MLB: American League roundup

A's 8, Rangers 2

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Gio Gonzalez won his third consecutive start and the Oakland Athletics cut their AL West deficit to 71/2 games with an 8-2 victory Sunday, taking two of three in their series with the division-leading Texas Rangers.

Mark Ellis and Kevin Kouzmanoff homered for the A's off Colby Lewis (9-11), while Cliff Pennington snapped out of a 2-for-24 slide with two singles and a sacrifice squeeze bunt.

Gonzalez (12-8) left with a 7-2 lead after throwing 65 of his 95 pitches for strikes in six innings on another hot day in Texas. The left-hander is 7-1 with a 2.10 ERA in 10 day games this season.

Yankees 2, White Sox 1

CHICAGO (AP) - Rookie Ivan Nova set aside any worries he had about a Major League Baseball investigation and earned his first career win and Marcus Thames hit another homer for New York.

It was an impressive outing for Nova (1-0), who allowed one run and five hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in 5 2-3 innings. He outpitched Gavin Floyd (9-11) in his second start, a day after reports surfaced that the league is investigating him and a former minor league teammate for allegedly injecting each other with B-12 shots. The vitamin is not on baseball's list of banned substances.

Thames led off the second with his fifth homer in five games and ninth overall.

Royals 6, Indians 2

CLEVELAND (AP) - Kila Ka'aihue hit a go-ahead double in the seventh inning to help Bruce Chen and Kansas City beat the Indians.

Chen (9-7) allowed two runs and six hits over six innings as the Royals avoided a three-game sweep.

Mike Aviles blooped a one-out single to center off Fausto Carmona (11-13) and scored on Ka'aihue's drive into the left-center gap to put the Royals ahead 3-2.

Mitch Maier and Brayan Pena each had two RBIs for Kansas City.

Tigers 10, Blue Jays 4

TORONTO (AP) - Ryan Raburn hit two home runs, Rick Porcello pitched two-hit ball for seven innings to lead Detroit.

Porcello (7-11) won consecutive starts for the first time this season. He walked none and struck out four.

In his last outing, Porcello shut out Kansas City on two hits for seven innings.

Raburn is batting .341 with eight homers and 21 RBIs in his past 23 games.

Detroit opened the scoring in the first against Marc Rzepczynski (1-3) on an RBI double by Miguel Cabrera.

Orioles 1, Angels 0

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Jeremy Guthrie allowed four hits while pitching into the ninth inning, and two relievers helped complete Baltimore's six-game season sweep of the struggling Angels.

Luke Scott scored on Matt Wieters' sacrifice fly in the seventh. The Orioles limited the Angels to one run in three games while sweeping the season series for the first time by either club in a half-century of competition.

Guthrie (8-13) allowed just one runner to reach third base until Reggie Willits hustled for a one-out double in the ninth and advanced on Howie Kendrick's single.

Jered Weaver (11-10) struck out 11 - including his 200th of the season - during eight innings of five-hit ball.

Mariners 2, Twins 1

SEATTLE (AP) - A wild pitch, a misplayed fly ball and a fielder's choice by Adam Moore in a two-run seventh inning helped the Mariners beat Minnesota and avoid a three-game series sweep.

Luke French (3-4) allowed three hits, including a home run by Michael Cuddyer, in his seven innings.

David Aardsma gave up a single to Orlando Hudson with one out in the ninth, but then got Cuddyer to hit into a broken-bat double play behind second base for his 25th save in 30 chances.

Twins starter Carl Pavano (15-10) was cruising through six innings until Seattle's rally. He allowed five hits and the two runs in his seven innings for his third consecutive loss.

In the seventh, after Pavano's wild pitch Franklin, Gutierrez hit a fly ball which left fielder Delmon Young, wearing sun glasses and looking into a hazy glare, reacted slowly. Young's late attempt to lunge at the ball failed and the ball short-hopped off the grass and his glove for an RBI single. Moore than hit a run-scoring grounder.

Rays 5, Red Sox 3

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford homered to back James Shields and help Tampa Bay retain a share of first place in the AL East.

Keeping pace with the New York Yankees, the Rays rebounded from losing the opener of a crucial weekend series to win two straight and drop the third-place Red Sox 61/2 games behind in the division and wild card.

Shields (13-11) won for the sixth time in eight starts, allowing three runs and seven hits over 6 2-3 innings. He walked one and struck out eight before turning over a one-run lead to a better-than-expected bullpen.

Pena and Crawford both homered off John Lackey (12-8). Pena hit a solo shot in the fourth and Crawford delivered a two-run shot that wiped out a 3-1 Boston lead in the sixth.