Burnett, Jays Dump ChiSox; Delgado Homers Lead Mets

Players of the Day from Tuesday, September 9, 2008 American League A. J. Burnett (17-10) shut down the White Sox on one hit over 7 innings, allowing just one unearned run, as the Blue Jays won their 9th straight, 3-1, over Chicago. Burnett, the AL strikeout leader with 208, struck out 7 and walked one in the first of two against Central division leader Chicago. In the second game, Marco Scutaro, Vernon Wells and Scott Rolen each homered and the Blue Jays distanced the White Sox by an 8-2 score. The Blue Jays have now won 10 straight and are becoming involved in the AL divisional and wild card races. The double kill on Chicago left the Jays 8 1/2 behind Tampa Bay in the East and 7 behind Boston for the wild card. Tampa topped Boston, 5-4, to up their division lead to 1 1/2 games. The Jays' wins were especially helpful to the Twins, who gained 1 1/2 on the White Sox and are just one game out of first place in the Central. Notes: Alex Rodriguez hit his 33rd home run and had 3 RBI to help the Yankees defeat LA, 7-1. The Angels' magic number remained at 2 as the Rangers beat Seattle, 7-3. Rodriguez has 95 RBI. Rodriguez needs 2 RBI to reach 1600 for his career and 5 to reach 100 for the 11th consecutive season. National League Carlos Delgado smacked his 34th and 35th home runs, drove in 3 runs and scored 3 times as the Mets outlasted the Nationals, 10-8. Coupled with Philly's 10-8 loss to the Marlins, the Mets improved their edge in the East to 2 1/2 games. Notes: In the Central, the Cubs and Brewers both lost, so the lead remains 4 1/2 games for Chicago. In the West, the Dodgers won for the 9th time in their last 10 outings, topping the Padres, 6-2, while the Diamondbacks were losing their second straight to the Giants and 5th straight overall, 5-4. That gave LA a 2 1/2 game lead in the division. The race in the West may well be over. LA doesn't face another contending team for the remainder of their season. Following their series wrap-up on Wednesday with the Padres, the rest of the games are against Colorado (3), San Fran (6), San Diego (3) and Pittsburgh (4).