Chicago holds off Yankees
Jose Contreras pitched shutout ball against his former team, and the Chicago White Sox got home runs from Paul Konerko and Tadahito Iguchi in a 2-1 victory last night over the host New York Yankees.
Cliff Politte retired Robinson Cano and Gary Sheffield with a runner on second to end the eighth inning, and Konerko hit his 28th homer leading off the ninth against Alan Embree.
Alex Rodriguez hit his AL-leading 33d homer and third in three days leading off the bottom half against Politte. Bernie Williams, who missed the previous two games with a sore right shoulder, came off the bench for the Yankees with runners at the corners in the ninth. He was 5 for 6 against Chicago closer Dustin Hermanson before lining to first to end the game.
Contreras (7-6) allowed only a first-inning single to Cano, a leadoff single to Rodriguez in the fourth, and a leadoff single to Tony Womack in the eighth.
Angels 9, Athletics 2 -- Vladimir Guerrero's grand slam staked visiting Los Angeles to a seven-run lead in the second inning and John Lackey pitched seven scoreless innings, helping to knock Oakland out of the clubs' tie atop the division standings.
Guerrero had five RBIs and Darin Erstad drove in two more runs as the Angels capitalized on another shaky start by Rich Harden (9-5) to remove all the drama from the first contest of a key three-game series between the rivals.
Staked to a huge early lead, Lackey (10-4) sailed to his fourth straight win. He allowed five hits and struck out six without allowing a runner to reach third.
Mariners 1, Twins 0 -- Felix Hernandez, Seattle's 19-year-old prospect, pitched eight shutout innings in his second big league start to beat visiting Minnesota.
Hernandez (1-1), who lost his first big league start, 3-1, Thursday at Detroit, allowed five hits, all singles, and struck out six in besting Kyle Lohse (7-11) in a pitching duel. The young righthander threw 94 pitches -- 69 strikes -- and did not walk a batter.
Indians 13, Royals 7 -- Jhonny Peralta's three-run homer capped an 11-run ninth inning as visiting Cleveland rallied past bumbling Kansas City, which has lost 11 straight.
Angel Berroa, Chip Ambres, and Emil Brown all committed errors in the ninth as the Royals blew a five-run lead. Eight of the runs in the inning were unearned.
Blue Jays 6, Tigers 4-- Dustin McGowan pitched into the seventh inning for his first major league win, and Aaron Hill and Alex Rios homered to lead host Toronto over Detroit.
Orioles 5, Devil Rays 2 -- Erik Bedard pitched seven strong innings to earn his first win since May 21, and host Baltimore used a three-run seventh to beat Tampa Bay.
