ANAHEIM, California – A.J. Burnett struck out 11 in just his second win since July as the New York Yankees won a series at Anaheim for the first time since 2004 with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.
A day after the Yankees became the first major league team to clinch a playoff berth, Robinson Cano hit a two-run single, and Melky Cabrera followed with an RBI double in the fourth inning for New York.
Burnett (12-9) allowed seven hits and three walks in 5 2-3 innings.
Scott Kazmir (9-9) took the loss, while Gary Matthews Jr. and Bobby Abreu drove in runs for the Angels.
At Oakland, Hank Blalock homered and drove in four runs to lead Texas over Oakland, 9-8.
David Murphy and Marlon Byrd both had two RBIs as the Rangers won for the third time in 10 games. Nelson Cruz drove in a run for Texas, which trails Boston by seven games for the AL wild card and first-place Los Angeles by 6 1-2 in the AL West.
Eric Patterson hit a home run and Cliff Pennington drove in two runs for the A’s, who lost for the third time in 11 games.
At Cleveland, Carlos Guillen hit two of Detroit’s three home runs as the Tigers sent Cleveland to its season-high 10th straight loss, 11-3.
Rick Porcello (14-9) allowed one run and six hits over five innings as the Tigers won their third straight.
Guillen hit a two-run homer in the third off Justin Masterson (4-9) and connected off Mike Gosling to make it 9-1 in the fifth. It was the fourth time in his career the switch-hitter went deep from both sides and his seventh multihomer game overall.
Miguel Cabrera had a two-run homer, a 440-foot shot into the bleachers in left-center in the fourth, for Detroit.
At Kansas City, David Ortiz homered and drove in four runs, and Josh Beckett allowed two runs over six innings to lift Boston over Kansas, 9-2.
Jason Bay and Jacoby Ellsbury each drove in two runs and Ortiz had a run-scoring single in Boston’s six-run fifth inning off Luke Hochevar (7-11). Ortiz added his 25th homer in the eighth, a three-run shot off Carlos Rosa. (AP)