The Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox both brought long winning streaks into the weekend. They won’t leave with them.
Frank Thomas hit a two-run homer to back Rich Harden and the Oakland Athletics ended Boston’s winning streak at seven with an 8-3 victory. In Chicago, Joe Saunders took a shutout into the ninth inning, Torii Hunter homered and the Los Angeles Angels snapped the Sox’s eight-game winning streak, 3-1.
At Oakland, Harden (3-0) didn’t allow a hit until Dustin Pedroia’s solo homer with one out in the fourth. The hard-throwing right-hander had five of his eight strikeouts in the first three innings.
Harden, who spent time on the disabled list with a shoulder injury, has 23 strikeouts in three starts spanning 17 innings this year against the Red Sox.
“He’s got as good as stuff as anybody in the league,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “He gets into some fastball counts and doesn’t give you a fastball. We’ve seen him too much. We don’t need to face him every other game. I hope he’s not going to come back and pitch Sunday.”
Leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury had a pair of RBI singles for the Red Sox, who were coming off a 7-0 homestand and trying to win eight in a row for the first time since a 12-game run from June 16-29, 2006.
Thomas hit the first pitch he saw from Tim Wakefield (3-3) in the third for his seventh home run, then Ellis hit his fourth homer of the year in the third.
Thomas, who turns 40 on Tuesday, has four homers since joining the A’s after Toronto released him April 20.
“One man doing well takes the pressure off others,” Thomas said. “That’s why Billy (Beane) brought me back. This is the time of year I start to feel it. … I work for it.”
In other AL games it was, Texas 13, Cleveland 9; Minnesota 9, Detroit 4; New York 13, Seattle 2; Toronto 7, Kansas City 1; and Tampa Bay 2, Baltimore 0.
In Chicago, Gavin Floyd (4-3) took the loss for the White Sox despite holding the Angels to three hits in his first career complete game. He had a rocky fifth inning, when Hunter hit a solo shot. The right-hander also hit Maicer Izturis and Gary Matthews Jr. with bases-loaded pitches.
That was enough for Saunders (8-1), who is emerging as a star after splitting the past two seasons with the Angels and Triple-A Salt Lake. He needed just 10 starts to match last year’s win total and moved into a tie with Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka for the American League lead in victories.
“I don’t know,” Saunders said. “It’s weird. … I’m not trying to pick as much as I did in the past. I’m really trying to go after guys.”
The left-hander shut down Chicago despite the flulike symptoms that kept him from pitching at Toronto on Thursday, holding the AL Central leaders to one run and three hits in a career-high 8 1-3 innings. He left with a 3-0 lead.
Francisco Rodriguez came in and walked Carlos Quentin on four pitches before Jermaine Dye delivered an RBI single to left. Rodriguez then struck out Jim Thome and Joe Crede for his 20th save in 21 opportunities.
“You have to give (Rodriguez) credit, he made some good pitches,” Thome said. “But we battled. We battled but it just didn’t work out. Saunders pitched a nice game himself, you have to credit him.”
The White Sox had not lost since the Angels beat them 2-0 on May 13.
Rangers 13, Indians 9
In Cleveland, Ben Francisco’s apparent three-run shot was ruled an RBI double in the latest in a recent string of botched home run calls by big league umpires that has prompted increasing cries for instant replay in baseball.
“I think every time something like this happens there is more conversation about it,” said Indians manager Eric Wedge, who was ejected by crew chief Dale Scott for arguing.
TV replays showed Francisco’s drive clearly hit a railing above the yellow home run line atop the left-field wall in the sixth inning.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit his first career grand slam and Cleveland lost its seventh in a row and pitcher Fausto Carmona to injury.
Saltalamacchia connected off Jorge Julio, who replaced Carmona during a seven-run third inning. Carmona (4-2) strained his left hip covering first on a ball hit by Murphy to first baseman Ryan Garko.
Kameron Loe (1-0) pitched 2 2-3 innings.
Blue Jays 7, Royals 1
At Toronto, Roy Halladay won for the third time in four starts, Marco Scutaro matched a career high with four RBIs and Toronto handed Kansas City its fifth straight loss.
Halladay (5-5) threw his major league-leading fifth complete game and his first since a run of four straight ended April 29 at Boston.
Kansas City starter Zack Greinke (5-2) allowed a season-high six runs on nine hits in five innings, matching his shortest outing this year.
Yankees 13, Mariners 2
At New York, Andy Pettitte struck out nine to win for the first time in over a month and Shelley Duncan hit a three-run homer.
Robinson Cano and Hideki Matsui added two-run hits against Erik Bedard (3-3), who gave up a career-high nine runs and lost at Yankee Stadium for the second time in three weeks.
Rays 2, Orioles 0
At St. Petersburg, Fla., Matt Garza took a four-hitter into the eighth inning and Carl Crawford snapped a scoreless tie with a fifth-inning single for Tampa Bay.
The Orioles have been shut out two of the past three games and were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against Garza (3-1).
Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie (2-5) allowed one run and four hits in 6 2-3 innings.
Twins 9, Tigers 4
At Detroit, Kevin Slowey pitched seven shutout innings and the last-place Tigers (20-28) scored 30 runs in a three-game sweep of Seattle.
Slowey (1-4) gave up four hits and three walks in six innings.
Detroit’s Armando Galarraga (3-2) struggled for the second straight start, walking five while giving up five runs in six innings.
Coming off the DL, Dontrelle Willis allowed one run on a hit and two walks in one-plus innings of relief for Detroit.
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