Athletics Move Back Into First

Eric Chavez hit a go-ahead double in the 11th inning and the Oakland Athletics survived Octavio Dotel’s blown save in a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night at Minneapolis.

Oakland, which moved ahead of Texas back into the West Division lead, led, 1-0, before Shannon Stewart homered off Dotel (2-1) leading off the ninth.

Eric Byrnes singled off Juan Rincon (9-4) with one out in the 11th and Chavez followed with a double to left-center. Jermaine Dye then singled home Chavez, and the A’s won for the 10th time in 13 games to move a half-game ahead of the Rangers.

The Twins, who lost for the fourth time in 17 games, still have a six-game lead over Chicago and Cleveland in the Central Division.

Baltimore 9, Texas 1 --Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez and Larry Bigbie homered at Baltimore to help the Orioles win their fourth in a row. Tejada drove in two runs to increase his major league-leading RBI total to 99. The loss ended a three-game winning streak for the Rangers.

New York 11, Toronto 4 -- Hideki Matsui homered twice and drove in a career-high six runs in the first three innings at Yankee Stadium. His three-run shot in the first inning offset one hit by Carlos Delgado in the top half.

Matsui extended the lead to 5-3 in the third with a solo homer off Sean Douglass (0-2), and he capped off the six-run inning with a two-run single.

The Yankees (69-39) won for the sixth time in seven games to move to a season-high 30 games over .500.

Detroit 4, Boston 3 -- The loss at Detroit was the fourth in six games for the Red Sox, who dropped a season-high 10 1/2 games behind the first-place Yankees in the East Division. The largest deficit the Red Sox have overcome to win the division was 10 games, in 1988.

Tampa Bay 2, Seattle 1 -- Carl Crawford scored the winning run with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning when Mariner shortstop Jose Lopez was charged with obstruction. Crawford was on third with the bases loaded when Tino Martinez hit a fly ball to left.

On the play, Lopez moved toward third and took a position between Crawford and left fielder Raul Ibanez. Third base umpire Paul Emmel determined that Lopez had obstructed Crawford’s view of the catch and awarded him home.

Cleveland 3, Chicago 2 -- Coco Crisp hit a three-run homer to lead the Indians at Chicago. The Indians’ 10th win in 15 games moved them into a tie for second place with the White Sox in the Central Division. The White Sox, who have lost 10 of 12, announced that slugger Frank Thomas will sit out the rest of the season while he recovers from a stress fracture in his left foot.