Torii Hunter hit an RBI triple in the fourth inning and added a two-run double in a four-run sixth to help chase Justin Verlander, lifting Los Angeles to a 6-2 win over Detroit
Erick Aybar also drove in three runs, helping Anaheim win the three-game series.
The Angels have won 10 of 14, giving them a league-high 16 wins to keep pace with the Oakland Athletics in the AL West.
PHOTO: AP
Verlander (1-4) gave up six runs, seven hits and four walks in five-and-two-third innings, coming off his first win. He has allowed four runs or more in five of his six starts.
Rays 3, Red Sox 0
In St. Petersburg, Florida, James Shields threw a two-hitter for his first career shutout, Evan Longoria homered off Josh Beckett and Tampa Bay completed its first three-game sweep of the Red Sox.
Tampa Bay has won six straight for its longest winning streak since a six-game run from July 28 to Aug. 3, 2005. The Rays (14-11) are three games over .500 for the first time since starting the season 3-0 in 2002. It’s also the latest in the season the Rays have ever been three games above .500.
Athletics 4, Mariners 2
Emil Brown had a broken-bat, two-run single in Oakland’s four-run eighth inning in Seattle.
Seattle starter Felix Hernandez cruised through seven innings, giving up just four hits and striking out 10. Hernandez (2-1) walked Jack Hannahan on a 3-2 pitch to open the inning as the Safeco Field roof slowly closed with a light rain falling. Mark Ellis then doubled and Daric Barton walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases, and Brown dumped a single into left that ended Hernandez’s day.
Rangers 10, Twins 0
In Arlington, Texas, Vicente Padilla threw a seven-hitter for his third career shutout and Milton Bradley hit a three-run homer for Texas.
Blue Jays 5, Royals 2
In Kansas City, Missouri, Scott Rolen homered and drove in two runs, Alex Rios collected four hits and scored three times and Toronto ended a six-game losing streak.
White Sox 6, Orioles 1
In Chicago, Paul Konerko homered twice and Jose Contreras pitched six-and-two-third innings to lead the White Sox to the win.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, SAN DIEGO
Brandon Webb outpitched Jake Peavy in a battle of the last two NL Cy Young Award winners, leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
Webb (6-0), the 2006 Cy Young winner, allowed just one unearned run and twice escaped bases-loaded jams before leaving after six innings. He became the first six-game winner in Major League Baseball and lowered his ERA to 1.98.
Chris Snyder, who was pulled from the starting lineup on Saturday because of the flu, hit a two-out home run in the second after Peavy walked Stephen Drew.
It was Snyder’s first home run since Sept. 16.
Mets 6, Braves 3
In New York, Carlos Delgado turned boos into a standing ovation with his first two-homer game in almost a year, leading the Mets to the win.
New York knocked out John Smoltz after four innings in his first shaky outing of the season and got a three-hit game from backup catcher Raul Casanova.
Delgado came into the game in a 3-for-34 slump and hadn’t homered since April 8.
He went 2-for-2 with two walks and turned in his first two-homer game since May 29 against the San Francisco Giants.
Dodgers 3, Rockies 2, 10 innings
In Los Angeles, James Loney singled home the winning run in the 10th inning, and the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep.
It’s the first three-game winning streak of the season for Los Angeles under new manager Joe Torre, who used his 24th different lineup in 25 games.
In other games it was:
• Pirates 5, Phillies 1
• Cardinals 5, Astros 1
• Marlins 3, Brewers 2, 10 innings
• Nationals 2, Cubs 0
• Reds 10, Giants 1
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