Indians’ Hafner Hits for Cycle in Victory

Rookie Travis Hafner hit for the cycle and Brian Anderson came within two outs of a shutout Thursday as the Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-3, at Minneapolis.

Hafner completed the seventh cycle in Indians’ history and first since Andre Thornton did it on April 22, 1978, against Boston. He homered in the first inning, doubled in the fourth and reached on an infield single in the seventh against starter Brad Radke.

Hafner tripled to right-center in the eighth off James Baldwin, sliding into third without a play and driving in Cleveland’s seventh run. It was Hafner’s first triple of the season, and came in his 184th at-bat of the year.

Anderson (9-9) walked two and gave up a run in 8 1/3 innings while striking out eight.

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Boston 4, Oakland 2 -- Manny Ramirez hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning and the Red Sox rallied in the 10th at Oakland to reclaim the lead in the wild-card race.

Bill Mueller drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly. Ramirez tied it with his 28th homer of the season on a 3-2 pitch from closer Keith Foulke, who blew his fifth save in 34 chances.

The A’s failed to win after carrying a lead into the ninth for the first time in 59 games.

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Toronto 5, Seattle 2 -- At Seattle, Carlos Delgado hit his 33rd home run to help Kelvim Escobar earn his career-high fourth straight victory. Escobar (9-6) pitched into the eighth, holding the Mariners to eight hits. He improved to 4-0 since the All-Star break and 6-1 on the road with a 2.03 earned-run average.

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New York 8, Baltimore 5 -- Hideki Matsui drove in the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning, then preserved the lead with a sensational catch to help the Yankees at Baltimore.

Matsui hit a sacrifice fly to cap a three-run uprising that gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead. In the bottom of the seventh, with two on and two out, he robbed Larry Bigbie with a running, backhanded catch near the left-field wall.

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Texas 6, Detroit 3 -- John Thomson (10-10) pitched seven strong innings on two days’ rest to lead the Rangers at Arlington, Texas. He yielded three runs and nine hits to win for the sixth time in seven decisions. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter.