American League
Boston 3 Baltimore 2 -
Josh Beckett (right) won for the fifth time in his last six decisions, improving to 18-6 while dropping his ERA down to 3.27 with a 7-hit, 2-run performance over 7 innings. Beckett, the leading candidate in the AL for the Cy Young Award, struck out 8 without walking a batter. His BB/K ratio is 4.81, having allowed only 36 free passes while punching out 173 batters in 181 2/3 innings.
NY Yankees 6 Kansas City 3 - For the 5th straight game,
Alex Rodriguez homered and the Yankees won.
Chien-Ming Wang won his 18th against 6 losses to keep New York within 5 1/2 of the 1st-place Red Sox. Rodriguez continues in quite a groove, even for him, stroking his 52nd home run in the first inning with Bobby Abreu aboard, his 7th home run and 10th RBI in the past 5 outings.
Wang's win was his fifth straight and 8th in his last 9 decisions. The Yankees also cemented their lead in the wild card standings, now 4 up on Detroit.
Seattle 14 Detroit 7 - You want hits? The Seattle Mariners banged out 19 of them, sending Detroit starter Jeremy Bonderman to the showers after only 1 1/3 innings, knocking him around for 7 hits and 6 earned runs.
Ichiro Suzuki went 3-4 and scored 4 times, but still trails
Magglio Ordonez in the AL batting race.
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Suzuki is at .351, while Ordonez went 2-4 and drove in three runs, keeping his lead with a .355 average.
The win for Seattle ended a four-game losing streak and got them to within 5 games of the Yankees in the wild card. Detroit remains a game better, 4 behind the Yankees and 6 back of Cleveland in the AL Central.
Cleveland 6 LA Angels 2 - The Indians erupted for 5 4th-inning runs off Angels' starter
Jered Weaver, highlighted by
Ryan Garko's 3-run blast, which gave the Indians an insurmountable lead and a 2-2 split in the series matching likely playoff teams. Despite the loss, the Angels have the biggest lead in the majors, 8 games to the good over Seattle in the West, and the best home record, 49-25.
Other AL Scores
Toronto 2 Tampa Bay 3
Minnesota 5 Chi White Sox 2
Oakland 9 Texas 12
National League
Houston 1 NY Mets 4 - The Mets took another step toward the NL East title, as
Pedro Martinez (right) blanked the Astros on 6 hits over 5 innings for his second win without a loss. Martinez is returning from a long stint on the DL, but has solidified the Mets' starting rotation with two quality outings. New York won for the 8th time in their last 10 outings and retained their 6-game bulge over Philly.
Florida 5 Philadelphia 8 -
Pat Burrell slugged his 27th home run and drove in two as the Phillies continue to dog the Padres in the wild card race. San Diego's lead is now down to just 2 games with 20 left to play.
St. Louis 5 Arizona 6 - The Diamondbacks won their 5th straight, sweeping the Cardinals in their 3-game series. Arizona improved their lead in the West over San Diego to 3 games as the Padres took one on the chin in Colorado.
Milwaukee 10 Cincinnati 5 - After giving up an early 9 1/2-game lead in the NL Central, the Brewers have battled back and regained first place in the division. The Brewers took little time to establish a lead over the Reds, as the first three hitters -
Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun all homered off starter Phil Dumatrait, who pitched to five batters without getting an out before being lifted. Hardy added a pair of doubles. Weeks and Braun each hit another homer in the rout.
Braun, the leading candidate for NL Rookie of the Year, has 30 homers and 79 RBI. The Brewers took a one-game lead over the Cubs in the division. St. Louis is 3 back.
Other NL Scores
Washington 7 Atlanta 4
Chi Cubs 5 Pittsburgh 10
San Diego 2 Colorado 4
LA Dodgers 2 San Francisco 4
On Friday night, Chien-Ming Wang become the first pitcher in the American League to win 6 games, outdueling Seattle's Erik Bedard for a 5-1 Yankee victory. Wang worked six innings, allowing just 3 hits and a pair of walks while striking out five. The only run came in the 6th, when Ichiro Suzuki singled, stole second and third (he had 3 steals on the night) and scooted home on Raul Ibanez's ground out to second.
Wang, 6-0, has easily been the brightest spot for the Yankees thus far in the season. He's pitched at least 6 innings in all but one start, and has recorded victories in 6 of 7 outings. In 45 innings, he's only allowed one home run and is carrying an ERA of 3.00 to go with a 1.13 WHIP.
Notes: In the hotly contested AL East, the Red Sox reclaimed the lead with a 7-3 win over Tampa. They lead the Rays and O's (4-3 winners at LA) by one game.
National League
Rafael Furcal singled twice, smacked a three-run homer in a 7-run Dodger 6th inning, scored twice and tallied 4 RBI in five at-bats, as the Dodgers won their seventh straight last night and closed the gap on NL West leader Arizona to 4 games with an 11-6 conquest of the Rockies in Denver.
Furcal, LA's exceptional leadoff man, is second in the NL with a .380 batting average. His 30 runs and 46 hits lead the majors.
Notes: The Arizona Diamondbacks are the only team in the majors with less than 10 losses. Their 7-2 loss at NY was their 9th of the year, against 20 wins. They have lost 2 of their last 3. Last night the D-Backs were victimized by Jose Reyes, who went 4-for-5 with a double and two triples, stole a base and scored three times.
NY Mets 10 Philadelphia 11 - Chase Utley (right) knocked in Tadahito Iguchi from 2nd base in the bottom of the 9th inning to complete the Phillies' 4-game sweep of the Mets and close to within 2 games of first place in the NL East. Pat Burrell homered twice and Aaron Rowand and Ryan Howard also left the yard. For Howard, his 1st inning 2-run shot was his 36th and boosted his NL-best RBI total to 110.
Milwaukee 4 Chi Cubs 5 - The Cubs took the rubber game of their 3-game series with Milwaukee and moved ahead by 2 1/2 games in the NL Central.
Texas shortstop Michael Young (right) doubled home 2 runs in the 3rd inning, singled in another in the 6th and punched out a 2-run homer in the 8th to lead the Rangers to an 11-4 laugher over Roy Halladay and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays. Halladay, who was seeking his 100th career win, was pounded mercilessly by the Texas hitters, who roughed him up for 12 hits and 9 earned runs over 5 1/3 innings, the shortest outing for Halladay this season. It was Toronto's 5th straight loss and sent them to the LA East cellar. Young, who hit .331 in 2005 and .314 last year, has been flirting with .200 most of this season, but his 3-5 performance may be a sign of more good things to come.
Chien-Ming Wang worked a perfect game into the 8th inning as the Yankees rolled to an 8-1 decision over the visiting Mariners. Wang gave up an 8th inning home run to Ben Broussard and a harmless single to Jose Guillen and finished with a 2-hitter over 8 innings with 4 Ks and no walks for his 1st win of the season 
Houston rookie Matt Albers (right) shut out the Cardinals on 3 hits over 7 1/3 innings as the Astros put St. Louis into a 13-0 black hole and last place in the NL Central. Albers, whose last outing was only 2 1/3 innings in a 11-2 home loss to Cincy, rebounded to even his record at 1-1 with his first major league win. The Astros provided the Houston native with plenty of support at the plate. Mark Loretta went 4-5; Carlos Lee plated 3 to keep him tied for the NL RBI lead at 28 and rookie center fielder Hunter Pence made his first major league home run a memorable one, knocking it out to center field with the bases full in the 8th inning.
The Cardinals fell to 11-17 and are 3-7 over their last 10. The Cards are struggling in the worst ways, 4-10 at home, and 0-5 outside the division. Even Albert Pujols, who entered Saturday's game with a 12-game hitting streak, went 0-4.
Barry Bonds cracked career home run #744 Saturday to help the Giants defeat the visiting (and slumping) Philadelphia Phillies (4-6 over their last 10 games), 9-4. Bond's homer was his 10th of the season, tying him with Atlanta's Chipper Jones for the NL lead.
Do not adjust your set: Speaking of the slipping Phillies, any cognizant baseball fan must have had a chuckle over the FOX promo for next Saturday's featured MLB telecast - the Cubs at Philly - with the endorsement, "Ryan Howard leads the Phillies..." Apparently, both the game and the promo were set long ago and nobody at the network bothered to look at the stats. Howard, last season's NL MVP (and a formidable power hitter when he's right), is currently batting below .200, has a paltry 4 home runs and 17 RBI, and leads the Phillies with 37 whiffs. Meanwhile, the Cubs' Derrek Lee is hitting .416 and the Cubs have won 4 straight. Apparently, baseball isn't a priority at the American Idol network.
J. J. Hardy busted a 3-run homer in the 8th inning to give the Milwaukee Brewers a 6-3 win over visiting Pittsburgh and remain 5 games ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central. The blast was Hardy's 8th of the season and his 4 RBI put him within 2 of the NL lead with 26. Houston's Carlos Lee and Adrian Gonzalez of San Diego lead with 28 each. The 20-10 Brewers are 16-8 within the division and 12-5 at home.
Other NL Scores
LA Dodgers 6 Atlanta 3 - E. Renteria, 14-gm. hit streak
San Diego 7 Florida 6, 12 innings
Colorado 9 Cincinnati 7 - M. Holliday, HR (5), 3 RBI (26)
Chicago Cubs 5 Washington 3 - R. Hill (W, 4-1), D. Lee 13-gm. hit streak (.416)
NY Mets 6 Arizona 2 - Mets, 1-gm. lead in NL East