Chavez Again Powers A’s Past the Orioles

Oakland third baseman Eric Chavez can’t stop picking on the Baltimore Orioles.

Chavez hit a three-run homer--his fifth home run in four games against Baltimore--and Barry Zito won his fourth consecutive start Tuesday night as the A’s beat the Orioles, 5-2, at Oakland.

The A’s got their ninth victory in 10 games with another quality performance by its young rotation and another big hit by Chavez, who had three homers in two games at Baltimore last week, then homered again on Monday night.

Oakland’s victory, and losses by Boston and Minnesota, increased the A’s lead in the wild-card playoff race to a season-high nine games. Oakland is 47-17 since June 27.

Chavez’s first-inning drive off Jason Johnson (10-11) was his 24th homer and gave him a career-high 89 runs batted in.

Zito (12-8), who went 5-1 with a 1.02 earned-run average August, pitched six innings of two-hit ball against the Orioles, giving up one unearned run and striking out five.

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Cleveland 8, Boston 5--Jim Thome homered twice and Juan Gonzalez drove in three runs at Boston as the Indians sent the Red Sox to their ninth consecutive loss.

The Red Sox are on their longest skid since June 1994 and remained a season-high 91/2 games behind the Yankees in the AL East.

Thome, who also had three runs batted in, increased his league-leading home run total to 45.

Thome’s 44th homer gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead in the second against Hideo Nomo (11-7), winless in seven starts since July 26.

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Tampa Bay 8, Seattle 3--The night after the Mariners became the first team to make the playoffs, they blew a ninth-inning lead and giving up six runs in the 10th to lose at home.

Closer Kazuhiro Sasaki couldn’t hold a 2-1 lead in the ninth, allowing a run-scoring single to Brett Abernathy for his seventh blown save in 48 chances as the Mariners (99-40) were denied their 100th victory.

Tampa Bay then scored six runs in the 10th against Norm Charlton (3-2) and Jose Paniagua.

Victor Zambrano (6-2) pitched the final three innings for the win.

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Toronto 14, New York 0--Chris Carpenter pitched his second shutout of the season and rookie Felipe Lopez homered twice and drove in a career-high five runs at Toronto as the Blue Jays ended the Yankees’ five-game winning streak.

It was the most lopsided loss of the season for the Yankees. The Blue Jays equaled their season high with 17 hits.

Jose Cruz Jr. hit a lead-off homer against Andy Pettitte (14-9)--Cruz Jr.’s ninth homer against the Yankees this season.

Carpenter (9-11) gave up six hits and struck out a career-high 12. He walked none for his first shutout since May 29 against the Chicago White Sox. Carpenter, who struck out five consecutive batters at one point, pitched his third complete game of the year and the 11th of his career.

Yankee Manager Joe Torre removed his starters with Toronto up 9-0 in the fifth.

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Chicago 10-4, Detroit 1-0--The White Sox swept the doubleheader at Chicago when Sean Lowe and four relievers combined on a four-hitter in the nightcap and Magglio Ordonez hit a two-run homer.

In the first game, Mark Buehrle (13-7) gave up four hits in eight innings and the White Sox hit four solo homers.

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Texas 6, Minnesota 5--Gabe Kapler’s two-run double in the ninth gave the Rangers the victory at Arlington, Texas.