American LeagueAlex Rodriguez hit two more homers and drove in five runs, and Darrell Rasner pitched six impressive innings for his first major league win to lead the New York Yankees past the Minnesota Twins 10-1 on Sunday.
Bobby Abreu doubled three times, and Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano added three hits apiece for the American League East-leading Yankees, who took two of three games from Minnesota in a possible playoff preview. New York leads Boston by a season-high nine games in the division.
Rodriguez hit a solo shot off Matt Garza (1-4) in the fifth and a three-run drive off Pat Neshek in the seventh, reaching 30 homers and 100 RBIs for the ninth straight season. Jimmie Foxx is the only player with a longer streak, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He did it for 12 straight years from 1929 to 1940.
PHOTO: AP
Torii Hunter homered for the Twins, who dropped to 2-13 in the last 15 games at Yankee Stadium and trail Minnesota by a half-game in the AL wild-card race.
Rasner (1-0) allowed four hits and walked none in his second big league start -- and first for the Yankees.
Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 1
PHOTO: AP
At Boston, Gustavo Chacin kept Boston's bats quiet with six shutout innings, and Bengie Molina had four hits for Toronto.
Chacin (7-3) allowed two singles, one day after A.J. Burnett pitched a three-hitter in a 5-1 victory. Boston dropped two of three to the Blue Jays, totaling 10 runs and 24 hits, and lost for the 16th time in 21 games. The Red Sox scored three runs or less for the 10th time in 11 games.
Royals 7, White Sox 3
PHOTO: AP
At Kansas City, Missouri, Ryan Shealy and Angel Berroa each homered and drove in three runs, and Mark Redman pitched seven strong innings for Kansas City.
Paul Konerko and Jim Thome homered for Chicago, which maintained its half-game lead over Minnesota in the AL wild-card standings.
Athletics 10, Orioles 1
At Oakland, California, Dan Johnson hit a grand slam in his first official at-bat back from the minors and Oakland gave Hayden Penn a rude welcome in his return to the majors, scoring nine runs in the first inning.
Rangers 5, Indians 2
At Arlington, Texas, Kevin Millwood allowed two hits and struck out a season-high 10 in eight innings, and Mark Teixeira hit a three-run homer in the seventh as Texas ended Cleveland's five-game winning streak.
Devil Rays 7, Mariners 6
At St. Petersburg, Florida, Kevin Witt hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning, leading Tampa Bay past Seattle.
Angels 2, Tigers 1
At Detroit, Kelvim Escobar (10-12) gave up only an unearned run and two hits in eight innings for Los Angeles. Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his 38th save, extending his scoreless streak to 24-1/3 innings over 24 outings.
National League
Ryan Howard homered in his first three at-bats, raising his major league-leading total to 52, and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied after wasting a five-run lead to beat the Atlanta Braves 8-7 in the opener of their second straight doubleheader split on Sunday.
Atlanta kept Howard from going deep in the second game, winning 3-1 in 11 innings after scoring the go-ahead run on catcher Carlos Ruiz's throwing error. The Phillies, who won Saturday's nightcap, dropped to 1.5 games back of San Diego, the NL wild-card leader.
Howard's 50th home run was a solo shot in the second inning, and he followed with a two-run drive in the third. His third homer was an opposite-field, solo shot to left in the sixth that made it 6-1.
After going 4-for-4 with four RBIs in the opener, he was 2-for-4 with a walk in the second game. Howard combined with Albert Pujols of St. Louis to became the first pair of players to homer three times on the same day since Pujols and Cleveland's Travis Hafner did it on July 20, 2004, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It marked the first time a duo did it in the first three plate appearances since Cincinnati's Johnny Bench and Atlanta's Orlando Cepeda -- a pair of Hall of Famers -- on July 26, 1970.
Geoff Geary (7-1), who won the opener, allowed Scott Thorman's double leading off the 11th in the second game. Ruiz threw Pete Orr's sacrifice bunt into left field, allowing pinch-runner Tony Pena to score, and Orr came in on Geary's wild pitch.
Chad Paronto (2-2) pitched a scoreless 10th and Bob Wickman pitched the 11th for his 12th save.
Philadelphia led 6-3 in the ninth in the opener, but Fabio Castro allowed a go-ahead, three-run, opposite-field homer to right by Matt Diaz. Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino hit RBI singles off Wickman (0-1) in the bottom half.
Astros 2, Mets 1
At Houston, Roy Oswalt (11-8) retired his first 18 batters before Jose Reyes beat out a bouncer to shortstop leading off the seventh. Oswalt struck out nine and allowed three hits in 7-1/3 innings.
Adam Everett put Houston ahead with a run-scoring squeeze bunt in the sixth and Jason Lane hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Cardinals 6, Pirates 3
At St. Louis, Albert Pujols homered in his first three at-bats to end an 8-for-38 slump. Pujols connected with the bases empty in the first, and hit two-run drives in the third and fifth, all off Pittsburgh's Ian Snell (12-9).
Marlins 10, Brewers 3
At Milwaukee, rookie Scott Olsen (12-7) allowed one hit in seven scoreless innings as Florida (68-68) completed a three-game sweep and became the first team since the 1899 Louisville Colonels to return to .500 after falling 20 games below, according to Elias. The Marlins were 11-31 on May 21.
Nationals 5, Diamondbacks 3
At Washington, Austin Kearns hit a two-run double off Brandon Webb (14-6) in a four-run eighth.
Washington became the first team to win four in a row when trailing by two runs in the seventh or later in all four since the New York Giants against the Phillies and Boston Braves from June 25-28, 1923.
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