Baseball

american league roundup

July 8, 2009

Burrell powers Rays over Blue Jays in 11th

The Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning to give Tampa Bay a 3-1 victory over Toronto on Tuesday night.

The AL champions stopped a four-game losing streak that included three losses to rookie pitchers. They hardly pulled out of an offensive funk — managing two hits in six innings against Marc Rzepczynski in the 23-year-old lefty’s major league debut.

The Rays finished with four hits, two after the fourth inning, when Rzepczynski walked three, including Gabe Kapler with the bases loaded, to fall behind 1-0.

Scott Rolen tied it in the eighth with a run-scoring single that extended his career-best hitting streak to 24 games.

Burrell, mired in a 4-for-34 slump, hit his fourth homer of the season connecting off Brandon League (1-4). Dan Wheeler (3-1) pitched two scoreless innings to get the win for the Rays, who were outscored 25-7 during their four-game skid.

Yankees 10, Twins 2

MINNEAPOLIS — CC Sabathia allowed one run on three hits in seven innings and New York roughed up Minnesota starter Scott Baker.

Sabathia (8-5) showed that Friday’s bad start was just a hiccup and the bottom third of the Yankees order had seven hits and six RBI in New York’s seventh straight road victory.

Baker (6-7) was 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA in his only two previous starts against the Yankees. But he gave up five runs on nine hits with two walks and four strikeouts in three innings, his shortest outing of the season.

Red Sox 5, Athletics 2

BOSTON — Josh Beckett became Boston’s second 10-game winner and fellow All-Star Jason Bay hit his 20th homer.

Beckett (10-3) matched the win total of another Boston all-star, Tim Wakefield, and remained unbeaten at home this season with five wins in eight starts.

Bay, the top vote-getter among AL outfielders for next Tuesday’s game, hit a solo shot in the second inning, his first homer in 49 at-bats since hitting one June 23 at Washington.

White Sox 10, Indians 6

CHICAGO — Paul Konerko hit a career-high three home runs, including a go-ahead grand slam in the sixth inning, to lead Chicago.

Konerko, who drove in a career-high seven RBI, became the 12th player in White Sox history to hit three homers in a game.

Tigers 8, Royals 5

DETROIT — Marcus Thames hit a three-run homer to back Justin Verlander, who struck out 11 to run his AL-best total to 141, the most by a Detroit pitcher before the All-Star game in 37 years.

Verlander (9-4) gave up five runs and seven hits over six innings.

Miguel Cabrera and Placido Polanco also homered for the AL Central-leading Tigers.

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