Burnett pitching well for Yankees

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. " A.J. Burnett is already paying dividends on his big contract with the New York Yankees.

The free-agent catch took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning in his second start since signing an $82.5 million, five-year deal, and Nick Swisher homered for the third time in four games to help Burnett beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-2 on Tuesday night.

Mark Teixeira drove in the go-ahead run with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly off J.P. Howell (0-1) after missing New York's previous three games with tendinitis in left wrist.

Derek Jeter added a three-run homer in the ninth.

Burnett (2-0) allowed one baserunner until the seventh, when Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford fouled off three 0-2 pitches before lining a single to left and later scoring on Carlos Pena's RBI single.

The Rays added a second run in the inning on Pat Burrell's sacrifice fly to make it 2-all heading into the eighth.

Burnett allowed two runs and three hits, walked one and struck out nine in eight innings " taming a torrid offense that had 17 hits in each of its previous two games, including a 15-5 rout of the Yankees on Monday night.

Mariners 3, Angels 2, 10 innings

SEATTLE (AP) " Ken Griffey Jr. was a winner in his return to Seattle.

Franklin Gutierrez hit a leadoff double in the 10th inning and scoring the winning run on a throwing error by Angels pitcher Scot Shields.

Griffey went 1-for-3 with a walk in his first home game for the Mariners since Sept. 26, 1999. The 39-year-old slugger has the same corner locker inside "The House that Junior Built" that he had for half a season before Seattle granted his request and traded him to his hometown Cincinnati Reds nine years ago.

Gutierrez, playing his first home game since Seattle acquired him from Cleveland in December, doubled off Shields (0-1) before Yuniesky Betancourt dropped a sacrifice down the third-base line. Shields fielded it cleanly but his hurried throw was well high and wide of first base.

The ball caromed off the railing in front of the box seats and down the right-field line and Gutierrez scored.

Roy Corcoran (1-0) escaped a jam in the 10th. Twins 3, Blue Jays 2, 11 innings

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) " Joe Crede's double off the center-field fence in the 11th inning scored Justin Morneau from first base, giving Minnesota a victory over Toronto.

Glen Perkins held the highest-scoring team in the majors to two runs in eight innings for the Twins, who snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Blue Jays.

Jesse Carlson (0-1) took the loss for Toronto, spoiling the second consecutive impressive outing from rookie Ricky Romero. He gave up two runs and eight hits with no walks in eight innings.

Jesse Crain (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Perkins, who gave up seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

Royals 9, Indians 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) " John Buck broke open a tight game with a grand slam for his second homer of the night and had a career-high five RBIs for the Twins.

Buck made history on Sunday, hitting the first homer at renovated Kauffman Stadium against the Yankees. Back in the lineup after a day off, he hit a leadoff home run off Carl Pavano (0-2) in the fifth inning, then launched his second career grand slam off Vinnie Chulk in the eighth to put the Royals up 9-3.

Buck's drives made a winner out of Kyle Davies (1-0), who scuffled through 5 2-3 innings, and gave the suddenly hitting Royals their third-straight win.

The Indians remained winless in five road games and dropped to 1-7 overall. Orioles 7, Rangers 5, 10 innings

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) " Adam Jones hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the 10th inning and Baltimore held on to hand the Rangers their fifth straight loss.

With the score tied at 3, Brian Roberts singled with one out in the 10th off Eddie Guardado (0-1). Jones, who had three RBIs, followed with his first homer of the season into the Baltimore bullpen in left-center.

Luke Scott added a two-run double later in the four-run 10th as the Orioles batted around to make it 7-3.

Jim Johnson (1-0) threw two innings of one-hit relief.

Guardado allowed four runs and four hits while getting just two outs.

Texas rallied for two runs in the bottom of the 10th against George Sherrill on Ian Kinsler's run-scoring single and Josh Hamilton's RBI groundout to make it 7-5.