Jeff King's two-run homer capped a four-run first inning that carried the Kansas City Royals to an 8-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Friday night.

The Royals, who also got a home run from Mike Sweeney, won their third straight and sixth in their last eight. Brian Hunter hit two doubles for the Tigers, who lost for the 14th time in 19 games.Glendon Rusch (5-8), who shut out Detroit in his last start, beat them again despite struggling through five innings. The left-hander gave up four runs and nine hits, walked three and had no strikeouts.

Ricky Bones, recalled Tuesday from Triple-A Omaha, pitched four shutout innings for his first career save.

RED SOX 4, DEVIL RAYS 1: At St. Petersburg, Fla., Nomar Garciaparra hit two solo homers and Jason Varitek added another as Boston won its fourth straight.

Steve Avery (4-1) allowed four hits over 51/3 innings to get the win, Boston's ninth in 11 games, and Tom Gordon pitched the ninth for his 22nd save.

Garciaparra, who has an 11-game hitting streak, homered off Tony Saunders (1-7) in the sixth and hit another one off Rick White in the ninth.

INDIANS 7, YANKEES 4: At Cleveland, Jim Thome homered twice as the Cleveland Indians handed David Cone his first loss in 12 starts.

Thome hit a solo homer in the second and a two-run shot in the seventh, his 19th, off left-hander Graeme Lloyd. Kenny Lofton hit his second homer in three days as Cleveland evened the four-game series between the division leaders at one apiece.

Scott Brosius homered and drove in three runs for the AL East-leading Yankees (49-17), who still have the best record in baseball.

Cone (9-2), who hadn't lost since April 4, allowed five earned runs and eight hits in 51/3 innings. He walked three, had three wild pitches, gave up two homers and hit a batter.

TWINS 10, WHITE SOX 6: At Chicago, Marty Cordova homered in his second consecutive game and Matt Lawton had a three-run shot and four RBIs as the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox.

Cordova, who hit a solo homer Thursday, hit a two-run homer in a four-run fourth inning as the Twins won for the fourth time in six games. Lawton had an RBI single in the first and hit his seventh homer of the season in the ninth.

Mike Trombley (3-2) picked up the win with 3 1-3 innings of one-hit relief. Greg Swindell gave up two runs in the ninth, including a solo homer to Robin Ventura, but pitched 21/3 innings for his second save.

Jaime Navarro (5-9) took the loss, his sixth in his last seven starts. He gave up seven runs and seven hits, walked four and threw two wild pitches over four innings.

MARINERS 9, ATHLETICS 1: At Seattle, David Segui hit a grand slam and Ken Griffey Jr. hit his AL-leading 28th homer Friday night as the Mariners snapped a five-game losing streak.

Alex Rodriguez added his 25th homer and Randy Johnson (6-6) ended his first personal three-game losing streak since 1993 for the last-place Mariners.

Johnson, who was 0-3 with a 6.10 ERA in June coming in, held the A's to one unearned run and struck out 12 in eight innings. He gave up eight hits and made two wild pitches.

RANGERS 7, ANGELS 3: At Anaheim, Calif., Juan Gonzalez homered and drove in five runs to increase his major league-leading RBI total to 86 as the Texas Rangers beat the Anaheim Angels.

Gonzalez took over the RBI lead from Mark McGwire, who has 82, as the Rangers ended Anaheim's four-game winning streak and cut the Angels' division lead to a half-game.

Gonzalez went 3-for-4, including a two-run homer in the ninth and a three-run double in the seventh that snapped a 2-2 tie. He has 22 homers this season.

ORIOLES 7, BLUE JAYS 4, 15 INNINGS: At Baltimore, Rafael Palmeiro hit a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 15th inning Friday night, lifting the Orioles past the Blue Jays 7-4 in a game that lasted 5 hours, 49 minutes.

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The score was 4-4 from the sixth inning until Palmeiro connected. By the time it ended, only a few thousand fans remained from the original announced crowd of 47,012.

The game was one minute away from being suspended. It could not have gone beyond 15 innings because AL rules prohibit an inning from starting after 1 a.m. The 15th started at 12:59 a.m.

Brady Anderson got the Orioles started in the 15th with a one-out walk off Bill Risley (0-4). Anderson took second on a single by Joe Carter and moved to third when Eric Davis hit into a fielder's choice.

Palmeiro then lined a 1-0 pitch over the center-field wall, ending the game just before 1:30 a.m. with his 20th homer.

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