Cliff Pennington hit a go-ahead two-run double in the sixth inning and righthander Trevor Cahill shook off an unusually rough start to record his team-leading 13th win as the Athletics edged the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3, last night in Oakland, Calif.
Cahill, who allowed just one earned run in his previous 33 innings, gave up a pair of home runs and was in trouble until Pennington’s two-out hit off reliever Dan Wheeler.
Cahill got plenty of help from Oakland’s defense, which turned two double plays.
Center fielder Coco Crisp also made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Matt Joyce of a home run in the sixth.
Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria homered for the Rays, who snapped a five-game winning streak.
Giants 5, Phillies 2 — Jonathan Sanchez (9-8) allowed just two hits while pitching into the ninth inning and Buster Posey lined a pair of RBI doubles, leading visiting San Francisco over Philadelphia.
The Giants averted a sweep in a matchup of NL wild-card contenders. San Francisco stopped its three-game losing streak and ended the Phillies’ four-game winning string.
Padres 5, Cubs 3 — Will Venable hit a two-run single in the seventh inning and visiting San Diego rallied to complete its first four-game sweep of Chicago in its 42-year history.
The four-run seventh — capped by Venable’s dash home when the Cubs weren’t paying attention to him — made a winner of Mat Latos, who had a career-high 10 strikeouts in seven innings.
White Sox 11, Twins 0 — Paul Konerko had five hits and four RBIs and Mark Buehrle pitched seven shutout innings to help Chicago slow surging Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Buehrle allowed five hits and struck out four. Konerko hit his 31st home run and had a double and three singles among Chicago’s 21 hits to help the White Sox avoid a sweep.
Orioles 4, Rangers 0 — Rookie Brian Matusz pitched eight innings and host Baltimore used a four-run seventh to defeat Colby Lewis (9-10) and send Texas to its fourth straight defeat.
Matusz (5-12) gave up five hits, walked one, and struck out six. Only two Rangers reached second base and none advanced to third.
Dodgers 2, Rockies 0 — Ted Lilly threw a two-hitter to win his fourth straight start since joining Los Angeles, and Reed Johnson hit his first homer of the season as the Dodgers shut out visiting Colorado.
Lilly had a season-high 11 strikeouts, walked two, and retired 19 consecutive batters in his third career shutout.
Reds 9, Diamondbacks 5 — Ramon Hernandez and Jay Bruce hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie and Cincinnati completed a three-game sweep of Arizona in Phoenix.
Nationals 6, Braves 2 — Nyjer Morgan had two hits and scored two runs in his return from the disabled list, Willie Harris padded the lead with a two-run homer in the ninth, and Washington roughed up host Atlanta.
Marlins 4, Pirates 2 — Alex Sanabia pitched 7 2/3 innings of four-hit ball and Gaby Sanchez hit a three-run homer to lift visiting Florida.
Astros 3, Mets 2 — Carlos Lee hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to lead host Houston.
Indians 7, Royals 3 — Shin-Soo Choo hit a tiebreaking RBI single in a five-run eighth inning to help Cleveland whip host Kansas City.
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