Garcia Making His Pitch for Mariners

The Seattle Mariners will have a much easier time winning the West Division if Freddy Garcia is off to another winning streak in his inconsistent season.

Garcia won his second straight start after losing six consecutive decisions as the Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-1, Sunday at Seattle.

By winning two of three, the Mariners remained four games in front of Oakland.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, fell five games behind the New York Yankees in the East Division and dropped into a tie with the Athletics in the wild-card race.

Trot Nixon hit his 23rd homer of the season, a 412-foot shot to center, in the third inning before Garcia (11-12) retired 17 in a row before walking Nixon with two outs in the eighth.

Bill Mueller followed with a ground-rule double to put runners at second and third before Rafael Soriano came in and struck out Nomar Garciaparra on three pitches to end the inning.

Garcia pitched 7 2/3 innings and gave up one run and four hits. Shigetoshi Hasegawa pitched the ninth and made it 13 saves in 13 opportunities since taking over as closer for Kazuhiro Sasaki.

Oakland 7, Toronto 3 -- Barry Zito (10-10) pitched seven solid innings at Oakland, yielding four hits and three runs while striking out six. Roy Halladay (16-5), trying to become the league’s first 17-game winner, lasted a season-low three innings. He gave up seven runs -- five earned -- and 10 hits, including nine singles.

New York 8, Baltimore 0 -- At Baltimore, Mike Mussina (14-6) pitched a three-hitter and the Yankees completed a four-game sweep of the Orioles, who have lost a season-high seven straight. Mussina allowed only one runner past first base and retired the last 14 batters.

Kansas City 5, Minnesota 4 -- Raul Ibanez and Joe Randa hit consecutive home runs in a four-run third inning as the Royals avoided a three-game sweep at Kansas City. The Royals also reclaimed their three-game lead over the Twins in the Central Division.

Texas 6, Chicago 4 -- Alex Rodriguez hit his 33rd homer and a tiebreaking two-run triple in the seventh inning as the Rangers completed a three-game sweep at Arlington, Texas. The White Sox lost their fifth in a row.

Cleveland 5, Tampa Bay 4 -- Ryan Ludwick singled home the tying run in the bottom of the 10th inning, then won the game with one out in the 12th with another single.