NEW YORK: David Phelps struck out a career-high nine in four innings after relieving the injured Ivan Nova, Chris Stewart threw out two baserunners to quash potential rallies as an emergency fill-in for Francisco Cervelli and the New York Yankees beat the wild Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 Friday night.
Lyle Overbay hit a go-ahead RBI triple and Vernon Wells had a sacrifice fly off Aaron Laffey in an inning the fill-in starter for Josh Johnson walked four, helping New York overcome two homers by Edwin Encarnacion.
David Robertson yielded a long homer to Jose Bautista in the eighth but Brett Gardner restored New York's two-run lead with a homer in the bottom half of the inning. Mariano Rivera loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth but struck out Colby Rasmus to end it for his eighth save in eight chances.
Rangers 4 Twins 3: In Minneapolis, Adrian Beltre homered and rookie Justin Grimm won his second consecutive start and the Rangers beat the Twins.
Lance Berkman, Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler each had RBI doubles for the Rangers, who won for the seventh time in their past eight games.
Grimm (2-0) followed up his career-best nine-strikeout effort against the Seattle Mariners by shutting out Minnesota for seven innings, allowing five hits and no walks with four strikeouts.
The 24-year-old right-hander, filling in for the injured Matt Harrison, has allowed just one earned run in his past 15 1-3 innings.
White Sox 5 Rays 4: In Chicago, Jake Peavy pitched well into the seventh and the White Sox supported him with three homers to rally from a three-run deficit and beat the Rays.
Peavy (3-1) gave up home runs to Matt Joyce and Evan Longoria and fell behind 3-0 in the fourth, but the White Sox overpowered Rays starter Roberto Hernandez (1-4) for their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Red Sox 7 Astros 3: In Boston, David Ross cleared the Green Monster twice with solo home runs and Ryan Dempster struck out 10 for the Red Sox in a win over the Astros.
David Ortiz homered for the second straight night at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are having one of the best Aprils in club history. Boston (16-7) is two wins short of tying the club record for the month with three games remaining.
Erik Bedard (0-2) allowed five runs on eight hits over three innings for Houston.
Orioles 3 Athletics 0: In Oakland, California, Wei-Yin Chen pitched eight strong innings, giving up only two hits to help the Orioles beat the Athletics.
Jim Johnson completed the three-hitter by getting the final three outs for his ninth save. The Orioles have won seven of their last nine games while the A's have dropped seven of eight.
Chen (2-2) was brilliant, not allowing a runner to reach third base. He struck out five and walked two.
The Orioles broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning as J.J. Hardy lead off against Tommy Milone (3-2) with a single that A's right-fielder Josh Reddick bobbled for an error allowing Hardy to go to second.
Angels 6 Mariners 3: In Seattle, Hank Conger and Mark Trumbo each hit two-run homers and C.J. Wilson worked out of a pair of bases-loaded jams to help give the Angels a victory over the Mariners.
Wilson (2-0) went 5 1-3 innings, allowing seven hits and three runs. He walked two and struck out a season-high nine.
Ernesto Frieri pitched the ninth for his third save in three chances.
Interleague game
Tigers 10 Braves 0: In Detroit, Anibal Sanchez struck out 17 in eight marvelous innings for Detroit, confounding the Braves in a dazzling performance.
Sanchez set a team record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game, and he had a mathematical chance of tying the major league mark of 20 when he was pulled after eight innings and 121 pitches. Sanchez (3-1) took off his hat as he was leaving the field following the top of the eighth, acknowledging a huge ovation at Comerica Park after he struck out Dan Uggla, his final hitter.
