Kansas City, Mo. -Jhonny Peralta, Ronnie Belliard, Grady Sizemore and Coco Crisp homered to lead Cleveland over the Kansas City Royals 11-4 on Saturday night, the Indians’ 17th win in 19 games.
With the Yankees’ 7-4 loss to Toronto, Cleveland is 1 1/2 games ahead of New York and Boston, which are tied for the East lead at 90-64. While the Indians (92-63) boosted their AL wild-card lead, they remained 1 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox (93-61) in the Central race.
“We’re right where we need to be,” Kevin Millwood said. “We can get in one way or the other.”
Ben Broussard had a career-high three doubles and four RBIs on his 29th birthday. Cleveland had 16 hits, including seven doubles and four homers.
The Indians, who have won four straight and 10 of their past 11, set their season high for extra-base hits and have 62 homers in their past 31 games.
Millwood (9-11) allowed only one run – a leadoff home run to Aaron Guiel – and seven hits in six innings, lowering his league-leading ERA to 2.92.
Blue Jays 7, Yankees 4
New York – Bruised by a line drive again, Jaret Wright was ineffective at Yankee Stadium and Toronto ended New York’s five-game winning streak.
Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano made costly errors for the Yankees, who lost for only the second time in 13 games.
Shea Hillenbrand and Eric Hinske each drove in two runs for Toronto, which won for the fifth time in 13 tries. Wright (5-4) was chased with none out in the second inning, his shortest start since August 2004 with Atlanta.
Scott Downs (4-3) held New York in check for 5 2/3 innings to earn the win. Alex Rodri- guez homered and drove in three runs for the Yankees.
Angels 7, Devil Rays 3
Anaheim, Calif. – Steve Finley hit a three-run homer, Jarrod Washburn won for the first time in a month and Los Angeles stretched its winning streak to eight games.
The West-leading Angels remained four games in front of Oakland and reduced their magic number for clinching the division title to five.
Athletics 7, Rangers 6
Oakland, Calif. – Jason Kendall hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning and Oakland rallied from a three-run deficit to win.
After Jay Payton led off the eighth with a double down the left-field line, Dan Johnson followed with a tying RBI double off the wall in right. Hiram Bocachica entered as a pinch runner, John Wasdin (2-2) intentionally walked Mark Ellis and Kendall’s drive got past shortstop Michael Young, allowing Bocachica to score.
White Sox 8, Twins 1
Chicago – Freddy Garcia allowed four hits in eight innings, Jermaine Dye hit a three-run homer for the second straight night and the Central-leading White Sox have won back-to-back games for the first time since Sept. 6-7, the end of a seven-game winning streak.
Garcia (13-8) won for just the second time in 10 starts.
Tigers 7, Mariners 1
Detroit – Jason Grilli pitched seven strong innings in his first Detroit start, and the Tigers hit four home runs to snap an eight-game losing streak.
