The Minnesota Twins went top of the American League Central division with a 9-0 thrashing of the high-flying Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. Pitcher Glen Perkins was commanding over eight innings for Minnesota, while Denard Span and Delmon Young both homered for the Twins, who recorded a fourth straight win to move half a game above Chicago in the Central. Los Angeles appears certain to reach the playoffs, but Perkins held the Angels to five hits on the way to winning his fourth consecutive decision. Rays 9, White Sox 4: In Chicago, Tampa Bay assumed the American League's best record by beating Chicago. The Rays took over from Los Angeles as holders of the AL's best win-loss record and maintained a 4-1/2 game lead over Boston atop the AL East. The result also cost the White Sox their leadership of the AL Central, leaving them half a game behind Minnesota and the same margin behind Boston, which holds the wildcard. Rocco Baldelli hit his first homer in more than a year while Carlos Pena and Ben Zobrist also went deep for Tampa Bay. Red Sox 8, Blue Jays 4: In Toronto, Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek hit solo home runs to power Boston over Toronto. Yankees 9, Orioles 4: In Baltimore, New York posted a rare late rally to beat Baltimore. The Yankees got just their third win from 53 attempts in games in which they trailed after seven innings. Indians 7, Rangers 5: In Arlington, Texas, Cleveland continued its late-season surge with a win over Texas. Tigers 4, Royals 3: In Kansas City, Missouri, the home team slipped to its sixth straight loss at the hands of Detroit. Mariners 7, Athletics 5: In Seattle, the home team snapped a seven-game losing streak by beating Oakland. Phillies pound Dodgers The Philadelphia Phillies pounded veteran pitcher Greg Maddux in his Los Angeles debut to beat the Dodgers 8-1 in the National League on Friday. Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Chris Coste hit home runs for Philadelphia, which ended a six-game losing streak to the Dodgers and remained 2-1/2 games behind New York, which tops the NL East division. Maddux, who was traded from San Diego on Tuesday, allowed seven runs in 5 2-3 innings. Los Angeles remained two games behind NL West leader Arizona. Howard hit his 34th homer to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Howard entered the at-bat with a dismal record of 3-for-36 with 18 strikeouts and one homer in his past 14 games. The Phillies scored four runs in the sixth to knock Maddux out of the game. Coste's three-run homer capped the inning as the Phillies scored their most runs this month. Marlins 5, Diamondbacks 4: In Phoenix, Florida came from behind in the eighth inning to edge Arizona. The Diamondbacks maintained a two-game lead over Los Angeles in the NL West. In other games it was: Mets 3, Astros 0; Cardinals 18, Braves 3; Brewers 10, Pirates 4; Nationals 13, Cubs 5; Giants 5, Padres 0; Reds 8, Rockies 5.
