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
For a player who usually bats in the 5 or 6-hole, Hideki Matsui is one tough out, and the Baltimore Orioles found out just how tough Sunday at Yankee Stadium. After taking the first two games of their series with the Yanks, the O's set out Sunday to sweep the AL East leaders in the finale, but with C.C. Sabathia on the hill for New York, it was going to be a tall order.
By the time the O's and Yanks reached the bottom of the 8th, the O's still had hope, trailing by just 2 runs, 5-3, but Matsui ended their fantasy with a three-run yard job and the Yankees added 5 more in the inning for the 13-3 shellacking. Matsui earlier had singled in 2 runs and added another single, going 3-for-5 with 5 RBI, boosting his RBI total for the year to 81 with 24 homers in just 404 at-bats. He's had multiple-hit games i 4 of his last 5 starts, raising his batting average from .264 to .275.
Sabathia picked up the win to go 17-7, and the Yankees' magic number dropped to 13, despite the second-place Red Sox taking a pair from Tampa Bay.
National League
Pedro Martinez got a little more revenge against one of his former teams pitching 8 scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over the Mets. After taking the first game of their double-header, 5-4, the Phillies called on the ancient one (37) for some magic, as Martinez dueled with Tim Redding, who lasted only 6 innings, but allowed the one Philly run on three hits.
Martinez (5-0) threw 130 pitches (80 for strikes), allowing 6 hits and a pair of walks with 7 Ks. It was the longest outing of the season for him, an encouraging sign as the Phillies race toward their 3rd straight NL East crown. In seven starts, Martinez has garnered 5 wins with a 2.87 ERA and 34 Ks in 37.2 innings.
The Phillies' magic number fell to 16, as the Marlins - 6 1/2 back - lost to the Nats.
