AMERICAN LEAGUE
REUTERS AND AP, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, AND ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
Clete Thomas homered twice and Justin Verlander won his sixth game of the season as the Detroit Tigers ended the Baltimore Orioles’ five-game winning streak with a 6-3 victory on Saturday.
PHOTO: AP
Thomas staked the American League Central Division-leading Tigers to a 2-0 lead with a solo homer in the third inning and broke a 3-3 tie with a seventh-inning home run. He drove in another run with a double in the eighth to go 3-for-5.
“I don’t think I’ve [homered twice] in professional ball,” Thomas told reporters.
“I’ve done it in amateur ball. [The power] is there. It’s just a matter of getting it to show up. It showed up tonight.”
Curtis Granderson also homered for Detroit and Magglio Ordonez had three hits.
Verlander (6-2) pitched six innings, giving up nine hits and three runs. He struck out five and walked one.
“It wasn’t easy out there for me tonight, but my guys picked me up,” Verlander said. “I gave [Thomas] a big, hard high-five. Obviously, that [Thomas’s homers] was the pivotal point in the game.”
Four relievers held the Orioles without a run for the remainder of the game.
Baltimore (23-27), in last place in the AL East, came back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the score on Luke Scott’s two-run homer in the sixth.
However, the Orioles collected only two hits in the remaining three innings.
Prized rookie catcher Matt Wieters had a triple in the fifth and a double in the sixth for Baltimore, who failed to capitalize on either. He had gone 0-for-4 in his Major League debut Friday.
“I don’t think I ever envisioned a triple as my first hit,” Wieters said. “I felt like I hit it well, but Granderson almost made a great play on it.”
Granderson said the ball, hit into deep center field, hit his glove but he could not catch it.
“It was twilight, so it was kind of tough to see it [the ball] and when I got to the [center field] wall, I finally picked it up,” the Tigers outfielder said. “It hit me and the wall at the same time.”
Jeremy Guthrie started for the Orioles and struck out 10 in six innings. The loss went to Matt Albers (0-2) who gave up three runs in one and a third innings.
RAYS 5, TWINS 2
David Price struck out 11 batters to earn his first regular-season win in the majors and Evan Longoria got his 55th RBI of the season to help Tampa Bay beat Minnesota.
Price (1-0), who started the season at Triple-A Durham and was recalled last Monday, gave up one run, five hits and two walks over five-and-two-third innings in first start at Tropicana Field. The first overall pick in the 2007 amateur draft was the winner out of the bullpen in Game 2 and picked up the Game 7 save in last year’s AL championship series against Boston.
YANKEES 10, INDIANS 5
At Cleveland, Ohio, CC Sabathia won in his return to Cleveland as New York got home runs from Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher in a victory over the Indians.
Sabathia (5-3) didn’t allow a hit until the fifth and worked seven strong innings to beat his former team for the first time since signing a US$161 million, seven-year contract with New York as a free agent in December.
The left-hander is 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in his last five starts.
He allowed three runs, five hits and three walks, striking out eight.
Robinson Cano drove in three runs, while Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon had two RBIs apiece.
In other AL action it was:
• Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 3
• White Sox 5, Royals 3
• Rangers 14, Athletics 1
• Mariners 4, Angels 3
In NL action it was:
• Cubs 7, Dodgers 0
• Marlins 7, Mets 3
• D’backs 3, Braves 2, 11 inns
• Pirates 7, Astros 4
• Brewers 9, Reds 5
• Phillies 9, Nationals 6
• Rockies 8, Padres 7
• Cardinals 6, Giants 2
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