Jeter Contributes Key Home Run

Alex Rodriguez called it the biggest victory of the season because slumping Derek Jeter got the big hit.

Jeter hit a tying two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning against Julio Mateo, and Hideki Matsui had a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth to give the New York Yankees a 7-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, their second comeback from a six-run deficit this week.

“That was a humongous hit,” Rodriguez said. “I know he’s been trying to drive the ball. He hit the ball a long ways. You don’t see many right-handed hitters go to straightaway center in this ballpark.”

The Mariners led, 6-0, after knocking out Donovan Osborne in the second inning. Osborne was making his first start since May 6, 1999.

“You want to help and I haven’t really been helping offensively lately,” said Jeter, who is batting .186 after going two for five Sunday and three for 13 in the series. “I just want to be comfortable at the plate and today I was comfortable.”

Jeter, a five-time All-Star shortstop, started the season with a .317 career batting average.

Jeter is going through one of the roughest periods of his career, but isn’t dwelling on his first six weeks of the season.

“I just wanted to get a good pitch,” he said of his homer. “I’ve been swinging at some bad pitches as of late. I wanted to make sure I did and fortunately it went out.”

Rodriguez and Jason Giambi also homered for the Yankees, who have 12 come-from-behind victories. They rallied from a six-run deficit in a 10-8 win at Oakland on Tuesday.

Kansas City 8, Boston 4 -- Darrell May (1-4) earned his first victory since Sept. 21, Carlos Beltran had three hits and four runs batted in and the Royals ended the host Red Sox’s winning streak at four.

The Royals ended a losing streak at four, and won on the road for only the third time this season.

May gave up two runs and seven hits and a walk, and struck out five before leaving with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth.

Oakland 8, Minnesota 4 -- Mark Mulder pitched a season-high nine innings and Bobby Kielty hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs for the Athletics, who had not won a series at home since the season’s first week.

Mulder (3-2) gave up six hits in the 18th complete game of his career and first since Aug. 8 at Chicago. Kyle Lohse (1-3) gave up a career-high six walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Baltimore 12, Cleveland 11 -- Miguel Tejada’s second homer of the game highlighted a four-run sixth inning at Baltimore and the Orioles held on for their first three-game sweep of Cleveland since August 1993.

Melvin Mora also homered and Tejada, who previously had only two homers, had the sixth two-homer game of his career.

Lou Merloni homered for the Indians, who have dropped five in a row.

Detroit 5, Texas 3 -- Alex Sanchez hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning and Nate Robertson (2-2) gave up three hits in seven-plus innings at Arlington, Texas.

With the score tied, 3-3, Sanchez hit a two-out, solo homer against Kenny Rogers (4-2) to give the Tigers their first lead.

Toronto 5, Chicago 2 -- Justin Miller (1-0) pitched seven strong innings, Frank Catalanotto hit a two-run homer and the host Blue Jays stretched their season-long win streak to five games.

Miller allowed two runs and seven hits, also tied a career high with seven strikeouts. The Blue Jays swept the White Sox in a three-game series for the first time since April 17-19, 1998.

Frank Thomas had a two-run single for the White Sox, whose three-game losing streak is a season high.