Buehrle shines for 5-plus innings before losing

MINNEAPOLIS - Coming off the 18th perfect game in major league history, Mark Buehrle retired the first 17 batters on Tuesday night to set a record with 45 consecutive outs before Minnesota rallied for a 5-3 victory.

Buehrle (11-4) lost what would have been his second straight perfect game and his no-hitter with two outs in the sixth. He wound up allowing five runs and five hits in 6 1-3 innings.

He surpassed the mark of 41 straight batters set by San Francisco's Jim Barr in 1972 and tied by Buehrle's teammate Bobby Jenks, a reliever, in 2007.

Nick Punto had a two-run single and Brendan Harris added an RBI single in Minnesota's four-run seventh to move the Twins (51-50) into a tie with the White Sox for second place in the AL Central.

Buehrle walked Alexi Casilla on a close call with two outs in the sixth and Denard Span followed with a single to center to break up the no-hitter, ending Buehrle's bid to join Cincinnati's Johnny VanderMeer in 1938 as the only pitcher to throw consecutive no-hitters.

Jose Mijares (1-2) pitched 1 2-3 innings of scoreless relief for the victory and Joe Nathan got the final out for his 28th save.

Athletics 9, Red Sox 8, 11 innings

BOSTON (AP) - Rajai Davis singled home Mark Ellis in the ninth to send the game into extra innings, then did it again in the 11th to give Oakland the win.

Boston led 7-4 when Jonathan Papelbon blew just his third save in 28 opportunities, thanks in part to two ninth-inning throwing errors by shortstop Nick Green. It was still 7-7 with two outs in the 11th when Ellis doubled off Manny Delcarmen (2-2) and scored on Davis' single to right.

Davis scored on Adam Kennedy's career-high fifth hit to make it 9-7. Craig Breslow (4-4) pitched a perfect 10th for the win, and Andrew Bailey earned his 12th save despite giving one run back in the 11th.

Delcarmen gave up two runs and three hits in 1 2-3 innings.

One night after the slumping Red Sox offense broke out with 14 hits, the club hung Jim Rice's No. 14 on the Fenway facade to honor the Hall of Fame slugger.

Ellis had four of the A's 21 hits, and Orlando Cabrera had three.

Kevin Youkilis had three hits for Boston.

Rays 6, Yankees 2

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Tampa Bay's Scott Kazmir outpitched CC Sabathia to win for the first time in more than two months.

Evan Longoria hit a solo homer and Carl Crawford had an RBI triple off Sabathia (10-7), and AL East-leading New York lost for just the second time in 12 games since the All-Star break.

Kazmir (5-6) took a four-hitter into the eighth inning to win for the first time since May 9, against Boston.

Sabathia, 7-1 lifetime against Tampa Bay before Tuesday, allowed six runs and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings.

Longoria's homer put Tampa Bay up 4-1 in the fifth. The Rays chased the Yankees ace with two more runs in the sixth on Jason Bartlett's RBI infield single and B.J. Upton's bloop double that drove in Bartlett from first.

Rangers 7, Tigers 3

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Ian Kinsler drove in three runs and rookie Elvis Andrus homered and had three hits for Texas.

Kinsler, who was in a huge funk at the plate that shrunk his batting average from .272 to .242., highlighted a four-run second with a two-run triple. Kinsler had just 16 hits in his last 103 at-bats.

The Rangers have taken two straight from the Tigers after dropping the previous seven meetings and have won eight of nine overall.

Detroit is 4-8 since the All-Star break and has scored three runs or less eight times in that span.

Ex-Tiger Jason Grilli (1-1) pitched two perfect innings of relief to get the win. The Rangers' bullpen shut out the Tigers on one hit over the final five innings.

Doug Mathis made his second start of the season and sixth of his career for Texas in place of Vicente Padilla, still weak from swine flu and scratched from the start about 3 1/2 hours prior to gametime.

Mathis allowed three runs and six hits in four innings.

Luke French (1-2) allowed six runs and eight hits over five innings of his fifth big-league start.

Royals 4, Orioles 3, 11 innings

BALTIMORE (AP) - Mark Teahen led off the 11th inning with a 45-foot single and scored on a single by John Buck for Kansas City.

The Royals' second straight win gave them their first winning streak since a three-game run on July 4-6. Billy Butler hit a two-run homer and Willie Bloomquist added a solo shot for Kansas City.

Teahen opened the 11th by topping a ball down the first-base line. Catcher Matt Wieters and pitcher Danys Baez (4-4) watched the ball stop on the chalk halfway down the line.

Teahen stole second and scored on Buck's hit a two-out liner to right.

Jamey Wright (1-3) pitched two perfect innings and Joakim Soria got three outs for his 17th save.

Wieters had a career-high four hits for the Orioles, who have lost nine of 11 since the All-Star break.

Angels 7, Indians 6

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Gary Matthews Jr. hit a tiebreaking three-run double in the eighth inning, and Los Angeles survived another meltdown by All-Star closer Brian Fuentes for their major league-leading 33rd comeback victory.

Juan Rivera's RBI single tied it earlier in the eighth for the Angels, whose latest remarkable rally made up for another poor performance by their starting rotation and closer. Matthews capped the comeback with a two-out drive to left-center off reliever Tony Sipp, the Indians' third pitcher of the inning.

Fuentes, the major league leader with 30 saves, fell apart for the second straight night, giving up two runs.

Jason Bulger rescued Fuentes by getting Victor Martinez to ground into a double play, giving up another run. Bulger then retired Jhonny Peralta on a grounder, finishing his first career save.

Matt Palmer (9-1) pitched two solid innings in relief of struggling starter Jered Weaver for the Angels, who have won 13 of 16 despite losing their previous two.

Peralta homered and drove in two runs, and Ben Francisco homered as the Indians lost for the second time in eight games. David Huff (5-5) pitched into the eighth inning for the Indians.

Angels 7, Indians 6

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Gary Matthews Jr. hit a tiebreaking three-run double in the eighth inning, and Los Angeles survived another meltdown by All-Star closer Brian Fuentes for their major league-leading 33rd comeback victory.

David Aardsma (3-3) got the win pitching the ninth. He allowed a leadoff single but retired the next three batters.

Jack Hannahan singled off Downs (1-3) to lead off the ninth, his third hit of the game. Johnson walked and Chris Woodward bunted, reaching when Downs couldn't handle the roller. After two outs, Suzuki got his third hit of the game.

Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn held Toronto scoreless through six innings and left following the seventh with a 3-1 lead after giving up one run and five hits.

Mark Lowe started the eighth allowing consecutive doubles to Scutaro and Hill as the Mariners' lead was cut to 3-2. After two outs, Alex Rios hit a shot just inside the bag at third to score Hill and tie it.