Pierzynski homers, Rangers hold off Astros, 5- 4
ARLINGTON, Texas — A. J. Pierzynski hit a three- run home run, Nelson Cruz had a tiebreaking single in the fifth inning and the Texas Rangers beat the Houston Astros 5- 4 on Sunday.
Five Texas relievers, including right- hander Joakim Soria in his first appearance in nearly two years, pitched a scoreless inning apiece after rookie starter Justin Grimm couldn’t get an out in the fifth.
Cory Burns ( 1- 0) got the win, and Joe Nathan pitched a perfect ninth for his 29th save in 30 chances a day after making his sixth All- Star team and second in two seasons with Texas.
Pierzynski gave the Rangers a 3- 0 lead in the first inning with his 8th homer, a shot into the Texas bullpen in right field after consecutive walks to Elvis Andrus and Cruz by Erik Bedard ( 3- 5).
Orioles 2, Yankees 1
NEW YORK — Adam Jones hit a two- run homer off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Yankees 2- 1 on Sunday, ending New York’s longest winning streak of the season at six games.
A healthy Hiroki Kuroda pitched seven innings of three- hit ball for the Yankees, but they were unable to finish off a three- game sweep after Baltimore took all three games from them at Camden Yards last weekend.
David Robertson worked a 1- 2- 3 eighth and Rivera ( 1- 2) entered looking to reach 30 saves for the 15th time, which would break a tie with Trevor Hoffman for the major league record.
Rays 3, White Sox 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — David Price went the distance to win his second straight start since returning from an injury as the Tampa Bay Rays completed a three- game sweep by beating the Chicago White Sox 3- 1 Sunday.
Price ( 3- 4) worked around eight hits, walking none and striking out five. The 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner spent 47 days on the disabled list with a strained left triceps, then came back and struck out 10 in seven shutout innings against Houston.
The Rays have won eight of nine to move a
Blue Jays 11, Twins 5
TORONTO — Todd Redmond pitched one- hit ball over five innings for his first major league win and the Toronto Blue Jays hit three home runs Sunday to beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 11- 5.
Rajai Davis hit a three- run homer and Jose season- high nine games over .500.
Josh Phegley hit his first major league homer for Chicago, which has lost nine of 11. The White Sox have dropped 19 of their last 23 road games.
Reyes and Colby Rasmus also connected for the Blue Jays, who have won 10 of the last 13 against Minnesota.
Redmond ( 1- 1) allowed two runs, with three walks and four strikeouts.
Redmond made his first start of the season for Toronto and just the second of his career. The right- hander was called up from Triple- A last week after the Blue Jays designated ChienMing Wang for assignment.
The Blue Jays took two out of three and have not lost a series against Minnesota since May 2007.
Aaron Hicks and Trevor Plouffe homered for the Twins, who have lost seven of eight.
Indians 9, Tigers 6
CLEVELAND — Michael Brantley’s two- run homer in the eighth inning off Al Alburquerque helped Cleveland snap a seven- game skid against Detroit and gave the Indians an 8- 6 win on Sunday, trimming one game off the Tigers’ lead in the AL Central.
Brantley hit a solo homer in the sixth and had a career- high five RBIs. He drove a 3- 1 pitch from Alburquerque ( 1- 2) over the wall in right as the Indians recovered after their bullpen blew a five- run lead.
Detroit had overpowered Cleveland in the first two games of the four- game series, and the Tigers rallied to tie it 6- all in the eighth on Torii Hunter’s three- run homer.
Cody Allen ( 4- 1) got one out in the eighth and Chris Perez gave up a single in the ninth before getting his ninth save.
Athletics 10, Royals 4
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Josh Reddick homered and drove in four runs to cap a big series for Oakland, Jed Lowrie and Eric Sogard also went deep and the Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals 10- 4 on Sunday.
A. J. Griffin ( 7- 6) rebounded from a miserable start against the Cubs to go five innings for the A’s. The only damage he allowed came on solo homers by George Kottaras and Alex Gordon.
Jesse Chavez earned his first career save with four scoreless innings of relief.
Luis Mendoza ( 2- 5) allowed five runs in the second inning for the Royals, and was yanked to a round of boos after retiring just four batters. It was the righthander’s shortest start in exactly five years — since an outing on July 7, 2008, when he was still with Texas.