Giambi, Johnson lead Yankees easy win

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 14, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) - Jason Giambi hit one of four Yankees homers and doubled twice, and Randy Johnson gave New York a much-needed long outing on short rest in a 12-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.

Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui also homered for New York.

Derek Jeter and Ruben Sierra each had three hits for the Yankees, who swept the two-game series and have won four straight to move within a half-game of second-place Baltimore in the AL East.

Email newsletter signup

The Orioles have lost 11 of 13.

Starting on three days' rest in the regular season for the first time in 10 years, Johnson (8-6) retired his first 12 batters with five strikeouts before Miguel Tejada's infield single. He lasted seven innings and gave up seven hits and struck out eight without walking a batter for his 254th career win.

Rodrigo Lopez (7-5) gave up a career-high 10 runs - five earned - and a season-high 11 hits in three-plus innings, dropping his third straight start.

Tigers 3, Indians 2

CLEVELAND (AP) - Mike Maroth cooled off Cleveland's hitters, and Detroit won for only the third time in 13 games.

The Indians, batting .297 and averaging 5.8 runs over their previous 29 games, lost for only the third time in 11.

Maroth (6-9) allowed one run and four hits over 6 2-3 innings. Troy Percival allowed a homer by Jhonny Peralta in the ninth, but earned his sixth save.

Magglio Ordonez hit a two-run homer off Jake Westbrook (6-10) in Detroit's three-run third.

Athletics 10, Blue Jays 7, 11 innings

TORONTO (AP) - Scott Hatteberg's two-run single in the 11th inning gave Oakland its 10th win in 11 games.

Bobby Crosby had an inside-the-park home run for the A's.

Mark Kotsay, Crosby and Eric Chavez led off the 11th with singles off Miguel Batista (4-1) before Hatteberg's hit. Kotsay, Nick Swisher and Dan Johnson also homered for the A's.

Gregg Zaun and Orlando Hudson homered for Toronto. Hudson grabbed his right hamstring then left following his homer that tied the game at 5 in the seventh.

White Sox 6, Devil Rays 4

CHICAGO (AP) - Frank Thomas hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning, and the White Sox rallied to go 30 games over .500.

Scott Podsednik started the inning with a double, and Tadahito Iguchi singled before Thomas connected off Lance Carter (1-2) for his 10th homer in just 69 at-bats this season.

Cliff Politte (6-0) got the final out of the eighth, and Dustin Hermanson pitched the ninth for his 21st save. Jermaine Dye hit his 19th homer for Chicago, which improved to 56-26 and sent Tampa Bay to its seventh straight loss.

Red Sox 7, Rangers 4

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Manny Ramirez hit his 20th career grand slam, and Boston also got home runs from David Ortiz and Bill Mueller.

Ramirez hit his third grand slam of the season in the third inning off Chris Young (8-5), tying him for the AL lead with 22 homers.

The 20 grand slams are the second-most in major league history, trailing only Lou Gehrig's 23. Hall of Famer Eddie Murray had 19.

Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (8-6) won his fourth straight decision. Gary Matthews had a two-run homer and Kevin Mench a two-run single for Texas.

Royals 8, Mariners 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - David DeJesus drove in three runs for the Royals, who had lost 14 of 16 and been shut out in three of their last four games.

D.J. Carrasco (4-3) went 5 1-3 innings for the win. Mike MacDougal got three outs for his 10th save.

Gil Meche (8-6) went three innings plus two batters and was charged with five runs and seven hits for Seattle.