CLEVELAND: Pinch-hitter Jason Giambi homered over the center field wall leading off the ninth inning to give the Cleveland Indians their fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night.
Giambi, batting for struggling Mark Reynolds, belted a 1-1 pitch from Ramon Troncoso (1-3) high over the wall and into the bushes in center. It was the 436th career homer and ninth career walk-off shot for the slugger, who had a bucket of water dumped over his head by teammates after the game.
Chris Perez (3-1) pitched the ninth, allowing a two-out triple to Dayan Viciedo. He got out of the inning when left fielder Michael Brantley made a nice catch for the third out.
The Indians moved within 2 1-2 games of the idle Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.
The sinking White Sox have lost four straight and 10 of 13.
Rays 2 Red Sox 1: In Boston, David Price allowed just two hits over 7 1-3 innings to beat Boston for the second time in six days as Tampa Bay reclaimed first place in the AL East.
Price (6-5) was dominating in the makeup game before it was delayed for 39 minutes because of a brief downpour in the middle of the eighth. The Rays left-hander stayed in the game, but retired just one batter — after starting him out with three straight balls — before Joel Peralta relieved him.
Fernando Rodney pitched the ninth for his 26th save. He gave up a single to Jacoby Ellsbury, walked David Ortiz and threw a wild pitch before Mike Napoli struck out on a 3-2 changeup to end it.
Felix Doubront (7-5) allowed two runs on eight hits in five innings for the Red Sox.
Athletics 9 Blue Jays 4: In Oakland, California, Yoenis Cespedes homered and hit a two-run triple, Josh Reddick added a two-run double and had three RBIs, and Oakland beat Toronto.
Jed Lowrie singled home a run and Josh Reddick hit a sacrifice fly in Oakland’s four-run first inning. Cespedes led off the eighth with his 16th home run, snapping a career-worst 25-game homerless streak for the Home Run Derby champion.
Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer, while Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie each hit solo shots against A.J. Griffin (10-7), who retired the first 13 batters of the game.
Esmil Rogers (3-5) was tagged for eight runs — six earned — on nine hits in 4 1-3 innings.
Rangers 4 Angels 3: In Arlington, Texas, Geovany Soto hit a game-ending homer after A.J. Pierzynski went deep to tie the game earlier in the ninth off closer Ernesto Frieri, and Texas snapped a four-game skid.
Pierzynski led off by pulling a pitch into the right-field seats, his 11th homer this season which snapped a 4-for-27 slump. Nelson Cruz followed with a single off Frieri (0-3) before David Murphy grounded into a double play. Soto, who entered the game hitting only .198 this season, then hit a towering flyball to left that easily cleared the wall.
Jason Frasor (1-2) pitched a scoreless ninth for Texas, three days after he gave up a game-ending homer in an 11-inning loss at Cleveland.
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.