Toronto Stops Cone, Keeps Heat on Boston

As their bags were being packed for a two-day trip to Cleveland, the Blue Jays were savoring what they had accomplished over the weekend in Yankee Stadium.

“Start spreading the news,” sang one Toronto player, mimicking the opening line to “New York, New York” which is played following every Yankee home game.

Spread the news: Toronto is in the pennant race.

The Blue Jays defeated New York for the third time in four days, beating David Cone, 5-3, Sunday at New York to pull within three games of Boston in the AL wild-card race.

With their 14th victory in 16 games, the Blue Jays are as close to the Red Sox as they’ve been since May 30.

“Four weeks ago, everybody pretty much had thrown dirt over us,” reliever Dan Plesac said. “Now, we’re right in it. Everybody has been trying to make excuses about why we’re winning. It’s the schedule or whatever. But when you can come in here and beat [Andy] Pettitte and [David] Wells and Cone and that team. That’s a hell of a job.”

Shannon Stewart and Jose Cruz Jr. homered for Toronto, which wrecked what Cone hoped would be a big day.

Bidding for his first 20-win season in 10 years, Cone was chased in the sixth inning when the Blue Jays scored three times to overcome a two-run deficit.

“It was a struggle,” said Cone (19-6). “I was flirting with disaster all day and it caught up to me in the sixth. Every inning looked like an easy inning and then you looked up and they had two or three guys on.”

New York, meanwhile, continued its late-season slide. The Yankees are 5-8 in their last 13 and 11-14 in their last 25 games. Derek Jeter drove in two runs for New York.

While the Blue Jays play a two-game set against the Indians, the Yankees will play host to the Red Sox. Toronto Manager Tim Johnson couldn’t be happier with that schedule. “The Bambino is somewhere around there,” Johnson said, referring to the supposed curse that has haunted Red Sox fans since the club traded Babe Ruth. “And now they’ve got to come here.

“Those guys don’t like losing three in a row,” he said of the Yankees. “They’ve got a lot of pride.”

Detroit 4, Boston 1--Not even Steve Avery’s turn in the rotation could end the Red Sox losing streak, with Tony Clark’s tie-breaking three-run homer giving the Tigers a victory at Boston.

The loss was the Red Sox’s eighth in 11 games, with the only two victories coming on days Avery has started. The Red Sox were 14-0 in games that Avery had gone at least five innings.

With the score tied, 1-1, in the eighth, Brian Hunter reached on Nomar Garciaparra’s fielding error and Juan Encarnacion singled off Greg Swindell (5-6). Clark followed by driving the next pitch over the left-field screen for his 32nd homer of the year. All of the runs were unearned.

Cleveland 6, Chicago 3--Richie Sexson hit a two-out, three-run homer in the eighth inning as the Indians avoided a sweep by the White Sox at Cleveland.

Sparked by a second day of brush-back wars and a bench-clearing brawl, the Indians scored two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth to reduce their magic number for clinching a fourth consecutive AL Central title to four.

Cleveland’s Omar Vizquel and Manager Mike Hargrove were ejected in the third after White Sox starter Jim Parque threw a pitch over Vizquel’s head, resulting in a 10-minute fracas.

Oakland 9, Minnesota 6--Ben Grieve hit a three-run homer off Rick Aguilera (3-8) in the 12th as the Athletics finished off a three-game sweep at Minneapolis. After Ryan Christenson struck out, Jason Giambi and Matt Stairs singled off Aguilera and Grieve followed with his 16th homer, a shot to right-center field.

Seattle vs. Kansas City--Rain forced cancellation of the season’s final game between the Royals and the Mariners, which means the Mariners win the season series, 6-4,

With heavy rain falling all morning and no letup in sight, the game was canceled about five minutes before it was scheduled to start.