Streaking Indians Win Again

The Cleveland Indians pulled to within one game of the Central Division lead, scoring four runs in the first inning and beating the Minnesota Twins, 7-1, Saturday night at Cleveland.

Cleveland, which has not shared the division lead this late in the season since 2001, can tie the first-place Twins with a victory today, which would complete a three-game sweep.

The Indians have won six in a row and 10 of 11, gaining seven games on the Twins in 10 days. Minnesota, which has lost eight of 10, had a season-high six-game lead over the Indians and Chicago White Sox after last Sunday’s games.

Jake Westbrook (11-5) won for the fifth time in six starts, giving up one run and five hits in seven innings. He was helped by inning-ending double plays in the fourth and fifth innings.

Travis Hafner hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Casey Blake hit a solo shot and Ronnie Belliard’s major league-leading 41st double drove in Ben Broussard from first for a 4-0 lead.

Boston 4, Chicago 3 -- David Ortiz’s second homer of the game broke an eighth-inning tie, and Curt Schilling got his first home victory in seven weeks. Manny Ramirez hit his 30th homer and is tied with Ortiz for the league lead.

Schilling (14-6) gave up consecutive first-inning homers to Timo Perez and Carlos Lee but improved to 8-1 at Fenway Park, giving up three runs and five hits in eight innings. He had been 0-1 in three home starts since beating Philadelphia on June 27.

Oakland 6, Kansas City 1 -- Mark Kotsay made a run-saving catch to preserve a tie in the top of the sixth inning and then homered to lead off a five-run bottom half.

Rich Harden (7-5) won his fourth decision in a row as the West Division-leading A’s stopped a three-game losing streak.

Harden gave up one run and five hits in six innings to remain unbeaten in seven starts since the All-Star break.

New York 6, Seattle 4 -- John Olerud hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the eighth inning against his former team, and the Yankees overcame a poor start by Esteban Loaiza at Seattle.

After Loaiza blew a three-run lead, the Yankees tied the score at 4-4 in the seventh on consecutive doubles by Enrique Wilson and John Flaherty off Jamie Moyer.

Shigetoshi Hasegawa (4-5) hit Gary Sheffield with a pitch leading off the eighth, then yielded a double to Bernie Williams that put runners on second and third. George Sherrill came on in relief and with one out intentionally walked Ruben Sierra to face Olerud, who singled to right.

Olerud, who batted .245 for the Mariners with 22 runs batted in in 78 games, is batting .333 (11 for 33) with 11 RBIs in nine games with the Yankees.

The Yankees (75-41) improved to a season-high 34 games over .500. The Mariners (43-73) lost their third in a row and dropped a season-low 30 games under .500.

Toronto 7, Baltimore 2 -- At Toronto, Josh Towers beat his former team to win for the sixth time in seven starts, and the Blue Jays ended a four-game losing streak.

Towers (8-4) yielded two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings, improving to 16-5 in 27 games with Toronto. The 27-year-old right-hander was 8-10 for the Orioles in 2001 but was 0-3 in 2002.

Texas 6, Tampa Bay 5 -- Kevin Mench hit a go-ahead home run in the fifth inning to lead the Rangers at Arlington, Texas. The Rangers remained 1 1/2 games behind Oakland in the West Division and one game back of Boston in the wild-card race.

The Devil Rays put center fielder Rocco Baldelli, who has a strained right quadriceps, on the 15-day disabled list.