LAST NIGHT IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES
ORIOLES at YANKEES:
Rarely used reserve Bubba Crosby led off the bottom of the ninth inning with his first home run this season, giving the New York Yankees a 3- 2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Chien- Ming Wang pitched eight stellar innings and Alex Rodriguez had an RBI single for the surging Yankees, who have won seven of eight and 11 of 15. Yankees are now one- half game behind first- place Boston in the AL East.
It is the closest the Yankees have been since July 26, when they were one game behind. They remained 11⁄ 2games behind Cleveland in the wild- card race. The diminutive Crosby stepped to the plate in the ninth for his 72nd major league at- bat this season and drove a 1- 0 pitch from Eric DuBose ( 1- 3) over the right- centre fence. RED SOX at DEVIL RAYS:
Mark Hendrickson won his sixth straight decision and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays held on to beat Boston 8- 7.
David Ortiz drove in four runs, two on a double in the seventh that got Boston within 7- 6 and another on his 44th homer that made it 8- 7 with two outs in the ninth. The Devil Rays had gone ahead 8-6 in the eighth on an RBI grounder by Jonny Gomes. Danys Baez allowed Ortiz’s homer in the ninth but earned his 38th save by striking out Manny Ramirez to end the game. ASTROS at PIRATES:
That mismatch between 340- game winner Roger Clemens and zerogame winner Ian Snell turned out to be exactly that. Only, not the way the Houston Astros figured it would be.
Snell limited the Astros to three singles over eight innings for his first career victory and Freddy Sanchez homered against Clemens to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7- 0 win.
Pittsburgh’s fourth consecutive victory and fifth in six games ended Houston’s fivegame winning streak and reduced Houston’s lead over idle Philadelphia to one game in the NL wild- card race. PADRES at ROCKIES:
Khalil Greene hit two homers, including the game-winner in the ninth inning, to lift the San Diego Padres back over .500 with an 8- 7 victory over the Colorado Rockies. The loss officially knocked the Rockies out of playoff contention.