Mussina Too Much for Red Sox Again

Mike Mussina didn’t come close to perfection, but the New York Yankee right-hander again stopped the Boston Red Sox in a 9-2 victory Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

Mussina (15-11), who came within one strike of a perfect game at Boston on Sunday night, gave up three hits and an unearned run in six innings.

Tino Martinez hit a two-run homer in the first inning and a three-run shot, his 31st, to trigger a seven-run sixth.

Seattle 6, Baltimore 1--Ichiro Suzuki had two hits at Seattle, including his seventh home run, and the Mariners (102-40) cut their magic number for clinching the American League West to four.

Suzuki was two for four and leads the AL with a .352 average. His 217 hits left him tied with Tony Oliva of Minnesota (1964) for the third-most by a rookie since 1900. Shoeless Joe Jackson of Cleveland had 233 hits in 1911 and Lloyd Waner of Pittsburgh had 223 in 1927.

Oakland 10, Tampa Bay 4--Miguel Tejada, Ron Gant, Frank Menechino and Jermaine Dye homered at Oakland to help the Athletics win their sixth in a row.

Mark Mulder (18-7) became the first Athletic left-handed 18-game winner since Vida Blue in 1976.

The A’s lead the AL wild-card race by 12 games.

Cleveland 8, Chicago 7--Kenny Lofton doubled in the winning run with one out in the ninth inning against Keith Foulke (3-8) at Chicago.

Juan Gonzalez had five runs batted in and hit two homers, including a grand slam, for the Indians.

Cleveland’s Jim Thome hit a two-run homer, his AL-leading 46th.

Detroit 4, Toronto 3--Heath Murray won for the first time in more than four years and Jose Macias drove in three runs at Detroit.

Murray (1-4) had made nine starts and 63 relief appearances since beating Greg Maddux and Atlanta for San Diego in 1997.

Kansas City 8, Texas 3--Alex Rodriguez extended his AL record for homers by a shortstop with his 44th for Texas, but the Royals won at Arlington, Texas.

Rodriguez, who has 11 homers in his last 23 games, is three homers shy of tying Ernie Banks’ major league mark for shortstops.