White Sox, Buehrle Frustrate Red Sox

Mark Buehrle kept the Chicago White Sox in first place and the Boston Red Sox in a slump.

Buehrle pitched seven strong innings as the White Sox won, 7-2, Sunday at Boston. Chicago took two of three at Fenway Park, limiting the top offense in the majors to 19 hits in the series.

Chicago and Minnesota are 3 1/2 games ahead of third-place Kansas City in the American League Central. The co-leaders begin a three-game series Tuesday at Minnesota.

Buehrle (13-13) didn’t have his best stuff, but he started pitching with a 2-0 lead following Roberto Alomar’s double off John Burkett (10-8) and Carlos Lee’s 30th homer.

Buehrle gave up two runs and seven hits, and Damaso Marte worked two innings for his 11th save in 18 chances.

The Red Sox, who lost their second game in a row, remained 5 1/2 games behind the AL East-leading Yankees. Boston remained a half-game ahead of Seattle in the wild-card race.

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Minnesota 5, Cleveland 3 -- Doug Mientkiewicz hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning and the Twins overcame a bizarre injury to right fielder Michael Ryan to defeat the Indians at Cleveland.

It was 3-3 in the Cleveland seventh when Jhonny Peralta led off with a fly ball to right-center that Ryan lost in the sun. The ball bounced off the side of his face -- but was caught on the rebound by center fielder Dustan Mohr for the out.

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Kansas City 7, Detroit 2 -- The Tigers became the first team in 34 years to lose 110 games in one season after a defeat at Detroit to the Royals, who were led by Angel Berroa’s three runs batted in.

Detroit (38-110) has the most losses since the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres each went 52-110 in 1969, their first seasons.

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Tampa Bay 5, New York 2 -- Marlon Anderson’s two-out single broke an eighth-inning tie, and the Devil Rays took advantage of a throwing error by Enrique Wilson and a shaky bullpen to win at New York.

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Oakland 6, Texas 5 -- Eric Chavez drew a bases-loaded walk to cap a three-run seventh to lead the Athletics at Arlington, Texas, to their sixth consecutive victory. Oakland has a 3 1/2-game lead in the AL West over Seattle.

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Baltimore 5, Toronto 3 -- Matt Riley returned to the major leagues after a four-year absence and got his first career win, leading the Orioles at Toronto.