The Tampa Bay Rays aren’t looking behind them despite their lead shrinking in the AL East.
“When we start worrying about what’s going on with the Boston Red Sox, or where we are in the standings and trying to protect the record and trying to protect the lead, we’re getting our minds off what we should be focusing on, which is playing our game,” Carlos Pena said.
Tampa Bay lost to the New York Yankees 8-4 on Wednesday night and had its lead over Boston cut to three games, after the Red Sox rallied to beat Baltimore 5-4.
The Rays have now lost the first two games of the series to New York, which trails Boston by seven games for the wild card.
“I don’t look at it as anything. That’s a good team. It’s not like we’re going out there, playing poor,” said Tampa Bay pitcher Troy Percival. “We’ve proven what we are, so for me to sit here and say this is a speed bump? No way. I saw us lose seven in a row and come back after the break and just tear it up.”
Percival served up a two-run homer to Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning that became the first play to be reviewed. A-Rod’s long home run down the left field line was upheld and moved him past Mike Schmidt into 12th place on the all-time homer list.
“We all believed it was a home run, but since the technology is in place we made the decision to use the technology and go look at the replays,” umpire crew chief Charlie Reliford told a pool reporter, adding that the umpires watched the video several times.
In other AL games, it was Boston 5, Baltimore 4; the Chicago White Sox 4, Cleveland 2; Toronto 5, Minnesota 4 in 11 innings; Detroit 9, the Los Angeles Angels 6; Texas 1, Seattle 0.
The game between Oakland and Kansas City was rained out and will be made up as part of a doubleheader Thursday.
Dustin Pedroia homered in the seventh inning to begin Boston’s comeback from a four-run deficit, and the Red Sox won when pitcher Jim Miller threw away a bunt for a game-ending error.
Pedroia went 3-for-4 and raised his AL-leading average to .333. He is 21-for-34 (.618) in his last eight games.
Baltimore, which has lost six straight and 11 of 12, took a 4-0 lead in the fourth against Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Alex Cora singled off Miller (0-1) opening the ninth, and took second on Coco Crisp’s bunt single. Jacoby Ellsbury, attempting to sacrifice, bunted the ball toward Miller, who threw it past third baseman Aubrey Huff and down the left-field line.
Justin Masterson (5-4) pitched two scoreless innings.
White Sox 4, Indians 2
At Cleveland, Nick Swisher and Alexi Ramirez homered to help Chicago avoid a sweep.
Javier Vazquez (11-12) allowed two runs in six innings and Bobby Jenks recorded the final five outs for his 28th save. The White Sox, who had lost five of six, moved one game in front of Minnesota for first place in the AL Central.
Vazquez (11-12) held the Indians scoreless until the fifth.
After managing one hit in the first four innings, the White Sox scored four runs on five hits in the next two innings before Jeremy Sowers (2-8) was pulled with one out in the fifth.
Swisher led off the fifth with a homer and Ramirez’s two-run shot in the sixth made it 4-0.
Blue Jays 5, Twins 4, 11 innings
At Toronto, John McDonald singled home the go-ahead run in the 11th inning and Toronto beat Minnesota for the eighth straight time.
Minnesota lost for the eighth time in 11 games and dropped to 5-8 with one game remaining on its season-long, 14-game road trip.
Jesse Carlson (6-1) worked one perfect inning to win for the second time in as many days.
Scott Rolen doubled off Eddie Guardado (3-4) to begin the 11th and went to third when Travis Snider singled. Boof Bonser came on to face McDonald, who lofted a single to center over the drawn-in outfield.
Minnesota took a 4-3 lead with a two-out rally in the ninth against Toronto closer B.J. Ryan. Facing Twins closer Joe Nathan, the Blue Jays tied it in the bottom half.
Tigers 9, Angels 6
At Detroit, Placido Polanco had three hits and drove in three runs, and Mike Hessman homered for Detroit, which won for the third time in 10 games.
Mark Teixeira hit a home run for Los Angeles. Its magic number to clinch the AL West remained at eight.
With the Tigers down 6-5 in the seventh, Brandon Inge led off with a single off reliever Jose Arredondo (7-2). Curtis Granderson tripled to tie the game and Polanco followed with a single to put Detroit on top.
Hessman hit his first homer, a two-run shot, in the eighth.
Kyle Farnsworth (2-2) allowed three hits and struck out two in 1 2-3 innings for the win. Fernando Rodney got out of a bases loaded jam in the ninth for his eighth save.
Rangers 1, Mariners 0
At Arlington, Texas, fill-in starter Dustin Nippert allowed seven hits in seven innings, and Milton Bradley hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning for the game’s only run.
Making his third start in place of injured Vicente Padilla, Nippert (2-4) struck out four and walked none. Frank Francisco pitched the ninth for his fourth consecutive save since taking over as closer last week.
Felix Hernandez (9-9) gave up seven hits in 7 1-3 innings.
It was the third 1-0 victory for Texas in 15 seasons at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The Rangers have seven shutouts this season.
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