Lee Helps Indians Narrow the Gap

Cliff Lee won his eighth consecutive decision and Coco Crisp hit a two-run home run to help the Cleveland Indians defeat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4, Saturday night at Cleveland.

The Indians are 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the American League Central. They have won 11 of 12, are 22-6 since Aug. 18 and have trimmed 11 1/2 games off a Chicago lead that reached 15 on Aug. 1.

Cleveland has six games remaining against the White Sox, who have dropped seven of nine and will play host to a three-game series against the Indians starting Monday.

“It’s up to us,” Lee said. “For a while, I thought it was out of reach and I was just thinking about the wild card, but the White Sox have fallen apart lately. We’ve got to play them six times. It’s possible.”

The Indians, 12-3 in September, stayed half a game ahead of the New York Yankees for the wild- card spot.

Lee (17-4) remained unbeaten since July 8, giving up four runs and five hits in seven innings. The left-hander, who has one loss since June 1 -- a span of 19 starts -- was staked to a 5-0 lead in the first inning.

Minnesota 5, Chicago 0 -- Johan Santana struck out 13 batters at Minneapolis, sending the White Sox to their seventh loss in nine games.

Santana (14-7) has struck out 10 or more batters in eight starts this season and he leads the major leagues with 220 strikeouts. Justin Morneau hit his career-high 20th homer.

New York 1, Toronto 0 -- Shawn Chacon pitched eight innings at Toronto and Bernie Williams drove in the run with a single in the second inning to help the Yankees win their sixth game in a row.

Chacon (5-3) gave up four hits before Tom Gordon pitched the ninth because Manager Joe Torre didn’t want to use closer Mariano Rivera for four consecutive games. New York leads the AL with 13 shutouts.

Texas 7, Seattle 6 -- Hank Blalock’s run-scoring double with one out in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Rangers.

The Mariners had taken a 6-5 lead into the top of the inning and had closer Eddie Guardado (2-3) on the mound, but pinch-hitter Mark DeRosa’s leadoff homer tied the score.

Baltimore 2, Tampa Bay 1 -- Luis Matos drove in Bernie Castro from third base with a one-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Orioles the victory.