Yankees’ Brown Punches Wall, Breaks Hand

Kevin Brown broke his non-throwing hand punching a clubhouse wall in frustration during the New York Yankees’ 3-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

The pitching-weak Yankees, whose East Division lead over second-place Boston was cut to 2 1/2 games, did not immediately know how long the right-hander would be out.

“You just can’t do this,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “You’ve got to keep your emotions in check.”

Brown (10-4) dropped to 1-3 in his last five starts and 3-8 lifetime against Baltimore.

“Stupidity,” Brown said, choosing his words carefully. “I reacted to frustration I’d swallowed all year.... There are no excuses. I let it boil over and I did something stupid. I owe my teammates an apology for letting my emotions take over like that.”

He was to be examined by a hand specialist today.

“My plan is to splint it and pitch. I just pray that my stupidity didn’t hurt the team,” Brown said.

Cashman and Yankee Manager Joe Torre were visibly annoyed. Cashman said Brown could be disciplined or fined.

Torre said he spoke to Brown and expressed his disappointment.

“Certainly uncalled for and unnecessary,” Torre said. “There’s more to this game than one person.”

After the game, the Yankees began reviewing Brown’s contract to determine whether a self-inflicted injury could void the guarantee language, one baseball official said on the condition of anonymity. No determination had been made, the official said.

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Boston 2, Texas 0 -- At Boston, Pedro Martinez pitched the Red Sox to their longest winning streak in nine years and pulled them to within 2 1/2 games of the Yankees.

Martinez (15-5) yielded four hits in seven innings, and Manny Ramirez and Bill Mueller hit home runs to help extend Boston’s winning streak to 10 games.

The Red Sox, who have won 16 of 17, have not been this close to first place since June 12.

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Minnesota 2, Kansas City 0 -- Johan Santana (16-6) pitched a no-hitter through six innings for the Central Division-leading Twins against the Royals at Minneapolis.

Desi Relaford lined a clean single to left leading off the seventh to end Santana’s bid. But Santana won his ninth straight start. He gave up one hit and one walk, striking out 11.

Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning.

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Oakland 7, Toronto 4 -- At Toronto, Bobby Kielty hit a go-ahead homer off Ted Lilly, the pitcher he was traded for, and Tim Hudson (11-4) won his fourth straight start for the West Division-leading A’s, who won for the 15th time in 17 games.

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Chicago 7, Seattle 5 -- At Chicago, Juan Uribe homered, and Roberto Alomar had a two-run double to help the White Sox win for only the sixth time in 16 games. The Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki had one hit in four at-bats, increasing his major league-leading total to 218.

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Detroit 4, Tampa Bay 2 -- Jeremy Bonderman (8-11) pitched seven solid innings, and Dmitri Young hit a two-run homer to help the Tigers extend the Devil Rays’ losing streak to seven.

The remainder of the three-game series at St. Petersburg was postponed because of Hurricane Frances, which was approaching Florida. The games will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sept. 30.