Jason Giambi homered to end the longest slump of his career and Esteban Loaiza finally earned his 100th career victory and first for the homestanding Yankees, leading New York over the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 Tuesday night.
Gary Sheffield hit his 36th home run two days after getting a pair of cortisone shots. Alex Rodriguez almost homered for the Yankees, too, but was robbed on a spectacular catch by center fielder Vernon Wells.
Mariano Rivera matched his career high with his 50th save as the Yankees held their 4 1/2-game lead over Boston in the AL East and stopped Toronto's three-game winning string.
Giambi had been 0-for-32, with 11 of those at-bats coming since he returned from the disabled list.
Loaiza (10-7) outpitched Roy Halladay (7-8) after finishing runner-up to the Toronto ace last year in the AL Cy Young voting. Halladay, in his first outing since July 16, left after four innings trailing 3-2.
RED SOX 3, ORIOLES 2: At Boston, Mark Bellhorn singled in two runs in the ninth as Boston rallied past Baltimore and snapped a three-game losing streak after nearly blowing the game in the top of the inning.
Curt Schilling cruised through eight innings, striking out a season-high 14 as he went for his major league-leading 21st victory.
Given a 1-0 lead on Kevin Millar's sacrifice fly in the eighth, Keith Foulke (4-3) gave up Javy Lopez's two-run homer on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth.
Jorge Julio came on to face Bellhorn, who laced a pitch to deep center field.
DEVIL RAYS 7, ROYALS 4: At St. Petersburgh, Fla., Jorge Cantu hit a go-ahead, two-run double during a five-run eighth inning to help Tampa Bay beat Kansas City.
Cantu made it 5-4 on his drive to left-center field off Shawn Camp (2-1), and Carl Crawford and Jose Cruz Jr. followed with RBI singles off Jaime Cerda.
Rocco Baldelli pulled the Devil Rays to 4-3 on a solo homer earlier in the eighth off Dennys Reyes.
Cruz had four hits, including a two-run homer for the Devil Rays.
Mark Hendrickson (9-15) allowed one unearned run in two innings, and Danys Baez pitched the ninth for his 28th save.
INDIANS 8, TIGERS 7: At Detroit, Casey Blake's bloop single broke a ninth-inning tie and lifted Cleveland over Detroit.
The Indians trailed 7-2 after five innings before rallying behind five RBIs from Ben Broussard.
Coco Crisp led off the ninth with a walk, and took second on a sacrifice bunt. After Victor Martinez flew out, Esteban Yan (3-5) intentionally walked Matt Lawton, but Blake looped a single into shallow right field to give Cleveland the lead.
Bobby Howry (3-1) got the win in relief, and Bob Wickman pitched the ninth for his 10th save.
Broussard hit a three-run homer in the sixth and a two-run double in the eighth.
WHITE SOX 8, TWINS 6: At Chicago, Paul Konerko hit his 40th home run of the season, and Juan Uribe had his first career grand slam, a pinch-hit shot in the seventh inning that sent Chicago over Minnesota.
Ross Gload and Aaron Rowand also drove in runs for the White Sox, who snapped a seven-game losing streak against the AL Central-champion Twins.
Minnesota rested Torii Hunter and Shannon Stewart a night after clinching its third straight division title.
Konerko became only the third White Sox player to hit at least 40 homers in a season with his first-inning shot, joining Albert Belle and Frank Thomas.
Neal Cotts (3-3) struck out two in one inning for the win. Shingo Takatsu pitched the ninth for his 18th save.
J.C. Romero (7-2) took the loss.
RANGERS 9, ATHLETICS 4: At Arlington, Texas, Michael Young hit a grand slam, Mark Teixeira had a two-run double and Texas beat All-Star starter Mark Mulder for the second time in a week.
Ryan Drese (14-8) won his third straight start even though he allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings.
Mulder (17-6) didn't make it out of the fifth, allowing nine runs — five earned — on eight hits with two walks and two hit batters. The left-hander is 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA in four starts this month.
Young's second career grand slam, his 21st homer this season, came in the fourth after first baseman Scott Hatteberg's two-out error and put the Rangers up 7-2.
MARINERS 7, ANGELS 3: At Anaheim, Calif., Ichiro Suzuki went 5-for-5 to pull within 14 hits of George Sisler's major league season record of 257, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Anaheim Angels.
Anaheim remained 2 1/2 games behind Oakland in the AL West and dropped 5 1/2 games behind Boston in the wild-card race.