run double to go over 100 RBIs for the second time in his career and the AL West-leading Texas Rangers completed a three-game series sweep of Cleveland with a 7-4 victory Thursday night. Cleveland's loss cut Detroit's magic number for clinching the AL Central to one. Josh Hamilton homered for the third straight game and Adrian Beltre also homered in extending his career-best hitting streak to 19 games. Texas stretched its division lead over the idle Los Angeles Angels to 3½ games. The Rangers (86-64) moved to 22 games over .500 for the first time since 1999, and now play nine of their final 12 games on the road, starting tonight at Seattle. Young's bases-clearing double in the fifth off Fausto Carmona (6-15) gave him 101 RBIs, and came after Hamilton was intentionally walked. Beltre followed with his 25th home run for a 6-0 lead. Hamilton hit his 22nd homer in the seventh. Athletics 6, Tigers 1: The Oakland Athletics snapped Detroit's 12-game winning streak with a 6-1 win, halting the Tigers' march toward their first division title since 1987. The Tigers had a chance to sew up the American League Central title after the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox both lost their games. Rays 9, Red Sox 2: Boston shortstop Marco Scutaro had to dodge a broken bat and wound up letting the go-ahead single through his legs as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Red Sox and cut their deficit in the AL wild-card race to three games. The Red Sox dropped to 3-11 in September to fall from first place in the division to 4½ games behind the New York Yankees and into a race with the Rays for the wild-card. Boston and Tampa Bay play three more times at Fenway Park this weekend. B.J. Upton broke a scoreless tie in the third inning with his bat-aided RBI single, and Evan Longoria followed with a three-run homer. Casey Kotchman added a two-run shot in the sixth to make it 6-1 and Upton hit a two-run homer in the seventh. Royals 7, White Sox 2: Melky Cabrera had four hits, including a home run, and Billy Butler hit a three-run homer to lead the Kansas City Royals to a victory over the Chicago White Sox. The loss officially eliminated the White Sox from the playoffs.
