Garcia’s Great Eight Give Mariners a Win

Freddy Garcia gave up two singles in eight scoreless innings and Seattle beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-1, Thursday night at Toronto, only the Mariners’ seventh victory in 24 games.

“We were going to take him out after eight, regardless of the score,” said Manager Lou Piniella, who brought in Jose Paniagua to pitch the ninth. “He came close to 120 pitches.”

Garcia (6-4) struck out six and worked around six walks.

Tony Batista ended the combined shutout bid with his 38th homer and gave the Blue Jays a franchise-record 222 home runs. Toronto, which leads the majors in homers, had not connected in its previous six games.

Tampa Bay 4, Cleveland 3--Jason Tyner’s RBI single capped Tampa Bay’s four-run rally in the seventh inning at Cleveland as the Devil Rays ended a six-game losing streak.

The loss cut Cleveland’s advantage in the wild-card race to two games over Boston.

Chicago 10, Texas 6--Magglio Ordonez hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth inning and then added an insurance shot in the eighth as the White Sox rallied to win at Chicago.

Boston 11, Minnesota 6--Jose Offerman homered twice and Dante Bichette also homered as the Red Sox rallied from a five-run, first-inning deficit to win at Boston.