Thursday’s games

American league

Indians 9, Orioles 3: At Baltimore, Coco Crisp had three hits and drove in two runs to back a strong pitching performance by Jake Westbrook, leading Cleveland over Baltimore. Jhonny Peralta had two hits, two RBIs and scored twice for Cleveland, which went 17-10 in June. The Indians have won nine of their last 11 on the road and five of six overall. Westbrook (6-9) allowed three runs, four hits and three walks over seven innings to win his fourth straight start. Baltimore’s Rafael Palmeiro moved to within eight hits of 3,000.

White Sox 6, Tigers 1: At Detroit, Freddy Garcia pitched a five-hitter for his first complete game of the season and Chicago finished off a three-game sweep of Detroit. Joe Crede and Carl Everett homered for Chicago in a game delayed 2 hours, 4 minutes at the start because of thunderstorms. With Garcia in control, the game itself took only 2:06.

Rangers 18, Angels 5: At Arlington, Texas, Kevin Mench hit a career-high three homers and Mark Teixeira homered twice as the Rangers matched a club record with eight home runs in a rout of Los Angeles.

National league

Mets 5, Phillies 3: At New York, Pedro Martinez won for the seventh time in his last eight decisions, and Jose Reyes drove in two runs with his major league-leading ninth triple to lead New York past Philadelphia. Martinez (9-2) allowed two runs and five hits in six innings, walked two and struck out six. He raised his strikeout total to 2,776, moving past Frank Tanana (2,773) and into 17th place on the career list.

Rockies 7, Cardinals 0: At St. Louis, tookie Jeff Francis pitched three-hit ball for six innings, and Garrett Atkins and Danny Ardoin homered to lead Colorado to its sixth road victory of the season – over St. Louis. Francis (7-5) contributed two hits and scored twice for the Rockies, a major league-worst 6-31 on the road. The start was the most feeble since the ‘82 Twins went 5-32.

Giants 9, Diamondbacks 2: At Phoenix, Lance Niekro hit a three-run homer and winning pitcher Noah Lowry singled in two runs, helping San Francisco to its first three-game sweep at Arizona in five years. Niekro also doubled and scored twice in the Giants’ third sweep of the season and first since they won three at Pittsburgh April 29-May 1.

Nationals 7, Pirates 5: At Washington, Vinny Castilla and Brian Schneider homered as Washington won again at RFK Stadium to complete a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh. Chad Cordero wiggled out of a second-and-third, no-out jam in the ninth inning for his 25th straight save and 28th overall. He retired Ryan Doumit on a routine fly with the bases loaded for the final out. Washington has won 15 of its last 16 home games.

Brewers 10, Cubs 6: At Chicago, Carlos Lee homered twice, including a first-inning drive off Greg Maddux, and Milwaukee avoided a three-game sweep. Lee, who also homered in the eighth off Michael Wuertz, has 22 homers and leads the major leagues with 72 RBIs.

Astros 2, Reds 2 (7): At Cincinnati, Ken Griffey Jr. singled home a tying run in the fourth inning, and the second storm of the evening forced Cincinnati and Houston to settle for a seven-inning tie. The game will be replayed from the start on Saturday as part of a doubleheader, the opener scheduled to begin at 5:10 p.m. EDT.

Marlins 6, Braves 2: At Miami, Josh Beckett pitched six innings of one-hit ball before leaving with a possible recurrence of his blister problem, and Miguel Cabrera and Juan Encarnacion homered to help Florida beat Atlanta in a game delayed nearly three hours by rain. Beckett (8-5) was activated from the disabled list a few hours before the game; he hadn’t thrown since June 14 because of the sixth blister problem of his major league career. He left before starting the seventh, after another blister apparently formed on the middle finger of his pitching hand.

Associated Press