Guillen slams Yanks; Cards sweep Brewers

American League Detroit 8 NY Yankees 5 - For the Yankees, now comes the hard part. After going 25-10 since the All-Star game, with all but three of those games against either Toronto, Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Chicago and Kansas City (the other three were a sweep of Cleveland), the Bombers began a string of 14 games against upper-eschelon teams Detroit, Los Angeles and Boston with a loss to the Tigers. While the Yankees picked up a lot of ground on the Red Sox and in the wild card race during their span against some of the league's bottom-feeders, finishing the deal may not be so easy. Things started out badly for the Yankees, as starter Mike Mussina only got one out in the first inning before surrendering a grand slam to Detroit's Carlos Guillen (right) Mussina wasn't entirely to blame, however, as Alex Rodriguez misplayed what could have been an inning-ending double play grounder, leading to a runners on first and second. It went downhill from there, as the Tigers scored two more in the 2nd, and the Yankees were never in it after that. Justin Verlander (13-4) didn't pitch all that well but picked up the win, which vaulted the Tigers into first place in the Central division, 1/2 ahead of Cleveland. New York fell to 5 1/2 behind Boston and 1/2 back of Seattle in the wild card race. LA Angels 4 Toronto 3 - Kelvim Escobar (13-6) allowed just one run over 7 solid innings, but Francisco Rodriguez had an adventuresome 9th inning, allowing two runs in earning his 20th save. The Angels stretched their lead over Seattle to 3 1/2 games in the West Other AL Scores Chi White Sox 5 Oakland 8, 10 innings - Chicago, 5 straight losses Kansas City 6 Texas 2 National League St. Louis 8 Milwaukee 0 - Adam Wainwright allowed just 2 hits and struck out 8 over 7 innings as the Cardinals completed their sweep of the slipping Brewers. The Cards, still two games under .500 (58-60) are now 2 1/2 back of Milwaukee in baseball's weakest division. Yadier Molina led the offensive attack, going 3-3 with a pair of homers, scoring three times with 3 RBI. Troy Percival, an interesting addition to the Cardinals' bullpen, gave up one hit while fanning two in the ninth. Percival, who missed half of 2005 and all of 2006, has 22 Ks in 21 innings with the Cards. From the mid-90s through 2005, Percival was one of the most dominating closers in baseball, racking up 324 saves. Cincinnati 4 Chi Cubs 12 - The Cubs won for just the 5th time in their last 15 games to draw within 1/2-game of the Brewers. Chicago got a career-best 5-for-5 efforts from Mark DeRosa (right), who doubled and singled four times, driving in 4 runs. The Cubs' struggles of late can largely be tied to the absence of leadoff man Alfonso Soriano, who was last seen pulling up lame in an 8-3 loss to the Mets on August 5. The Cubs have scored three runs or less in 7 of their last 10 losses. NY Mets 7 Pittsburgh 10 - Pitching is not the Mets' strong suit and it proved to be their undoing as the Pirates overcame deficits of 5-0 and 7-4, scoring in each of the 4th through 8th innings, finally putting the Mets away with 3 in the 8th. Philadelphia 4 Washington 2 - The only winner from the NL East on Thursday, the Phillies leapfrogged over Atlanta into second place... again, and now trail the Mets by 3 games.

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With a 4-game series with the division leaders looming (Aug. 27-30, at Philly), the Phils will have another shot at the Mets, against whom they are 5-7 this season, and first place. Philly will host the Dodgers and Padres in consecutive 3-game series just prior to the division showdown. The Phillies are at Pittsburgh for a 3-game set this weekend while the Mets travel to Washington. Colorado 9 San Diego 11 - The chase continues in the NL West. The Padres scored 9 times in the 5th inning to stay 3 games back of Arizona and put some space between themselves and 3rd place Colorado. The Rockies are now 6 games out after dropping two of three to the Padres. Other NL Scores Arizona 5 Florida 4 San Francisco 9 Atlanta 3 Houston 2 LA Dodgers 6