Yankees squeeze out 3-2 win over Orioles
NEW YORK (AP) – Nick Swisher hit a two-run homer off Koji Uehara in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday to give New York a 3-2 victory over Baltimore. With the Orioles closing in on their first three-game sweep in the Bronx since 1986, Alex Rodriguez opened the ninth with a single on the first pitch from Uehara (1-1). Robinson Cano flied out and Swisher drove a 2-0 pitch to the opposite field, into Baltimore’s bullpen in left-center.
It was Swisher’s 26th homer this season and his third career game-ending shot.
Matt Wieters hit a two-run homer for Baltimore.
Joba Chamberlain (3-4) struck out two in a hitless ninth.
Red Sox 11, Rays 5
BOSTON – Tim Wakefield became the oldest pitcher to win for Boston, which backed the 44-year-old knuckleballer with five home runs.
Marco Scutaro hit two homers and Adrian Beltre, David Ortiz and Victor Martinez also connected. Four of the homers were off Matt Garza (14-8).
Wakefield (4-10) surpassed Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, who was 43 when he got his last win for the Red Sox.
The Rays dropped to 2 1/2 games behind the AL East-leading Yankees. Boston is nine games behind New York.
Wakefield allowed five runs, six hits and four walks in five innings.
B.J. Upton hit a three-run homer for Tampa Bay.
Garza gave up nine hits and six runs in 4 1-3 innings.
Rangers 8, Blue Jays 1
TORONTO – Ian Kinsler led off the game with a home run, Derek Holland won for the first time since mid-May and AL West-leading Texas stopped its losing streak at five games.
Nelson Cruz also homered for Texas, which had lost seven straight to the Blue Jays since a victory on opening day.
Kinsler hit the 13th leadoff home run of his career and first this season. Cruz launched a two-run drive off the center-field restaurant in the ninth, his 17th.
Jeff Francoeur added three hits for the Rangers.
Holland (3-3) left after five scoreless innings. He gave up only three singles and struck out eight.
Marc Rzepczynski (1-4) is winless in five starts.
Twins 4, Royals 3
MINNEAPOLIS – Brian Duensing allowed one run and struck out seven over eight innings and Minnesota continued an impressive run of success against Kansas City ace Zack Greinke to complete a three-game sweep.
Duensing (8-2) allowed six hits and dropped his ERA to 2.02. J.J. Hardy homered and Denard Span added a two-run triple for the Twins, who have won six straight games to take a 5 1/2-game lead over Chicago in the AL Central.
Greinke (8-12) fell to 0-4 with an 8.18 ERA against the Twins this season. He allowed four runs and five hits with four strikeouts and three walks in eight innings.
The Royals scored twice in the ninth off Matt Capps, but he got pinch-hitter Mitch Maier to fly out for his 11th save.
Duensing, who was moved from the bullpen to the rotation on July 23 to take the place of the struggling Nick Blackburn, has allowed one earned run or fewer in four of his last five starts.
Tigers 5, White Sox 1
DETROIT – Jeremy Bonderman pitched eight strong innings for Detroit.
Chicago entered the game with a seven-game winning streak, but has been outscored 14-2 by the Tigers over the last two nights, including seven unearned runs.
Bonderman (8-9) allowed one run and three hits. He struck out eight and walked one.
John Danks (13-10) pitched six innings for the White Sox, yielding five runs, two earned, and eight hits.
Bonderman retired the first 10 batters of the game before Omar Vizquel broke the scoreless tie with his second homer of the season.
Detroit responded with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of third baseman Mark Teahen’s second error of the game.
Phillies 10, Marlins 6
PHILADELPHIA – Ryan Howard had six RBIs and the Philadelphia Phillies backed Cole Hamels with a rare burst of the run support he had been missing most of the season in a win over the Florida Marlins.
Howard hit his 28th homer of the season and the NL East-leading Phillies had a season-high 18 hits.
Hamels (10-10) tossed four-hit ball over seven innings and extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 25. He struck out five and won his third straight start.
His record would be well over .500 if not for receiving the fourth-lowest run support (3.18 runs per start) of any starter this season entering the game.
Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins left with tightness in his right hamstring. He is day-to-day.
Gaby Sanchez hit a three-run homer for the Marlins as part of a six-run eighth off Nate Robertson.
Florida left-hander Andrew Miller (1-1) gave up seven runs and 11 hits in four innings.
Brewers 8, Cardinals 1
MILWAUKEE – Ryan Braun hit a three-run homer and Milwaukee roughed up St. Louis rookie Jaime Garcia.
Albert Pujols hit his 36th homer in the first for the Cardinals, but that was the only run Chris Capuano (3-3) allowed over seven innings.
Garcia (13-7) had been looking for his fourth straight win. Instead, he gave up a career-high seven runs as his ERA rose to 2.69.
The Cardinals began the day six games behind Cincinnati in the NL Central. The Reds played later at Colorado.
Capuano yielded four hits in his longest outing since 2007 after missing the last two seasons because of his second Tommy John surgery.
Astros 4, Cubs 0
CHICAGO – Brett Myers struck out eight in seven crisp innings and Hunter Pence homered, leading Houston to the victory.
Myers (11-7) allowed three hits and walked one, improving to 10-3 with a 2.21 ERA in 17 career games against the Cubs. The right-hander is 3-0 with a 1.76 ERA in his last six starts overall.
Myers has lasted at least six innings in all 29 of his starts – the longest streak in team history and longest in the majors since Curt Schilling’s run of 35 straight for Arizona in 2002.
Surging Houston, which won for the 13th time in 17 games, took all five series against the Cubs this season.
Randy Wells (6-13) allowed four runs and nine hits in six innings for Chicago.
Mets 3, Nationals 2
WASHINGTON – Pinch-hitter Nick Evans delivered a tiebreaking double in the seventh inning, rewarding R.A. Dickey for an effective start and helping the Mets get the victory.
Josh Thole led off the Mets seventh with a walk against Livan Hernandez (9-11) and moved to second on Ruben Tejada’s sacrifice. After Lucas Duda was announced as a pinch hitter, Sean Burnett relieved and the Mets countered with Evans, who grounded a broken-bat double past the reach of first baseman Adam Dunn to make it 3-2.
Dickey (10-6) yielded two runs and five hits in six innings. Hisanori Takahashi worked the ninth for his fifth save.
Wilson Ramos hit his first major league homer for the Nationals.