Sunday, August 26, 2007

Griffey, Dunn lead Reds to 5th straight; Lowell propels Red Sox

American League Boston 14 Chi White Sox 2 - The Red Sox are on cruise control and Mike Lowell (right) is one of the big reasons why. Lowell connected for 4 singles in 6 at-bats, drove in two runs and scored a pair, as Boston hammered the White Sox for the third straight day. Boston took both ends of a double-header - 11-3 and 10-1 on Friday prior to Saturday's drubbing. Lowell leads the team in hits, with 150, and RBI, with 92. His .324 batting average is just .001 shy of David Ortiz' team lead. Lowell's hitting backed Tim Wakefield's 7 shutout innings as the knuckler joined teammate Josh Beckett the majors' only 16-game winners. NY Yankees 7 Detroit 2 - The Yankees remained 6 1/2 behind the Red Sox as Chien-Ming Wang (15-6) kept the Tigers in check for his 15th win. Wang allowed one earned run on five hits over 8 innings of work. Johnny Damon tripled and homered to spark the offense. The Yanks picked up a game on wild card leader Seattle and now trail the Mariners by 2 games. Cleveland 9 Kansas City 4 - Detroit's pain was Cleveland's gain. The Indian's improved their AL Central lead to 2 1/2 games over the Tigers with a drubbing of the Royals. The Indians banged out 17 hits - 9 for extra bases - with 7 of the 9 regulars getting at least 2 knocks. Victor Martinez had two doubles and his 19th home run from 5 at-bats, drove in 2 runs and scored 3 times. Minnesota 8 Baltimore 1 - Almost without notice, the Twins have snuck back into the AL Central fray with their 4th straight win. Torii Hunter smacked a 3 run homer in the 6th inning and drove in another with a double in the 8th. Hunter has 90 RBI on the season. The Twins trail the Indians by 5 1/2. Other AL Scores Oakland 3 Tampa Bay 14 Seattle 3 Texas 5 = Mariners still 1 game back of Angels in AL West Toronto 9 LA Angels 2 National League LA Dodgers 3 NY Mets 4 - The Mets extended their dominance in the NL East as both the Phillies and Braves were losing Saturday. New York has opened a 7-game lead on both as they squeaked by the Dodgers to take the second straight in the 3-game series. Tonight's finale is ESPN's featured game. Atlanta 4 St. Louis 5 - The Cardinals refuse to die, picking up a game on both the Cubs and Brewers in the NL Central race. The Cards ended up just 3 games behind Chicago as they scored all of their runs in the 6th inning, batting around on loser Tim Hudson (15-6). The Cardinal bullpen worked the final five innings, with Jason Isringhausen fanning two in the ninth for his 26th save. Chi Cubs 1 Arizona 3 - The D-Backs kept their slim 2-game lead over San Diego intact with more solid starting pitching, this time from Doug Davis (11-11), who scattered 6 hits over 7 innings while striking out 8. Jose Valverde picked up his 39th save, tops in the majors. San Diego 4 Philadelphia 3 - The Padres kept pace in the West with four homers accounting for all of their runs, and now lead the wild card standings by four games over the Phillies and Braves. Mike Cameron, Milton Bradley and Kevin Kouzmanoff all had solo shots, and pinch hitter Terrmel Sledge's solo slug to center provided the winning margin in the ninth. The Philadelphia bullpen, overworked and under pressure, gave up a lead again, sending the Phillies to their 4th straight loss. The Padres have won 4 straight. Florida 7 Cincinnati 11 - Adam Dunn (left) hit his 36th home run and Ken Griffey Jr. (right) knocked career #591 as the Reds slugged their way to their 5th straight win and are just 7 1/2 games out in the Central division. Over the five game span, the Reds have scored 35 runs, but their average margin of victory is just 2.2 runs per game. A little pitching could put the Reds right in the thick of things. Other NL Scores Pittsburgh 4 Houston 1 Washington 1 Colorado 5 Milwaukee 2 San Francisco 6 - Brewers, 3 straight losses

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