White Sox Rally to Beat the Yankees

Carlos Lee didn’t wait around to see what Mariano Rivera had to offer. He already knew.

“He’s one of the best in all of baseball. Against Rivera, maybe the first pitch is the best one,” Lee said after he hit Rivera’s first delivery of the ninth for a score-tying homer Friday night.

Minutes later, Jose Valentin hit a broken-bat single over second to drive in the winning run, and the Chicago White Sox had a stunning 4-3 victory over Rivera and the New York Yankees at Chicago.

“I knew I had hit the ball but I had no idea where,” said Valentin, who raised his arms in triumph when he finally realized it was headed into the outfield.

“You want to get a good pitch to hit because you don’t get too many chances against Rivera.”

The victory was Chicago’s 17th in 21 games this month and their fifth straight over the Yankees. They swept four at Yankee Stadium last week, outscoring New York, 42-17.

After the Yankees left the bases loaded against Sean Lowe (2-1) in the top half of the ninth, Lee hit his 14th homer, just the second off Rivera in 31 1/3 innings.

Herbert Perry singled, advanced on Brook Fordyce’s sacrifice and Ray Durham’s grounder and Valentin delivered.

Rivera (2-2) blew a save for the third time in 19 chances.

The Yankees had taken a 3-2 lead in the eighth on Bernie Williams’ RBI single off Bobby Howry and Shane Spencer’s run-scoring double against Bill Simas.

Rivera struck out Chris Singleton with two runners on in the eighth but couldn’t get it done in the ninth. The victory allowed the White Sox to move 8 1/2 games ahead of second-place Cleveland in the AL Central.

“They seem to be taking advantage of every break they get,” Paul O’Neill said. “They’re tough.”

Oakland 10, Kansas City 6--Randy Velarde, Jason Giambi and Ben Grieve hit consecutive homers in the second inning at Oakland, and the A’s won their ninth consecutive game.

Oakland, which is 16-3 in June, has its longest winning streak since a 10-game run in September 1992. The A’s have scored 80 runs in their last seven games.

Velarde hit his sixth homer of the season with one out in the second off Royal starter Chad Durbin (1-3). Giambi hit his 21st two pitches later, and Grieve hit his 14th--his seventh in the last 10 games--three pitches after that.

Oakland’s Kevin Appier (8-3), who spent the first decade of his career with the Royals, gave up five runs in 6 1/3 innings and has won his last five decisions.

Tampa Bay 7, Texas 4--Gerald Williams led off the game with a home run and later broke a tie with a sacrifice fly at Arlington, Texas.

Rick Helling (7-7) retired 14 batters in a row after Williams’ homer, but was chased from the game after the first four Devil Rays in the seventh got hits, including an RBI double by Steve Cox and an RBI single by Bobby Smith.

Felix Martinez greeted reliever Jeff Zimmerman with an RBI single that tied the score at 4-4. Williams followed with his sac fly to deep left that capped the four-run outburst.

Seattle 8, Baltimore 3--David Bell hit a two-run homer and Alex Rodriguez had a two-run double in a four-run fifth inning as the Mariners beat Baltimore at Seattle, the Orioles’ seventh loss in a row.

With the win, Seattle moved to a season-best 11 games over .500. Baltimore, matching its longest losing streak this year, fell to a season-worst 11 games below .500.

Detroit 7, Cleveland 6--Juan Gonzalez had two hits and scored twice as the Tigers held on at Cleveland.

Willie Blair (4-1) gave up five hits in 6 2/3 innings as the Tigers improved to 5-4 against the Indians while dropping Cleveland to 15-16 at Jacobs Field.

Tony Clark hit a two-run homer off Jamie Navarro and Juan Encarnacion had three hits and two RBIs for the Tigers.