Detroit – Jeremy Bonderman beat Scott Baker in an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel, and Marcus Thames homered with two out in the eighth inning to send the Detroit Tigers to a 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday night.
Bonderman (9-1) allowed six hits in eight innings, striking out seven and walking one.
Baker (2-3) nearly matched him, giving up three hits and throwing only 79 pitches for his first complete game in 33 major-league starts. He walked one and struck out three.
In the eighth, Thames lined the first pitch he saw from Baker over the left-field fence to help Detroit avert a three-game sweep.
Bonderman and Todd Jones combined to retire the final 10 Minnesota batters in a game that lasted just 2 hours, 7 minutes.
Curtis Granderson’s leadoff triple in the fourth and Magglio Ordoñez’s one-out single in the seventh were the only hits Baker allowed before Thames’ homer. Granderson was stranded when Baker retired the next three batters.
ANGELS 4, ORIOLES 3 at Baltimore: John Lackey outpitched rookie Jeremy Guthrie to earn his 11th win, and Casey Kotchman and Mike Napoli hit slump-breaking home runs to help Los Angeles improve to 51-31, the best record in franchise history after 82 games.
INDIANS 3, DEVIL RAYS 2 at Cleveland: Cliff Lee struck out nine to win for the third time in four starts for Cleveland, which won for the sixth time in seven games.
ATHLETICS 11, YANKEES 5 at New York: Dan Haren (10-2) pitched 5 1/3 innings to win his career-best 10th straight decision and improve to 4-0 in seven career starts against New York.
WHITE SOX 3, ROYALS 1 at Kansas City, Mo.: Jon Garland, aided by Paul Konerko’s 15th home run, raised his career mark against Kansas City to 15-5 in 28 starts to close out a 6-1 road trip for Chicago.
MARINERS 2, BLUE JAYS 1 at Seattle: Hours after Mike Hargrove abruptly resigned, Jose Guillen hit a tying homer in the eighth inning and a game-ending single in the ninth to help send the Mariners’ manager out a winner with his 1,188th and apparently final managerial win.
RANGERS 2, RED SOX 1 at Boston: Kameron Loe won his fourth consecutive start and hasn’t lost since being sent to Triple-A after winning just once in his first 15 starts.
