AL: Yanks beat Jays for seventh straight win
NEW YORK (AP) – Curtis Granderson drove in three runs with a pair of doubles, Brett Gardner hit a run-scoring triple and scored three times, and the New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-3 on Friday to match a season high with their seventh straight victory. Mark Teixeira had an RBI double for the AL East leaders, who chased Brandon Morrow (10-7) after three innings, ending his five-game winning streak.
Morrow allowed five earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts and three walks.
Kerry Wood (3-4) came on in the seventh and retired all five batters he faced to get the win, and Mariano Rivera worked a perfect ninth.
Travis Snider hit a solo homer for Toronto, which leads the majors with 203 home runs.
Rays 4, Orioles 1
BALTIMORE (AP) – Matt Garza pitched into the sixth inning to earn his 14th win and Carl Crawford had three hits and an RBI for Tampa Bay.
The Rays stayed 1 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East and extended their wild-card lead over Boston to seven games. Tampa Bay has won five of six and nine of 12.
Garza (14-7) gave up one run and five hits in 5 2-3 innings. It was an extension of an outstanding August in which he had a 1.27 ERA over five starts.
Rafael Soriano worked the ninth for his major league-leading 41st save.
Kevin Millwood (3-15) allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings for Baltimore.
Twins 4, Rangers 3
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Denard Span delivered the go-ahead single in the seventh inning and emergency starter Matt Fox pitched 5 2-3 innings in his major league debut for Minnesota.
Fox allowed two runs and four hits, giving the Twins’ staff a major boost after scheduled starter Nick Blackburn was forced to pitch in Thursday’s 13-inning loss to Detroit.
Alex Burnett (2-2), who arrived with Fox from Triple-A earlier Friday, allowed a run in 1 1-3 innings. Matt Capps recorded five outs for his eighth save with the Twins.
The Rangers went ahead in the seventh on Julio Borbon’s squeeze. Rangers starter Derek Holland (2-3) was unable to hold the lead.
J.J. Hardy tied it with an RBI single and Span put the Twins ahead with an RBI single.
Tigers 9, Royals 5, 11 innings
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Will Rhymes hit a two-run triple in a four-run 11th inning to lift the Detroit Tigers to a 9-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.
Rhymes’ triple to right-center field off Jesse Chavez (2-3), the sixth Royals pitcher, scored Alex Avila, who had singled, and Casper Wells, who reached on a Josh Fields error. After Johnny Damon walked, Ryan Raburn singled to right to score Rhymes. Austin Jackson’s suicide squeeze bunt scored Damon with the final run.
Ryan Perry (3-5) picked up the victory with two perfect innings.