A's tear up Yankees for third day in a row
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Jason Giambi hit a majestic two-run, two-out homer in the ninth inning to give the Oakland Athletics their 11th straight victory, 4-2 over the New York Yankees on Sunday.
Giambi connected off Mike Stanton (7-3) for his 1,000th career hit as the A's completed a three-game of the AL East leaders.
Oakland extended its longest winning streak since a team-record 14-game string in 1988. The Athletics did it with their familiar formula of strong pitching and timely homers -- all three of their hits left the park.
Mark Mulder (15-6) pitched a seven-hitter and struck out seven to win his seventh straight decision, while Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez hit back-to-back homers off Mike Mussina in the fifth inning.
Red Sox 12, Orioles 10
BALTIMORE -- Mike Lansing homered to cap a six-run first inning fueled by three Baltimore errors, and Boston added four more home runs.
Nomar Garciaparra, Doug Mirabelli, Carl Everett and Manny Ramirez also connected for the Red Sox, who snapped a four-game skid and ended their six-game road losing streak.
Cal Ripken drove in four runs and Tony Batista homered twice for Baltimore. Ripken's two-run double in the third made it 7-5, but Tim Wakefield (8-7) stemmed the comeback with an outstanding relief performance.
Devil Rays 4, Twins 3
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- John Flaherty hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 12th inning and Tampa Bay beat Minnesota.
David Ortiz homered for the fourth straight game, a ninth-inning leadoff shot against Tampa Bay closer Esteban Yan that tied it at 3.
Flaherty hit the first pitch off LaTroy Hawkins (1-3) into the left-field stands. Minnesota has lost six of seven and is 9-21 since the All-Star break.
Victor Zambrano (5-1) worked two scoreless innings for the victory.
Royals 6, Tigers 4
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Neifi Perez hit a bases-loaded triple in a six-run second inning as Kansas City topped Detroit for its fourth straight victory.
Kansas City completed a three-game sweep. The winning streak is the Royals' longest since a six-game winning string from June 26-July 1.
The Royals scored all their runs in the second after Adam Pettyjohn (0-5) retired the first two batters.
Jeff Suppan (6-10) gave up four runs on six hits and one walk over 6 2-3 innings.
Mariners 2, White Sox 1
SEATTLE -- Carlos Guillen, who hit a pinch-hit double, scored the go-ahead run on John Olerud's sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as Seattle beat Chicago to move 52 games over .500.
Guillen started the inning with a drive down the left-field line off Kip Wells (6-9). He moved to third on Ichiro Suzuki's bunt single, and scored on Olerud's fly to left field -- beating Carlos Lee's wide throw to the plate.
Seattle starter Joel Pineiro had another impressive outing. He had held right-handed batters hitless in 51 consecutive at-bats before giving up a line-drive single to Magglio Ordonez in the fourth inning.
That was the longest streak since San Francisco's Al Holland had an 0-for-49 stretch in 1982.
Arthur Rhodes (7-0) relieved Pineiro in the eighth and got two outs for the victory. Kazuhiro Sasaki worked the ninth for his 36th save.
Angels 6, Blue Jays 5
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Pinch-hitter Bengie Molina hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning, and Garret Anderson went 4-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs as Anaheim beat Toronto.
Molina batted for Jorge Fabregas with one out against Dan Plesac (3-4) and hit his third homer of the season. Of his 23 RBIs, 12 have either given the Angels the lead or tied the score.
Anderson helped the Angels build a 5-0 lead through the first five innings against Roy Halladay with his 21st and 22nd homers and an RBI single.
Toronto tied it with four runs in the eighth.
Al Levine (6-7) pitched the eighth for the victory, and Troy Percival got three outs for his 33rd save.
Indians 13, Rangers 2
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Omar Vizquel hit two triples, and Roberto Alomar drove in four runs as Cleveland routed Texas to avoid a three-game sweep.
Cleveland took a one-game lead over Minnesota in the AL Central.
C.C. Sabathia (12-4) gave up two runs and three hits in six innings for his fifth win in six decisions. John Rocker pitched the ninth for the Indians, who ended a three-game losing streak.
Alomar tripled, doubled and singled, and Juan Gonzalez drove in three runs as the Indians halted the Rangers' three-game winning streak.
Texas' Rob Bell (4-2) recovered from a shaky first two innings to pitch four scoreless innings.