Hunter, White homer on consecutive pitches to lead Twins past Indians
CLEVELAND (AP) – Torii Hunter and Rondell White homered on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning to help the surging Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians 9-4 Thursday night and pull within one game of first place. The Twins’ sixth victory in seven tries moved them two games ahead of the Chicago White Sox in the wild-card race and one game behind the faltering Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. The last time Minnesota was within one game of first place was the second day of the season, April 5.
Hunter drove in four runs and finished with three hits, and White also had three hits. The win gave the Twins a lift one day after they learned that rookie sensation Francisco Liriano is done for the season because of an injury to his pitching arm.
General manager Terry Ryan said an MRI showed no structural damage to Liriano’s left elbow, but added the Twins will be ultraconservative with the rookie, who went 12-3 with a 2.19 ERA.
Jesse Crain (4-5) yielded a tying, three-run homer to Andy Marte in the sixth, but worked 1 1-3 innings for the win.
Angels 2, Rangers 1
ARLINGTON, Texas – Jose Molina’s two-run homer in the fifth inning was enough offense for Los Angeles to beat Texas.
The Angels won for the ninth time in 12 games to move within five games of AL West-leading Oakland. Seven of their last 10 games are against the Athletics.
The Angels and Rangers played for the first time since Aug. 16, when there were three hit batters, a bench-clearing brawl and four ejections at the end of a contentious series between the AL West rivals. Both managers and five players (three Angels, two Rangers) were suspended the following day.
This time, Rangers leadoff hitter Gary Matthews Jr. was hit in the upper leg by a pitch from Kelvim Escobar in the first inning. But there were no other pitches that came close to hitting batters.
Yankees 7, Devil Rays 4
NEW YORK – Robinson Cano hit a tiebreaking double in the seventh that sent New York over Tampa Bay.
The Yankees won their season-high sixth in a row and cut their magic number to six for clinching their ninth consecutive AL East title.
Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to 23 games, Hideki Matsui lined his first home run since missing more than 100 games because of a broken left wrist and Alex Rodriguez had a two-run single.
Rocco Baldelli homered twice and tripled for the Devil Rays in their fourth straight loss. Tampa Bay dropped to 2-25 on the road since July 1.
Red Sox 6, Orioles 5
BALTIMORE – Mark Loretta singled home the tiebreaking run in the ninth inning and Boston took advantage of nine walks in a comeback victory over Baltimore.
Boston trailed 5-3 before scoring single runs in the seventh and eighth. The Red Sox then took the lead in the ninth against Rodrigo Lopez (9-16).
Keith Foulke (3-1) worked the eighth and Mike Timlin escaped a first-and-third jam in the ninth for his fifth save. Timlin gave up a leadoff double to Melvin Mora but got Ramon Hernandez to ground into a game-ending double play.
David Ortiz walked four times and scored twice for the Red Sox, who took two of three from Baltimore to take a 13-2 lead in the season series.
Royals 10, Mariners 8
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Ryan Shealy homered twice and drove in a career-high five runs to lead Kansas City past Seattle.
Esteban German went 3-for-5 and drove in three runs for the Royals, who gave Buddy Bell his 100th victory as Royals manager and guaranteed a better finish than their 56-106 record in 2005. If they win six of their remaining 15 games, they will avoid a third straight 100-loss season.
The last franchise with triple-digit losses for three consecutive years was Toronto from 1977-79.
Shealy hit a two-run homer in the third off starter Jarrod Washburn (8-14) and a three-run shot against Emiliano Fruto in the fifth that put the Royals up 7-5. It was the first multihomer game of his career.
Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs for the Mariners, but also hurt them with some overzealous baserunning. Adrian Beltre also had a homer and three RBIs.
Odalis Perez (2-3) won despite a shaky start.