Andy Pettitte and the New York Yankees, on occasion, still look very much like contenders.
The Boston Red Sox have been looking that way for awhile.
Hideki Matsui hit a grand slam on his 34th birthday, and Pettitte bounced back from one of the worst starts of his career to move into a tie for fourth place on the Yankees’ career wins list with a 4-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night.
Pettitte gave up a career high-tying 10 runs last Saturday against Kansas City, but allowed one run and five hits in a season-high eight innings in this one. He tied Ron Guidry with his 170th victory with New York.
Meanwhile, Mike Lowell hit his second grand slam of the season, J.D. Drew hit a two-run shot and Boston returned a bit of normalcy to the AL East with a 9-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles that moved the Red Sox 2 1/2 games ahead of Tampa Bay in the division.
Boston is 18-3 in its last 21 games at Fenway Park. A 28-7 home record is the best in the majors, but the Red Sox’s 14-20 mark away from home is the worst of the six division leaders. They open a six-game road trip on Friday night in Cincinnati.
“You have to stay away from the big inning,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “They’re patient. They foul them off with two strikes. They make you work for every out you get.”
In other AL games Thursday, it was: Detroit 2, Chicago 1; Cleveland 12, Minnesota 2; and Kansas City 6, Texas 5.
New York hadn’t won a series in Oakland since September 2005, but Pettitte finally delivered the kind of performance the Yankees have been missing.
After opening the season with three wins in his first four starts, Pettitte has struggled the past seven weeks. He was 2-4 with a 6.20 ERA in nine starts heading into this game and a big reason why the Yankees have been so inconsistent this season.
The worst of those starts came last Saturday, when the Royals battered him for 10 runs in 6 2-3 innings before New York rallied for a 12-11 win.
There proved to be no carryover from that game. Pettitte helped the Yankees (34-33) move back over .500 by winning their first road series since taking two of three from the Chicago White Sox on April 22-24.
“I had no doubt that he would bounce back,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I had a feeling that he would have a good game. It took him a little while to find his rhythm but he just seemed to really pick it up after that.”
Joe Blanton (3-9) held the Yankees scoreless through five innings, allowing only one runner to reach third base. Derek Jeter then opened the sixth with an infield single that second baseman Mark Ellis knocked down but couldn’t control. Blanton then walked Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez to load the bases, setting up Matsui’s fifth career grand slam.
“It was huge in the sense to be able to get a couple runs in that situation,” Matsui said through an interpreter. “That was huge for the team.”
While the Yankees try to find some consistency, Boston must be downright giddy that the inconsistent Drew has been on such a tear with slugger David Ortiz on the disabled list.
Drew is 18-for-36 with six homers and 15 RBIs since the designated hitter has been sidelined with a wrist injury. Drew was 2-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to 11 games Thursday night, as Boston improved to a major league-best 28-7 at home.
“He’s almost like David up there right now,” Kevin Youkilis said.
Jon Lester (5-3) allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out three in seven innings for Boston. He was returning from a five-game suspension after he hit two Tampa Bay batters June 5 during a game in which there was a benches-clearing brawl.
Boston took a 1-0 lead in the second off Jeremy Guthrie (3-7), then put it out of reach in the fifth when Lowell hit the eighth grand slam of his career.
The Red Sox loaded the bases on a single by Jacoby Ellsbury, a double by Drew and an intentional walk to Ramirez.
“You’ve got a guy that’s hit 500 home runs in his career or a guy that you can get to hit into a double play to get out of an inning,” Trembley said. “It’s a real simple option.”
Tigers 2, White Sox 1
Miguel Cabrera hit a game-ending solo homer off Octavio Dotel (3-3) in the ninth inning and host Detroit completed a three-game sweep.
Cabrera’s ninth homer of the season came after a nice pitching duel between the Tigers’ Kenny Rogers and White Sox left-hander Mark Buehrle. Both starters allowed one run in eight innings, and the game lasted just 2 hours, 4 minutes.
Todd Jones (2-0) got out of a jam in the ninth to earn the win.
Indians 12, Twins 2
Ben Francisco and Jamey Carroll had four hits apiece to lead host Cleveland.
Even with five players from last year’s AL Central champion team on the DL, Cleveland had 18 hits off Livan Hernandez (6-4) and four relievers. Shin-Soo Choo and Grady Sizemore homered.
Aaron Laffey (4-3), called up from Triple-A Buffalo because of injuries to the rotation, allowed one run and six hits over six innings.
Royals 6, Rangers 5
Alex Gordon and Mike Aviles each hit a two-run homer and Kansas City beat visiting Texas to avoid a three-game sweep.
The Rangers led 5-4 before Kansas City pushed across two runs in the eighth. Pinch-runner Tony Pena Jr. scampered home on a wild pitch from Frank Francisco (1-2) and Gordon scored on Jose Guillen’s sacrifice fly.
Ron Mahay (2-0) recorded two outs to earn the win. Joakim Soria got his 15th save.
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