DETROIT: Jose Alvarez pitched six impressive innings in his major league debut and Don Kelly hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the sixth to help the Detroit Tigers finish a three-game sweep of the skidding Cleveland Indians with a 4-1 victory Sunday.
Alvarez (1-0) was starting because of Anibal Sanchez’s shoulder tightness, and he held Cleveland hitless until Ryan Raburn’s fifth-inning homer. The 24-year-old left-hander allowed three hits and a walk and struck out seven.
Drew Smyly pitched two innings of relief and Joaquin Benoit finished for his third save. Cleveland has lost seven straight.
Justin Masterson (8-5) allowed four runs in seven innings. He gave up a walk to Miguel Cabrera and a single to Prince Fielder to start the Detroit sixth. One out later, Kelly lifted a drive over the wall in right.
The first-place Tigers lead Cleveland by 5½ games in the AL Central.
Red Sox 10 Angels 5: In Boston, David Ortiz hit a three-run homer and Jarrod Saltalamacchia connected twice to power Boston past Los Angeles.
Saltalamacchia and Mike Carp went deep on consecutive pitches from Joe Blanton (1-10) in the sixth inning, moments after Ryan Dempster (4-6) got his 2,000th career strikeout. The Red Sox took two of three in the series and have won six of eight.
Los Angeles entered the weekend having won eight straight against the Red Sox after going 6-0 last season, but dropped the final two after winning the opener of a day-night doubleheader Saturday.
Yankees 2 Mariners 1: In Seattle, Chris Stewart hit a tiebreaking single in the ninth inning and David Phelps matched Felix Hernandez for six innings to help New York beat Seattle.
Ichiro Suzuki drew a walk from Yoervis Medina (1-2) to open the ninth and Jayson Nix sacrificed. With two outs, Stewart bounced a grounder through the left side and Suzuki scored easily against his former team to help the Yankees take three of four at Safeco Field.
Mariano Rivera allowed two hits and a walk in the ninth but earned his 23rd save in 24 opportunities, extending his career record to 631.
Orioles 10 Rays 7: In St. Petersburg, Florida, J.J. Hardy, Adam Jones, Alexi Casilla and Nick Markakis had two RBIs apiece as Baltimore battered eight-game winner Matt Moore in beating Tampa Bay.
The Orioles, held to one run and six hits in losing the first two games of the series, finished with 16 hits in this one.
Rangers 6 Blue Jays 4: In Toronto, Adrian Beltre hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning, Nelson Cruz and David Murphy also connected and Texas rallied from a four-run deficit to beat Toronto.
One day after the Blue Jays beat Texas in 18 innings, Beltre hit an opposite-field shot to right off Neil Wagner for his 14th homer of the season. That helped the Rangers avoid a three-game sweep and their first four-game losing streak of the season.
White Sox 4 Athletics 2: In Chicago, Alex Rios and Tyler Flowers homered, Hector Santiago pitched into the seventh inning and Chicago beat Oakland to split their four-game series.
The White Sox appear to be waking up after dropping 10 of 11 and falling into last place in the AL Central.
They’ve won two in a row behind strong starts from Santiago (2-4) and John Danks, and their bats are showing some life as well.
