Cone Gets 19th; Yankees Clinch Share of Division

David Cone and Pedro Martinez lived up to their reputations as two of baseball’s best pitchers.

And the New York Yankees, with their 101st win, clinched a share of the American League East title with a 3-2 victory Tuesday night over the Red Sox at Boston.

“One more to go,” Cone said after becoming baseball’s first 19-game winner. “It’s almost like we secured the division a while ago. We just have to make it official.”

That could happen tonight in the finale of the three-game series with Boston, second in the division, a distant 19 1/2 games behind New York. The Red Sox also saw their lead over Toronto in the wild-card race slip to 4 1/2 games.

The Yankees broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the eighth and won when Mariano Rivera struck out Darren Bragg with the bases loaded in the ninth.

Cone (19-5) and Martinez (18-5), contenders for the Cy Young award, did their jobs brilliantly for seven innings.

Cone struck out 11, gave up just two hits and only three balls out of the infield before being replaced by Graeme Lloyd to start the eighth. And Martinez struck out eight and gave up only three hits before struggling in the eighth.

“He was as good as he’s been all season,” Yankee catcher Joe Girardi said about Cone. “That’s encouraging to see that in September he gets his second wind.”

The Yankees broke a three-game losing streak with their first win since getting their 100th Friday night. New York is 9-11 in its last 20 games.

Rivera got the last five outs for his 34th save, giving up a run in the ninth on Troy O’Leary’s sacrifice fly.

“I haven’t pitched too often lately so it was great to get there and great to battle,” Rivera said. “I really needed it.”

Winning the division has been a foregone conclusion for some time. The Yankees have led second-place Boston by at least 10 games since June 24. They need to go 16-4 over their final 20 games to break the 1906 Chicago Cubs’ record of 116 victories in a season.

The Yankees went ahead in the eighth with the help of three walks and a wild pitch.

Girardi reached on a single when he beat Nomar Garciaparra’s throw to first base after the ball popped out of the shortstop’s glove on a backhand stab. Girardi took second on a wild pitch and third on Chuck Knoblauch’s single that second baseman Mike Benjamin stopped from going into center field.

A walk to Derek Jeter loaded the bases, and Girardi scored on Paul O’Neill’s groundout to Benjamin. Martinez walked Bernie Williams intentionally, loading the bases, and forced in another run on a walk to Tino Martinez.

Cone struck out at least one batter in each of his seven innings, getting Darren Lewis, John Valentin, Mike Stanley and Benjamin twice each.

Chicago 12, Detroit 6--Rookie Jeff Abbott hit two home runs, Robin Ventura hit a two-run shot and Wil Cordero added a solo homer to lead the White Sox at Chicago.

Abbott hit a solo homer leading off the sixth and a two-run shot with two out in the seventh to raise his season total to 10. The White Sox won for the seventh time in their last eight games. “I’ll be on the seventh page [of the newspaper] after six pages of [Mark] McGwire,” Abbott said about his recent power surge.

“Every game is second to McGwire. We were all cheering him on.”

Cordero hit a run-scoring single in a three-run second and added his 12th home run with one out in the fourth.

Ventura hit his 19th home run with one out in the eighth off Dean Crow.

Justin Thompson (10-14) lost his fifth consecutive start, giving up six runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings.

The loss was Detroit’s sixth in its last seven games. The Tigers are 2-6 since Larry Parrish was named interim manager in place of the fired Buddy Bell.

John Snyder (6-2) posted his second consecutive win, giving up five runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings. He left after giving up solo homers to Tony Clark and Luis Gonzalez, their 31st and 20th, respectively, that pulled Detroit within one, 6-5.

Tampa Bay 10, Seattle 0--Wilson Alvarez combined with two relievers on a two-hitter to win for the first time since July 26 and the Devil Rays won at Seattle with their largest victory margin of the season.

Ken Griffey Jr. who leads the AL with 50 homers after homering twice Monday night, was hitless with a walk in three at-bats. The Mariners’ Alex Rodriguez, one homer shy of becoming the third player to get 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in the same season, was 0 for 4.

Alvarez (6-13), who gave up two hits in seven innings, had lost five consecutive decisions and nine of 10. Bryan Rekar and Jim Mecir followed with an inning each as Tampa Bay got its sixth shutout of the season.

Fred McGriff hit a three-run homer, Rich Butler tripled in a run and Miguel Cairo added an RBI double.