There’s No Denying It, Boone Gets Winning Hit

His struggle had become so profound that Aaron Boone felt compelled to express his anguish to New York Manager Joe Torre after a fifth-inning strikeout.

So when he came to the plate in the ninth inning Friday night with two runners on and the Yankees behind, 3-2, Boone was especially eager to break out of his six-for-51 slump.

He did, in far from routine fashion, hitting a disputed three-run homer that gave the Yankees a bizarre 6-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Baltimore.

Boone’s drive to left was initially called foul by third-base umpire Jeff Nelson. After Boone ran across the field to protest and Torre joined the argument, the umpires huddled and reversed the call.

Texas 11, Chicago 5 -- At Arlington, Texas, Rafael Palmeiro drove in four runs to lead the Rangers past Estaban Loaiza and the White Sox. Michael Young homered and drove in three runs as Texas sent Chicago to its third straight loss.

Loaiza (15-6) came into the game leading the league with a 2.24 earned-run average. He yielded a season-high seven runs in five innings, and his four-game winning streak ended.

Minnesota 9, Kansas City 2 -- Kenny Rogers gave up only two singles and one unearned run in eight innings, and Torii Hunter had a three-run home run to lead the Twins at Kansas City.

Keeping the Royals off balance with breaking pitches and offspeed stuff, Rogers (10-6) was perfect through 4 1/3 innings before Joe Randa reached on third baseman Corey Koskie’s throwing error.

Cleveland 1, Tampa Bay 0 -- Josh Bard hit a one-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving C.C. Sabathia his first career shutout. Sabathia (11-7) got more dominant as the game progressed, striking out the side in the eighth inning on 10 pitches and retiring 14 of his last 16 batters. He gave up four hits and struck out a season-high nine.

Toronto 8, Oakland 5 -- Eric Hinske hit two home runs and matched his career high with four RBIs to help beat the A’s at Oakland.

Josh Towers (2-1) won as a starter for the first time since Aug. 17, 2001, at Boston when he was with the Orioles. He had lost his previous seven starts, two this season. Towers, a reliever before the All-Star break, gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings.

Seattle 10, Boston 5 -- Ichiro Suzuki hit his second grand slam of the season to lead the Mariners at Seattle. The sixth-inning homer broke a 4-4 tie and made a winner of reliever Julio Mateo (4-0), who got only one out but became the first Mariner since Joel Pineiro at the end of 2000 and the start of 2001 to win his first four decisions.