A’s Wrap Up Playoff Berth

The Oakland Athletics clinched their third consecutive playoff berth as Jermaine Dye hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to help defeat the Texas Rangers, 4-2, Friday night at Oakland.

The victory and Seattle’s 8-1 loss to the Angels guaranteed at least a wild-card berth for the A’s, who won the American League West in 2000 and got the wild card with 102 victories last season.

Oakland’s late rally was keyed by All-Star shortstop Alex Rodriguez’s two errors on the same play. With Mark Ellis on first base, Rodriguez bobbled Miguel Tejada’s grounder for the first error, then threw the ball past Michael Young into right field, allowing the runners to advance to second and third. After Danny Kolb (3-5) intentionally walked Eric Chavez, Dye hit a fly ball to deep center, easily scoring Ellis. Reliever Juan Alvarez then walked David Justice and Randy Velarde, scoring Tejada with the A’s second unearned run of the inning.

Boston 4, Baltimore 2--Mike Bordick set a major league record with his 102nd consecutive errorless game at shortstop, but Derek Lowe earned his 21st win for the Red Sox at Baltimore. Bordick broke the record set by Rey Ordonez with the New York Mets in 1999-2000.

New York 5, Detroit 1--Alfonso Soriano drove in his 100th run as the Yankees cut their magic number to one for their fifth consecutive AL East title with a win at Detroit.

Chicago 10, Minnesota 2--Carlos Lee hit a three-run homer as the White Sox scored nine runs off Twin relievers after starter Rick Reed left in the fifth inning because of a left knee injury.

Tampa Bay 11, Toronto 7--Tanyon Sturtze stopped his four-game losing streak for the Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Cleveland 6, Kansas City 2--Ellis Burks and Jim Thome hit consecutive home runs in the first inning as the Indians won at Kansas City, Mo.