Piniella Gets Nice Birthday Present

Lou Piniella’s birthday haul included a bottle of wine, several cards from well-wishers and a dramatic victory over his former team.

Toby Hall homered in the ninth inning, lifting the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to a 3-2 victory over the slumping Mariners at Seattle on Thursday, which also was Piniella’s 60th birthday.

“What a clutch home run,” Piniella said.

The Mariners fell two games behind Oakland in the AL West after leading the division for 4 1/2 months. They lost for the eighth time in nine games, leaving them a half-game behind Boston in the wild-card chase.

“We’re a very good team. We just haven’t shown it on the field in the last few weeks,” outfielder Mike Cameron said.

Seattle’s Bret Boone tied the score at 2-2 with a solo shot in the eighth, but Hall drove a 1-and-1 pitch from Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1-1) into the Devil Rays’ bullpen in left field with two out.

It was only the fifth time Hasegawa has given up a run in 53 appearances this season.

Oakland 6, Baltimore 4 -- Adam Melhuse hit a three-run homer and John Halama pitched into the seventh inning at Oakland as the Athletics won their sixth in a row.

Scott Hatteberg led off Oakland’s four-run first inning with a homer as the A’s cruised to their sixth consecutive victory over Baltimore.

Kansas City 6, Texas 5 -- Mike Sweeney singled in the winning run in the 11th inning to help the Royals regain a share of first place and overcome two homers by Alex Rodriguez at Kansas City, Mo.

Rodriguez’s two solo shots tied him with Barry Bonds for the major league lead with 39 homers.

New York 7, Chicago 5 -- Mike Mussina gave up two quick runs, then watched his teammates rally for five in the first off rookie Neal Cotts at New York in the finale of a three-game series between division leaders.

New York, pummeled by a combined 24-4 in the first two games, headed to Boston for a weekend series with a 4 1/2-game lead in the AL East.

Cleveland 8, Detroit 3 -- Rookie Jody Gerut homered twice and drove in a career-high five runs at Cleveland. Detroit lost for the 99th time.

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WILD CARD

*--* W L GB Boston 77 56 -- Seattle 77 57 1/2 Chicago 71 63 6 1/2 Minnesota 69 64 8

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