Shelley Duncan homered twice, including a three-run drive that capped a 10-run fourth inning in the surging New York Yankees' 21-4 rout of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Sunday.
Alex Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 34th homer and No. 498 of his career. Hideki Matsui, Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano also homered as the Yankees hit six home runs in a game for the first time in two years.
New York had 25 hits, reaching 20 for the second straight game. Matsui tied his regular-season high with five hits and every Yankees starter had a hit, a run and an RBI. Rodriguez pushed his big league-leading RBIs total to 99 in 97 games.
The Yankees took three of four from the Devil Rays, hitting .408 in the series with 49 runs, 62 hits and 11 homers.
Andy Pettitte (6-6) won his 12th straight decision against the Devil Rays.
James Shields (8-6), lost for the sixth time in nine starts, allowing 10 runs, 10 hits and four walks in three innings.
Royals 5, Tigers 2
At Detroit, Brian Bannister allowed four hits in seven innings and Esteban German homered for Kansas City, which went 5-4 on a trip against playoff contenders Boston, Cleveland and Detroit.
The Royals are 6-3 during their last three series in Detroit, starting with the season-ending sweep that cost the Tigers' last year's AL Central title.
Bannister (6-6) gave up one run and four hits in seven innings, struck out three and walked one.
Blue Jays 8, Mariners 0
At Toronto, Roy Halladay threw a three-hitter, Troy Glaus hit a three-run homer and Toronto shut out Seattle for the second straight game.
Halladay (11-4) walked one and struck out three to win for the first time in three starts. It was his ninth career shutout and his first since May 29, 2005.
Aaron Hill and Gregg Zaun added solo blasts for Toronto.
Red Sox 8, White Sox 5
At Boston, Manny Ramirez homered and drove in four runs, Mike Lowell added a three-run shot and Boston outscored Chicago 29-10 in the final three games of the series.
Tim Wakefield (11-9) allowed four runs and six hits in six innings for Boston. He struck out two and walked two.
Angels 7, Twins 2
At Minneapolis, Joe Saunders allowed two runs in seven innings and Garret Anderson snapped a homerless drought for Los Angeles that spanned 14 consecutive games and 134 innings.
Called up to replace Ervin Santana, who was sent down to the minors on Wednesday, Saunders (4-0) allowed six hits and struck out five as the Angels opened a two-game lead on hard-charging Seattle in the AL West.
Orioles 2, Athletics 0
At Oakland, California, Jeremy Guthrie combined with two relievers on a two-hitter and Kevin Millar and Jay Payton hit a run-scoring singles for Baltimore.
Guthrie (6-3) allowed two hits in seven innings, struck out six and walked three. His ERA dropped to 2.88, third in the AL behind Oakland's Dan Haren (2.41) and Johan Santana (2.65).
Indians 8, Rangers 3
At Arlington, Texas, Victor Martinez, Josh Barfield and Jason Michaels drove in two runs apiece to lead Cleveland over Texas.
Barfield went 3-for-4 and scored two runs and Casey Blake also had three hits for Cleveland.
Martinez, an All-Star catcher, made just his 15th start of the season at first base. His RBI single in the fifth put Cleveland ahead 3-0 and ignited a three-run inning. He added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Woody Williams threw eight shutout innings, a series of excellent Houston defensive plays repeatedly frustrated the Pirates and the Astros finally took a series against Pittsburgh by winning 1-0 on Sunday.
Luke Scott, who entered after star rookie center fielder Hunter Pence sprained his right wrist while batting in the fourth, drove in the only run with a two-out single in the sixth.
Shane Youman (2-2), moved up in the Pirates' rotation so the struggling John Van Benschoten could skip a start, limited the Astros to four hits over eight innings but still took the loss.
Marlins 9, Reds 3
At Miami, Dan Uggla broke a tie in the seventh inning with a two-run homer as Florida routed Cincinnati for the third game in succession, outscoring the Reds 30-6 over that span.
Mike Jacobs also hit a two-run homer for the Marlins, who lost shortstop Hanley Ramirez when he partially dislocated his left shoulder on a swing in the first inning.
With the score 2-all, Cody Ross walked to start the seventh against Bronson Arroyo (4-11) and Uggla hit his 19th homer. Florida added another run in the seventh before scoring four times in the eighth.
Nationals 3, Rockies 0
At Washington, Austin Kearns hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning and four Washington pitchers combined on a second consecutive shutout of Colorado.
The Nationals took the lead in the eighth after D'Angelo Jimenez singled to right off Jorge Julio (0-3) with two outs and went to second on a passed ball by Yorvit Torrealba.
Ryan Zimmerman was intentionally walked before Kearns hammered a 1-0 pitch into the left-field mezzanine for his sixth homer.
Brewers 7, Giants 5
At Milwaukee, Ryan Braun and Corey Hart hit first-inning home runs off Barry Zito, leading Milwaukee over San Francisco to avoid a three-game sweep.
Brewers pitchers got through the weekend series without giving up a home run to Barry Bonds, who sat out on Sunday and was expected to resume his pursuit of Hank Aaron's home run record at home in San Francisco yesterday.
Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 0
At Chicago, Yusmeiro Petit pitched six scoreless innings, Chris Snyder homered and Arizona won a road series for the first time in more than a month.
Derrek Lee served the final game of a five-game suspension for Chicago.
Phillies 9, Padres 0
At San Diego, Ryan Howard drove in two runs and J.D. Durbin pitched his first career shutout to help Philadelphia with its third straight.
Shane Victorino drove in three runs, Aaron Rowand added a pair of RBIs and Jimmy Rollins scored three times as the Phillies outscored San Diego 26-8 during the three-game series.
Mets 5, Dodgers 4
At Chavez Ravine, Chip Ambres singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning to help New York take three of four in a series between division leaders.
New York tied the score in the ninth when Matt Kemp allowed Shawn Green's fly to short right to fall for an error as pinch-runner Anderson Hernandez came home from third.
Cardinals 7, Braves 2
At Atlanta, Skip Schumaker hit a two-run home run and Scott Rolen added a three-run homer in the 10th inning to give St. Louis a win over Atlanta.
Schumaker, who entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter, drove an 0-1 pitch from Tyler Yates (2-2) over the right-field fence for his second homer.
Albert Pujols walked following Schumacker's homer and Juan Encarnacion followed with a single, knocking out Yates. Rolen hit his fifth homer off Oscar Villarreal, a drive over the left-field fence.
Jason Isringhausen (4-0) picked up the win with four strikeouts in two perfect innings.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite