A’s Spoil Tejada’s Return

Jermaine Dye hit a tying two-run single in the sixth inning, and Adam Melhuse followed with a go-ahead single, leading the host Oakland Athletics over former teammate Miguel Tejada and the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3, Monday night.

Tim Hudson (9-4) pitched 7 1/3 solid innings to win his second consecutive start, beating Baltimore for the second time in six days.

The first-place Athletics maintained a half-game lead over the Angels in the American League West.

Tejada, who cried when he drove into the stadium’s parking lot for the first time in more than 10 months, was 0 for 3 in his first trip back to Oakland since signing a $72-million, six-year contract with Baltimore in the off-season.

The 2002 AL most valuable player received a lengthy standing ovation when he came to the plate leading off the second inning, then reached on Eric Chavez’s fielding error, which ended a career-high 47-game errorless streak for the Gold Glove third baseman.

It was the 717th consecutive game Tejada has played, matching Ernie Banks for the 14th-longest streak in major league history.

Baltimore began a 13-game trip, the club’s longest since the 2000 season, by losing its seventh in a row. The Orioles were swept by the A’s in three games at Baltimore last week.

Oakland stranded 10 baserunners through five innings before scoring three runs in the sixth.

The A’s loaded the bases with one out in the inning on consecutive singles by Eric Byrnes, Scott Hatteberg and Chavez, but Buddy Groom (3-1) struck out Erubiel Durazo for the second out. Jason Grimsley came in and gave up the hits to Dye and Melhuse.

Minnesota 7, Texas 4 -- Johan Santana gave up one run in eight innings at Arlington, Texas, to win his seventh in a row, and the Twins padded their lead in the AL Central to eight games over Cleveland.

Santana (14-6) gave up four hits, struck out 11 and walked one. He struck out Brian Jordan in the second inning to give him 200 this season -- the first Twin with that many since Bert Blyleven had 215 in 1986.

New York 6, Cleveland 4 -- Gary Sheffield hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning, and the Yankees sent the Indians to their eighth consecutive loss.

The Yankees stopped a slide of their own, winning for only the second time in eight games and ending a three-game losing streak.

Tom Gordon (5-3) blew a lead in the eighth but still got the victory and Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth for his 42nd save to help the Yankees extend their lead over Boston to 6 1/2 games in the AL East.

Toronto 3, Boston 0 -- Ted Lilly struck out a career-high 13 and gave up three hits at Toronto to beat Pedro Martinez and end Boston’s six-game winning streak.

Lilly (9-8) set a club record for strikeouts by a left-hander. The previous mark of 11 had been accomplished twice by David Wells and once by Al Leiter.

Detroit 7, Chicago 0 -- Jeremy Bonderman struck out a career-high 14 and gave up seven hits at Detroit in the first shutout of his career.

Bonderman (7-10) threw his first career complete game to win for the first time since July 7.

He was 0-4 in his previous eight starts. Bonderman walked one, and his 14 strikeouts were two shy of the club record, done by Mickey Lolich twice in 1969.

Tampa Bay 9, Seattle 0 -- Scott Kazmir, whose fastball was clocked as high as 96 mph, won his major league debut with five impressive innings at Seattle and Jose Cruz Jr. hit a three-run homer.

Kazmir was acquired July 30 in a trade that sent right-hander Victor Zambrano to the New York Mets and was called up Monday from double-A Montgomery.

Considered one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, the 20-year-old left-hander gave up four hits, walked three and struck out four.