St. Petersburg, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Devil Rays rallied for five runs in the eighth inning Wednesday night to beat the Boston Red Sox 7-4 and knock the defending world champions out of first place in the East.
Jorge Cantu chased Boston starter Tim Wakefield with a two-out RBI single, and Jonny Gomes’ two-run triple off Mike Timlin (7-3) put the last-place Devil Rays ahead 5-4. Eric Munson followed with an RBI double and Alex Gonzalez added an RBI single to ensure Boston’s 64-day stay atop the division would end.
The loss, coupled with New York’s 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, left the Yankees in first place for the first time in more than two months.
Manny Ramirez homered for the Red Sox, who appeared to be in good shape when Wakefield took a 4-2 lead into the eighth. The knuckleballer is 13-1 against the Devil Rays and had allowed one hit and three baserunners over the previous five innings.
Yankees 2, Orioles 1
New York – Randy Johnson limited Baltimore to three hits over eight innings in his first start since a second-inning ejection last week, and Matt Lawton broke out of a long slump with a two-run homer that carried New York to victory.
Johnson (15-8) didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning and didn’t give up a run until the sixth, when Melvin Mora hit a long RBI double. Third baseman Alex Rodriguez helped Johnson twice in the sixth, backhanding Bernie Castro’s grounder over the bag to hold him to a single, then sprawling on his knees to grab Javy Lopez’s two-out grounder to his glove side and throwing to first to end the inning with Mora on third.
After Johnson struck out Castro with a 96 mph fastball on his 119th and final pitch, Mariano Rivera came in and pitched the ninth for his 41st save in 45 chances. With two on, Rivera struck out pinch-hitter Jay Gibbons and retired B.J. Surhoff, another pinch-hitter, on a soft liner to first to end it.
Indians 8, White Sox 0
Chicago – Lamar native Scott Elarton (11-7) pitched five-hit ball into the eighth inning and Travis Hafner homered twice as Cleveland moved within 2 1/2 games of first-place Chicago in the Central.
The Indians, who trailed by 15 games on Aug. 1, won for the 14th time in 16 tries.
Hafner, who has homered in four consecutive games, hit a long three-run shot to center off Jon Garland (17-10) in the eighth to quiet a loud sellout crowd of 36,543. He added a two-run shot off Jeff Bajenaru in the ninth, giving him a career-high 30 for the season and 100 RBIs. Casey Blake and Grady Sizemore also connected for Cleveland.
Twins 10, Athletics 4
Oakland, Calif. – Michael Cuddyer homered, hit three doubles and drove in four runs as Minnesota ended a three- game losing streak.
Mariners 3, Blue Jays 2
Toronto – Rookie phenom Felix Hernandez (4-4) took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before giving up a questionable single to Corey Koskie.
Royals 4, Tigers 3
Kansas City, Mo. – Pinch-hitter Denny Hocking’s two-out, two-run single in the ninth inning gave Kansas City its first four-game sweep in six years.
