A’s Can’t Handle Rogers, Young

Michael Young hit a tiebreaking home run in the sixth inning and Kenny Rogers dominated again at Oakland, leading the Texas Rangers past the Athletics, 3-1, Friday night.

Oakland lost its second straight after a three-game winning streak and dropped four games behind the West Division-leading Angels.

Young led off the sixth with his 24th homer, extending his career-best hitting streak to 20 games, and Mark Teixeira hit his 42nd homer leading off the fourth. He has 27 RBIs in September, a club record.

Rogers (14-7) made his fifth start of the season against the A’s, improving to 4-0 against his former club. Rogers, who pitched for Oakland in 1998 and part of ‘99, is 21-1 in Oakland since a loss Aug. 7, 1994.

Cleveland 7, Kansas City 6 -- Travis Hafner homered in his sixth consecutive game and the Indians scored an unearned run in the top of the ninth inning to defeat the Royals and remain 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the Central Division.

Cleveland, which won for the ninth time in 10 games, maintained a 1 1/2 -game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race.

Chicago 3, Minnesota 1 -- Jose Contreras pitched a six-hitter for his first career complete game, and Jermaine Dye hit a three-run homer in the first inning at Chicago to lead the White Sox, who won for only the fifth time in 15 games.

Contreras (14-7) matched a season high with nine strikeouts to win his seventh straight start since an Aug. 15 loss to Minnesota.

New York 5, Toronto 0 -- Shawn Chacon (6-3) pitched eight strong innings, and Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano hit back-to-back homers leading off the first at Yankee Stadium.

Chacon improved to 3-0 with a 1.17 earned-run average in three starts against the Blue Jays this season.

Hideki Matsui and Tino Martinez also drove in runs during a four-run first, sending the first-place Yankees to their fifth straight win and 11th in 12 games. The Yankees are one game ahead of the Boston Red Sox as they seek their eighth straight East Division title.

Boston 6, Baltimore 3 -- Manny Ramirez hit his 40th home run and drove in three runs at Baltimore, and the Red Sox handed the Orioles their sixth straight loss.

Ramirez singled in a run in the first inning and hit a two-run homer in the seventh. Boston’s cleanup hitter has four homers in his last three games and seven in his last 13 after going 17 games without one.

Seattle 2, Detroit 1 -- At Detroit, Ryan Franklin (7-15) won for the first time in eight starts since July 30, helping the Mariners extend the Tigers’ losing streak to eight.