Indians Drop Twins, Clinch Division Title BDAssociated Press

Bartolo Colon (14-11) pitched eight shutout innings, Jim Thome hit his 49th homer and the Cleveland Indians defeated the Minnesota Twins, 9-1, Sunday at Cleveland to clinch their sixth AL Central title in seven years.

Ellis Burks hit a two-run homer and Jolbert Cabrera and Kenny Lofton each had two runs batted in.

Seattle 6, Oakland 3-Ichiro Suzuki extended his rookie hits record to 235 with his eighth homer and host Seattle moved closer to the AL record for victories.

The Mariners (111-45) tied the 1954 Cleveland Indians as the third winningest team in major league history. With six games to go, Seattle needs three victories to tie the 1998 New York Yankees for the AL record and five to match the 1906 Chicago Cubs for the most in the majors.

Aaron Sele (15-5) gave up one run and three hits in seven innings.

Baltimore 1, New York 1-Cal Ripken Jr. went 0 for 7 with four strikeouts, the poorest statistical showing of his 21-year career, before the game was called after 15 innings because of rain at Yankee Stadium.

Roger Clemens gave up one run and four hits in six innings for New York, allowing only a homer to Chris Richard.

Boston 8, Detroit 5-Scott Hatteberg drove in three runs for Boston and Trot Nixon hit a two-run homer at Detroit.

Toronto 6, Tampa Bay 5-Carlos Delgado hit a go-ahead single in the 12th inning at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Paul Quantrill (11-2) worked a scoreless 11th.

Chicago 5, Kansas City 2-Carlos Lee’s leaping catch in left field robbed Raul Ibanez of a grand slam and Gary Glover pitched six strong innings for Chicago at Kansas City.

Glover (5-4) gave up two runs, three hits and one walk. He struck out four. Keith Foulke earned his 41st save.

Ted Williams has been through “hell” in the last four years, but thinks he may be getting stronger, the Hall of Famer said in his first published interview since having open heart surgery.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” the former Boston Red Sox great told the Boston Globe from his Hernando, Fla., home. “But my whole life has been knocked out of joint. Oh, boy. I’ve never been through years like I’ve been through in the last four years. There’s nothing I can compare it to in my life. I really have been through hell.”

Last November, Williams was admitted to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida, and a pacemaker was placed in his chest to regulate his heartbeat.

The problems continued and Williams had open-heart surgery in January. A month later, he was moved to a hospital in San Diego to rehabilitate. He had several setbacks after the surgery, including kidney failure, infections and the need to return to a respirator.

In June, he traveled in a medical plane so he could rehabilitate closer to home.

Williams, 83, sounded tired, weak, and often lost his train of thought, the Globe reported.

Williams gets around in a wheelchair. He has three hours of physical therapy per day, kidney dialysis in his home and he still has a tracheotomy. He gets outdoors about two hours each day.

Williams’ family has been shielding him from the Red Sox’s late-season swoon, but Williams still lamented the state of the modern game.

“It is a terrible situation,” he said. “I think our game’s been destroyed and we’ve really been hurt. I’m just nuts about it all, but it’s changed and for the worse.”

Williams did not sound surprised when told that Barry Bonds was closing in on Mark McGwire’s home run record.

“Well, he’s a powerhouse,” Williams said.