BALTIMORE — Pedro Martinez allowed three hits over eight innings and Kevin Millar drove in two runs as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Baltimore Orioles 5-0 Wednesday.
Johnny Damon had three hits and scored twice for the Red Sox, who took two of three from the Orioles to finish a 7-2 road trip.
Boston began the day 3 1/2 games behind New York in the AL East and two games ahead of Seattle in the AL wild-card race.
Martinez (12-4) struck out nine and walked two in lowering his league-leading ERA to 2.36. He gave up singles to Geronimo Gil in the third and eighth innings, and a double to Larry Bigbie in the seventh.
Martinez, 5-1 with a 1.05 ERA in nine career appearances at Camden Yards, has only two losses in his last 18 starts since May 15.
ROYALS 9, INDIANS 7: At Kansas City, Brent Mayne's two-run double highlighted a five-run fifth inning, and Kansas City snapped a four-game home losing streak with a 9-7 victory over Cleveland. Kris Wilson (6-3) earned the win with one inning of relief work. After a clutch setup performance by Curtis Leskanic, Jeremy Affeldt went 2 1/3 perfect innings for his fourth save in as many chances. Josh Bard hit a three-run homer and Alex Escobar and Jody Gerut had three hits each for the Indians, who lost for the seventh time in eight games.
YANKEES 15, TIGERS 5: At New York, Jorge Posada hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high seven runs, and New York overcame four errors and routed Detroit 15-5. Hideki Matsui homered and drove in three runs and Nick Johnson also homered, but made three of the Yankees' defensive miscues. New York won its fourth straight and remained 3 1/2 games ahead of Boston in the AL East. Andy Pettitte (18-8) labored through six innings, allowing four runs — two earned — and struck out seven and walked three. He rebounded from a rough outing against Boston last Friday night, when he gave up eight earned runs and nine hits in 2 1/3 innings in a 9-3 loss.
BLUE JAYS 6, DEVIL RAYS 5: At Florida, Vernon Wells and Carlos Delgado hit back-to-back homers in the seventh inning, and Wells drove in three runs as Toronto beat Tampa Bay. Wells' two-run homer in the seventh put the Blue Jays ahead 5-3. It was his first homer since Aug. 20 and his 31st of the season. Delgado followed with his 35th homer — his first since Aug. 27 — to make it 6-3. Delgado leads the AL with 125 RBIs.
Mark Hendrickson (9-9) gave up three runs — all in the first inning — and six hits over six innings. In his previous three starts, he had 10.97 ERA over 10 2/3 innings. The Devil Rays lost for just fourth time in 14 games against Toronto this season.
TWINS 4, WHITE SOX 1: At Chicago, Shannon Stewart drove in a pair of runs and Johan Santana won his fourth straight decision Wednesday as Minnesota pulled within one game of the AL Central lead with a 4-1 victory over the White Sox. Cristian Guzman and Matthew LeCroy also drove in runs for Minnesota, which snapped a six-game losing streak to the White Sox. It was only the Twins' second victory in their last 13 games in Chicago. It came at an opportune time, too. Chicago had won the first two of the four-game series, taking a two-game lead in the division race. But now that lead is back down to one, with only four games left between the teams.
ATHLETICS 3, ANGELS 0: At Oakland, Ted Lilly won his career-best fourth straight start and Erubiel Durazo went 3-for-4 with a double to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 3-0 win over the Anaheim Angels. The A's desperately needed a strong pitching performance, and Lilly calmly delivered. He retired the first seven Angels hitters and nine of the first 10 batters as the A's won for the second straight night against Anaheim following a frustrating three-game losing streak. Oakland entered the game with a 2 1/2 game lead over Seattle in the AL West — its biggest edge in the division since April 10. Durazo, batting in the second spot in the order for the fourth time this year, is 10-for-45 (.222) with one RBI in his last 14 games, but is showing signs that he's working out of his offensive funk.