Woodward’s Three Homers Not Enough

Dan Wilson spoiled shortstop Chris Woodward’s big game.

Woodward hit three home runs for Toronto, but Dan Wilson homered in the top of the 10th inning to lift the Seattle Mariners over the Blue Jays, 5-4, Wednesday night in a game that featured seven homers.

“I’ll remember it as the day I hit three home runs, but also as the day we lost,” said Woodward, who received three cigars after the game. “It would have been a lot better had we won.”

Woodward, who had eight home runs in 148 at-bats this season, had the first multihomer game of his career. He tied the score, 1-1, with a drive against Joel Pineiro in the fifth inning, put the Blue Jays ahead, 3-2, with a solo shot against Pineiro in the seventh, and tied the score, 4-4, against Kazuhiro Sasaki with one out in the ninth.

Woodward said an error he committed in the third inning carried over into his at-bats.

“It helped me in a positive way,” Woodward said. “I was mad. It got me focused more. It made me step it up a notch.”

Wilson homered against Luke Prokopec (2-9). Sasaki (3-5) pitched two innings for the victory.

The Mariners took a 4-3 lead in the ninth. Reliever Scott Cassidy hit Jeff Cirillo with a pitch, Ichiro Suzuki singled and Mark McLemore put down a sacrifice bunt.

Toronto closer Kelvim Escobar then hit John Olerud with a pitch before Edgar Martinez hit a run-scoring single. Bret Boone followed with a fly out to right fielder Jose Cruz Jr., who threw out a sliding Suzuki at home.

New York 6, Kansas City 2--Roger Clemens came off the disabled list to throw seven sharp innings, getting home run support from Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter at New York.

Driving off the mound with strength and purpose, Clemens (9-3) showed no ill effects of the injured right groin that had kept him out since July 13. He struck out eight in his 289th victory, passing Tommy John for sole possession of 21st place on the all-time list.

Posada drove in four runs with a three-run homer against Jeff Suppan (8-11) and a bases-loaded walk, and Jeter hit his first homer in a month.

Cleveland 6, Tampa Bay 2--C.C. Sabathia got his elusive seventh victory and Karim Garcia hit a two-run homer for the Indians at Cleveland.

Sabathia (7-9) won for the first time since June 28--a span of seven starts--by limiting the Devil Rays to two runs and five hits in seven innings.

Tanyon Sturtze (1-12) got the loss and Steve Cox homered for the Devil Rays, who are 3-17 on the road since June 19.

Baltimore 6, Minnesota 4--Gary Matthews Jr. had three hits and two runs batted in at Baltimore, and Scott Erickson (5-10) overcame his own shaky fielding to earn his second victory since April 28.

Melvin Mora had two hits and drove in two runs for the Orioles, who built an early 5-0 lead against Rick Reed (9-6) and held on.

It was the third consecutive loss for the Twins, their longest skid since they dropped three in a row June 19-21.

Texas 7, Detroit 2--Kevin Mench hit a tiebreaking single and Alex Rodriguez had a two-run double in Texas’ five-run 11th inning at Detroit.

Carl Everett also had a run-scoring single and Rafael Palmeiro hit a sacrifice fly.

Former Tiger Francisco Cordero (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings to help send Detroit to its ninth defeat in 11 games.