7, Marlins 4
At Miami, Johan Santana allowed one earned run in six innings and drove in a run with his first career triple to help Minnesota get the win.
Joe Mauer hit two homers for the Twins.
Santana (8-6), pitching in Miami for the first time, struck out eight and lowered his ERA to 2.83. He departed with a 7-2 lead after throwing 97 pitches.
Angels 4, Pirates 3, 10 innings
At Anaheim, California, Erick Aybar singled home the winning run in the 10th inning and Jose Molina had two RBIs, leading Los Angeles to a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh.
The AL West leaders won their fourth straight. The Pirates have lost five in a row, matching their longest skid this season.
Mets 10, Athletics 2
At New York, John Maine pitched seven solid innings and New York finished off its first series sweep at home since last August.
Jose Valentin had three hits, including a three-run homer, and Damion Easley hit a two-run double for New York. Jose Reyes added three hits and an RBI.
Maine (8-4) allowed two runs and five hits.
Cubs 3, White Sox 0
At Chicago, the Cubs' Alfonso Soriano showed off his power and his arm as the Cubs completed their first three-game sweep at US Cellular Field.
Soriano cut down a runner at the plate in the fifth with a strong throw and then hit his third homer of the interleague series in the seventh -- also his 15th of the season and 11th this month.
Nationals 3, Indians 1
At Washington, Jason Simontacchi shut down Cleveland for six innings and Jesus Flores drove in two runs.
Ronnie Belliard went 3-for-3 and Dmitri Young scored twice for Washington, which took two of three in the series.
Jake Westbrook came off the disabled list and pitched seven solid innings for Cleveland in his first start since May 2.
Royals 4, Brewers 3
At Milwaukee, Joey Gathright's bases-loaded walk in the 11th inning off Chris Spurling lifted Kansas City to the win.
The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th against Jose Capellan (0-2). John Buck walked, Tony Pena singled, and Emil Brown walked.
Spurling got David DeJesus to line out, but Gathright walked on five pitches to make it 4-3.
Tigers 5, Braves 0
At Atlanta, Andrew Miller threw six sharp innings and Detroit won its seventh straight game -- all on the road against National League teams.
The AL Central-leading Tigers finished 14-4 in interleague games, tying the LA Angels for the best mark in the majors.
Astros 12, Rangers 9
At Arlington, Texas, Craig Biggio's 2,996th career hit was a tiebreaking RBI double in the 10th inning, helping Houston avoid a series sweep.
After the Astros bullpen blew another save -- allowing six runs in the eighth and ninth innings -- Biggio's double scored Morgan Ensberg, who led off the 10th with a single off C.J. Wilson (0-1). Biggio scored on a single by Lance Berkman.
Shane Victorino had a pinch-hit, three-run double to break a tie with two outs in the eighth inning to lift the Philadelphia Phillies over the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 in the National League on Sunday.
Brian Sanches (1-0) pitched two near-pefect innings in his third appearance of the season.
Brad Thompson (5-3) pitched a perfect seventh in relief before allowing two hits and intentionally walking Ryan Howard to load the bases in the eighth. Randy Flores came in relief and gave up Victorino's first pinch-hit of the season.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier