The Minnesota Twins won 5-1 in the American League on Thursday to inflict the punchless Kansas City Royals 11th consecutive loss. Kevin Slowey pitched a six-hitter and Carlos Gomez had four hits and two RBIs for the Twins. The 11-game skid is the longest in the majors this year and Kansas City's worst since a 13-game skid May 12-25, 2006. Slowey, in his 17th major league start, did not allow a runner as far as second base until David DeJesus and Alex Gordon doubled in the ninth. The right-hander struck out six and walked none. Luke Hochevar, has started three of the 11 games and gotten only one run in support. The rookie started the first game of the streak when Boston's Jon Lester no-hit KC in a 7-0 win. White Sox 5, Rays 1: In St. Petersburg, Florida, the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox won the first Tropicana Field game between teams in sole possession of divisional leads, cooling off the AL East-leading Tampa Bay. John Danks allowed one run and six hits in six innings to beat Edwin Jackson for the second time this season. He pitched seven scoreless innings to beat the right-hander 6-0 on April 20, a loss that left Tampa Bay in last place at 8-11. Blue Jays 12, Athletics 0: In Oakland, California, Jesse Litsch won his fifth straight decision and extended his scoreless streak to 16 innings and Rod Barajas had three doubles and drove in three runs as Toronto trounced Oakland. Litsch, coming off a seven-hit shutout of Kansas City on Saturday, hasn't lost in seven starts since a defeat at Tampa Bay on April 22. He allowed seven hits in seven innings, struck out three and walked one in throwing a season-high 108 pitches. Dana Eveland allowed a career-high seven earned runs. Mets beat Dodgers At New York, David Wright hit two homers off Brad Penny and the newly inspired New York Mets dampened Joe Torre's return home, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 Thursday. Always popular in town, Torre managed his first game in New York since parting ways with the Yankees last October. Many fans in the crowd of 52,886 at Shea Stadium stood and cheered when he made a pitching change in the seventh inning, and Torre waved and doffed his cap. Wright drew two big ovations for his first multihomer game of the season and eighth of his career. He picked on a familiar victim, improving to 11-for-19 (.579) with four home runs and five walks against Penny (5-6). Giants 4, Diamondbacks 3: At Phoenix, Randy Johnson fanned nine to tie Roger Clemens for second in career strikeouts, but Arizona's bullpen blew a lead and Randy Winn's ninth-inning homer gave San Francisco the win. Tony Pena walked in the tying run in the eighth, then Chad Qualls (0-5) gave up the homer to Winn. Arizona was swept for the second time in three series and has dropped eight of 10. Johnson, who left the game with a 3-2 lead after seven innings, has struck out 19 – in 13 innings – in his last two starts to tie Clemens with 4,672 strikeouts. In other games it was: Pirates 7, Reds 2; Braves 8, Brewers 1; Cubs 8, Rockies 4; Padres 5, Nationals 2; Cardinals 3, Astros 2.
