Mariners Remain in Playoff Chase

Down to their last few outs, the Seattle Mariners rallied to keep their faint playoff hopes alive Tuesday night, beating the Oakland Athletics, 8-7, on Scott Podsednik’s run-scoring single in the eighth inning at Seattle.

A loss would have eliminated the Mariners from postseason contention. Instead, Podsednik’s two-out single capped a four-run rally in the eighth inning and kept Seattle in the American League wild-card race.

The A’s lead the AL West by three games over the Angels. Oakland’s magic number for clinching the division is two.

Barry Zito was poised to pick up his league-leading 23rd victory before the A’s bullpen blew a 7-4 lead. Oakland had been 81-1 when leading after seven innings.

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Boston 4, Chicago 2--Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez each drove in runs at Chicago and the Red Sox won their fifth in a row to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

A Red Sox loss or an Angel victory eliminates Boston from the wild-card race.

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New York 6, Tampa Bay 0--Jason Giambi hit his 39th and 40th homers, and Mike Mussina (17-10) pitched a two-hitter and struck out a season-high 12 at New York for his second shutout.

Raul Mondesi had a two-run double and Bernie Williams had his 200th hit for the Yankees, who ended a four-game homerless drought, their longest since 1998.

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Minnesota 4, Cleveland 3--Bobby Kielty’s sacrifice fly in the ninth inning at Minneapolis drove in the winning run.

Ellis Burks hit his 31st homer for Cleveland, a two-run drive into the left-field seats that tied the score, 3-3, in the eighth.

Cleveland’s Jim Thome hit his 48th homer, second in the league, and extended his streak of reaching base to 50 games.

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Toronto 11, Baltimore 1--Carlos Delgado homered twice at Toronto, and Roy Halladay (18-7) won his third consecutive start.

Delgado reached 30 homers for the sixth consecutive season and became the first Blue Jay with five consecutive 100-RBI seasons.

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Kansas City 17, Detroit 2--Chuck Knoblauch, Raul Ibanez and Aaron Guiel homered for the host Royals.

Ibanez, who had never driven in more than 54 runs in his four-year career, raised his run-production total to 103.