American League
Javier Vazquez pitched the New York Yankees to their second consecutive shutout, and Derek Jeter homered and doubled twice Wednesday in a 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
PHOTO: EPA
"I got my confidence back a little bit," Vazquez said after throwing seven impressive innings in a 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals. "Hopefully, I'll get on a roll now."
Tony Clark also connected for the Yankees. New York stayed four games ahead of Boston in the American League East and had a day off before beginning a three-game series against the Red Sox tonight at Yankee Stadium.
"We've obviously got more work ahead of us," manager Joe Torre said. "Going into the weekend, we feel good about ourselves, and it's just a matter of who's going to play better those games."
Jason Giambi went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his second game back from the disabled list. He is hitless in his last 28 major league at-bats, the longest slump of his career.
Vazquez (14-9) allowed just three hits and four walks, striking out seven for his first win in six starts since beating Toronto 11-4 on Aug. 6. He was 0-3 with a 9.99 ERA in his previous five outings.
Tom Gordon gave up one hit in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera finished the four-hitter for his major league-leading 49th save in 52 chances.
Red Sox 8, Devil Rays 6
In Boston, Manny Ramirez hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly, and Kevin Millar and Mark Bellhorn had two-run homers to lift Boston over Tampa Bay.
The Red Sox, who remained four games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East, avoided losing three straight for the first time since July 2. They began the day with a 4 1/2-game lead over Anaheim in the wild-card race.
With the score tied at 6 in the sixth, Boston loaded the bases with no outs on walks by Doug Mirabelli, Kevin Youkilis and Johnny Damon. One batter later, Ramirez lined out to right, scoring pinch-runner Adam Hyzdu.
Mike Myers (5-1) recorded two outs for the win. Mike Timlin worked a perfect eighth, and Keith Foulke pitched the ninth for his 29th save in 34 chances.
Twins 6, White Sox 1
In Minneapolis, Carlos Silva pitched one-hit ball into the sixth inning before leaving with a bruised right ankle, and Minnesota won its eighth in a row, beating the Chicago White Sox.
Minnesota reduced its magic number to six for clinching the division. The AL Central leader has a 12 1/2-game cushion over second-place Chicago with 17 games left.
Silva (12-8) allowed just one hit through five innings and was tossing his best game of the season when Joe Crede led off the sixth with a hard grounder back to the mound.
The ball caromed off the side of Silva's right leg as he followed through.
Twins coaches and trainer Jim Kahmann came to the mound, and Silva was taken out after some discussion. The pitcher walked off the field without any notice of a limp and was diagnosed with a bruised right ankle.
The Twins also played without manager Ron Gardenhire, who left the Metrodome before the game because of flulike symptoms. Hitting coach Scott Ullger assumed managerial duties.
Indians 5, Tigers 3
In Cleveland, Ben Broussard's two-run double sparked a three-run eighth inning, sending Cleveland past Detroit.
Broussard pulled the first pitch from Esteban Yan (2-4) just inside the first-base bag with two outs to put Cleveland ahead 4-3. Ryan Ludwick followed with an RBI double that was inches fair down the left-field line to make it 5-3.
Bob Howry (2-1) gave up Ivan Rodriguez's 18th homer in the top of the eighth, which gave Detroit a 3-2 lead. Bob Wickman worked the ninth for his ninth save in 10 chances.
With Tigers closer Ugueth Urbina still in Venezuela, where his mother was kidnapped, Yan came on in the eighth and blew his eighth save in 11 chances.
Blue Jays 3, Orioles 0
In Toronto, Ted Lilly pitched eight scoreless innings, and Toronto ended a four-game losing skid with a win over Baltimore.
The Orioles' Matt Riley took a one-hopper off his jaw and collapsed after his second pitch of the game. Riley (1-4) laid on the mound for a few minutes, but stayed in the game, allowing two hits and seven walks in seven innings.
Lilly (11-10) won consecutive decisions for the first time since June 8. The All-Star left-hander allowed six hits, struck out six and walked two.
Rangers 10, Athletics 3
In Oakland, California, Mark Teixeira hit a three-run homer off Mark Mulder as Texas beat Oakland for the second time in three nights.
Hank Blalock had a homer and a two-run double, and Alfonso Soriano also homered and drove in two runs for the Rangers.
The Rangers' playoff hopes seemed dead last week, but they moved within four games of the A's, who remained two games ahead of second-place Anaheim.
With extra security officers seated near the Texas bullpen after Monday's chair-throwing incident, the Rangers won for the fifth time in six games.
Reliever Frank Francisco, who made his initial court appearance earlier in the day after police booked him on a charge of felony aggravated assault, was booed loudly by the Coliseum crowd when he walked alone to the bullpen midway through the seventh inning.
Ryan Drese (13-8) allowed nine hits and three walks over six innings.
Mariners 1, Angels 0
In Seattle, Ryan Franklin ended an 11-game losing streak, outpitching John Lackey to lead Seattle over Anaheim.
Franklin (4-15), who hadn't won in 17 starts since June 5, tied a career best by allowing just two hits. He walked two and struck out four while throwing his second career shutout and third complete game.
The Angels fell 5 1/2 games behind Boston in the American League wild-card race.
Lackey (12-12) pitched 7 2-3 innings, allowing one run on five hits and two walks. He struck out a career-high 10.
National League
Barry Bonds missed his 700th homer, but J.T. Snow connected after yet another walk to the San Francisco slugger as the Giants beat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-1 behind Brett Tomko's four-hitter on Wednesday.
Bonds went 0-for-4 with a first-inning flyout to the right-field warning track, leaving him at 699 home runs.
"He missed his one shot today," Giants manager Felipe Alou said.
Snow had a two-run double and Deivi Cruz also homered for San Francisco to back Tomko (10-6), who won his fifth straight and kept the Giants a half-game ahead of the Chicago Cubs in the National League wild-card race.
Bonds reached on an error in the ninth inning, disappointing the small crowd of 22,228 that cheered wildly when Edgardo Alfonzo drew a two-out walk. Bonds took a big cut at a 3-0 pitch from right-hander Pedro Liriano, and the ball went through first baseman Lyle Overbay's legs.
Bonds is one shot short of joining Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in the 700-homer club. He almost did it in his first at-bat, sending the first pitch from Wes Obermueller (5-8) to the warning track in right field, where Brady Clark caught it a few feet in front of the wall.
"That was the best pitch I gave him all night and he about got it but got under it too much," Obermueller said. "I sat there and watched that and was just like, `Please come down. Please come down.'"
Cubs 13, Pirates 5
In Chicago, Sammy Sosa hit his first grand slam in more than two years to lead Chicago to a rout of Pittsburgh.
Sosa also had a solo shot as the Cubs hit three straight home runs in the first inning. Derrek Lee, Sosa and Michael Barrett connected in succession, and Neifi Perez added a two-run shot in the sixth as the Cubs took advantage of a shaky outing by Oliver Perez (10-9).
The left-hander, who had allowed three earned runs or fewer in all but two of his previous 17 starts, gave up 10 hits -- four homers -- and six runs in 5 2-3 innings. He also walked four and struck out five.
Lee's homer was his 30th of the season, giving the Cubs four players -- Lee, Sosa, Moises Alou and Aramis Ramirez -- with 30 homers or more.
Expos 6, Marlins 2, 1st game; Expos 10, Marlins 4, 2nd game
In Miami, Tony Batista and Val Pascucci hit three-run homers to lift Montreal to a doubleheader sweep of Florida.
Brad Wilkerson hit his ninth leadoff homer of the season in Montreal's victory in the first game, which featured Brian Schneider getting picked off by Mike Lowell's hidden ball trick.
The Expos jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Nate Bump (2-4) in the first inning of the second game. Ryan Church, who hit his first career home run in the first game, had an RBI single before Pascucci hit his first career homer.
Batista's three-run homer came during a five-run fourth. Montreal had 27 hits in the doubleheader.
Phillies 9, Reds 1
In Cincinnati, Brett Myers pitched six solid innings and drove in the go-ahead run, helping Philadelphia salvage the finale of a three-game series with Cincinnati.
Pat Burrell hit his 23rd homer in the sixth, his second of the series, then added an RBI single in the eighth to help the Phillies avoid being swept in a three-game series in Cincinnati for the first time since Aug. 6, 1995. Jason Michaels added four hits.
Myers (9-9) matched his season high with five walks, but he gave up only one run and four hits. Rheal Cormier, Tim Worrell and Billy Wagner combined for three hitless innings to finish it.
Cardinals 4, Astros 2
In St. Louis, Jim Edmonds' sacrifice fly snapped an eighth-inning tie and Matt Morris bounced back from one of his worst starts of the season, bringing St. Louis one step closer to the NL Central championship with a victory over Houston.
Edmonds also hit his 42nd homer, matching his career best set in 2000. The Cardinals have won only three of eight, but reduced their magic number for clinching the division to four.
Diamondbacks 3, Rockies 2
In Phoenix, Randy Johnson broke Steve Carlton's major league record for strikeouts by a left-hander, fanning 11 to lead Arizona past Colorado.
Johnson pitched eight strong innings and finished the night with 4,139 strikeouts, passing Carlton (4,136) for third overall on the career list behind only Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Roger Clemens (4,287).
The Big Unit struck out Castilla in the seventh for No. 4,137.
Braves 2, Mets 0
In New York, manager Art Howe and the listless New York Mets lost for the 21st time in 25 games, with John Thomson pitching Atlanta to a win on a drizzly evening.
The Mets fired Howe hours earlier, making the move effective at the end of the season. He was given his choice of whether to stay for the final 17 games -- general manager Jim Duquette asked him to remain and Howe agreed.
Atlanta cut its magic number to 10 for clinching its 13th straight division title.
Padres 7, Dodgers 3
In Los Angeles, Brian Lawrence settled down after a shaky start to pitch six solid innings, and Brian Giles had three hits including a tiebreaking homer.
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