Athletics Play Long Ball to Rout Mariners, 11-2

Terrence Long, Ramon Hernandez, Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada homered and the Oakland Athletics defeated Seattle, 11-2, Saturday, giving the Mariners their first three-game losing streak in a year.

Seattle hadn’t lost three in a row since Sept. 21-23, 2000, against the Athletics at Safeco Field.

The Mariners failed to become the first major league team to go a season without losing a series on the road.

Oakland won its 11th consecutive at home, cutting its magic number for clinching the AL wild card to two.

Cleveland 4, Minnesota 2--Jim Thome broke a sixth-inning tie at Minneapolis with his league-leading 48th homer and Cleveland opened a six-game lead over the second-place Twins in the AL Central with 13 games remaining.

Baltimore 11, New York 2--Rookie Geronimo Gil had three hits and drove in five runs at Baltimore.

Chuck Knoblauch hit two homers for the Yankees.

Rookie Sean Douglass (1-1) gave up one run and three hits in five-plus innings for his first major league victory.

Detroit 4, Boston 3--Shane Halter homered off Rolando Arrojo (5-4) and had a scoring flyout to rally the Tigers at Boston.

The Red Sox led, 2-0, on homers by Trot Nixon and Brian Daubach.

Boston right-hander Derek Lowe, in his first start in three years, gave up three hits in five scoreless innings.

Meanwhile, even though his latest suspension has ended, Red Sox outfielder Carl Everett probably won’t play again this season because of a knee injury.

Everett will get a second opinion in Florida on his right knee, injured June 21 in Tampa.

Toronto 8, Tampa Bay 7--Jose Cruz Jr. hit a three-run homer as the host Blue Jays rallied from a 5-0 deficit.

Steve Cox homered and had four runs batted in for the Devil Rays.

Chicago 5, Kansas City 4--Tony Graffanino’s flyout in the 10th inning scored Ray Durham at Chicago.

Durham led off the inning with a hit that got past center fielder Carlos Beltran for a two-base error.