AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Blowers Ends Rhodes’ No-Hit Bid

With one swing, Mike Blowers ended Arthur Rhodes’ no-hit bid and effectively terminated the Baltimore Orioles’ eight-game winning streak.

Blowers’ seventh-inning homer Tuesday night lifted the Seattle Mariners to a 3-2 victory at Baltimore, their ninth win in the last 13 games. The Orioles remained two games behind first-place Toronto in the East, as the Blue Jays and second-place New York Yankees also lost.

Rhodes allowed only two walks until he walked Brian Turang on four pitches to open the seventh. Rhodes struck out the next two batters before Blowers hit a 1-and-1 pitch deep into the left-field seats.

“I just looked for a pitch inside and I got it,” Blowers said. “We hadn’t had too many chances because the guy had a no-hitter. So I was just hoping to get a hit off him.”

Rhodes, who has won only 11 games in the majors, was not as concerned with a no-hitter as he was getting a victory.

“I wasn’t worrying about a no-hitter. I was worrying about throwing the ball over the plate and getting guys out,” he said.

David Valle hit his 12th homer off Rhodes (4-4) in the eighth. The Mariners finished with four hits.

Oakland 11, Toronto 7--The Blue Jays squandered a five-run, first-inning lead and lost to the last-place Athletics in 11 innings at Toronto.

However, Toronto remained half a game in front of the New York Yankees, who lost to Texas.

With the score tied, 6-6, Jerry Browne hit a pinch-hit double to drive in the go-ahead run in the 11th.

Brent Gates started the inning with a walk off loser Tony Castillo (3-1). He stole second and went to third on catcher Pat Borders’ throwing error before Browne followed Mike Bordick’s one-out walk with his run-scoring, ground-rule double. Scott Brosius followed with a double off third baseman Alfredo Griffin’s glove.

Texas 5, New York 4--Gary Redus’ run scoring single in the eighth inning broke the final tie at Arlington, Tex.

With Toronto having lost to Oakland, New York could have moved into sole possession of first place for the first time this season.

The victory, coupled with Boston’s victory over Chicago, moved the Rangers within five games of the White Sox in the West.

Minnesota 6, Cleveland 0--Kevin Tapani pitched a four-hitter and Pat Meares hit a three-run double at Cleveland.

Tapani (8-14) walked Kenny Lofton leading off the first inning but didn’t let another hitter reach base with less than two outs until Jim Thome walked with one out in the seventh. The Indians didn’t get a runner past second base.

Tapani walked two and struck out five in his first shutout since June 24 of last year.

Minnesota’s Dave Winfield went 0 for 4, keeping him eight hits away from 3,000. Winfield has 12 hits in his last 86 at bats.

Boston 4, Chicago 3--Mo Vaughn and Bob Melvin each hit two-run homers as the Red Sox defeated the first-place White Sox for the second consecutive time at Chicago.

Winner Danny Darwin (14-10) gave up three runs in 8 1/3 innings. He set a career-high for wins and ended a personal two-game losing streak.