Mariners Outlast Yankees, 13-12

Paul Sorrento’s 12th-inning home run lifted the Seattle Mariners to a 13-12 victory over the Yankees on Sunday at New York after the Mariners had blown an eight-run lead.

It was Sorrento’s second homer of the game and his 20th of the season. He drove in five runs.

Ken Griffey Jr. had three hits, including his 38th homer, three RBIs and scored four runs.

Seattle rocked Dwight Gooden and opened an 8-0 lead, but the Yankees closed the gap with a seven-run fourth.

Both teams had 19 hits in a game that took 4 hours and 50 minutes.

With the score tied, 10-10, Alex Rodriguez doubled off Jim Mecir (1-1), the Yankees’ seventh pitcher, to lead off the 12th, then Griffey was intentionally walked and Seattle pulled off a double steal as Martinez struck out. Rodriguez scored his fourth run on Jay Buhner’s fly ball, and Sorrento’s homer gave Seattle a 13-10 lead.

Oakland 9, Baltimore 6--Mark McGwire hit his major league-leading 43rd home run and Scott Brosius and Terry Steinbach also homered as the A’s won at Oakland.

Brosius and McGwire hit back-to-back homers in the second as the A’s opened an 8-0 lead against David Wells (9-11).

Oakland, which has 205 homers this season, is on pace to the break the record of 240 home runs set by the 1961 New York Yankee.

McGwire’s 43rd homer gave him 145 in the Oakland Coliseum, beating Reggie Jackson’s record of 144.

Cleveland 11, Detroit 3--Jim Thome hit two homers, including his first career grand slam, and drove in a career-high six runs as the Indians beat the Tigers for the 14th consecutive time at Jacobs Field.

Milwaukee 8, Chicago 7--Jeff Cirillo’s broken-bat single over a drawn-in infield scored the winning run in the eighth inning for the Brewers at Milwaukee.

White Sox shortstop Norberto Martin and left fielder Lyle Mouton collided chasing down Jesse Levis’ bloop double, forcing Mouton to leave because of a bruised left shoulder. He was replaced by Ozzie Guillen.

David Hulse pinch-ran for Levis and went to third on Fernando Vina’s sacrifice bunt, and Cirillo singled over Martin for the lead.

Frank Thomas hit a three-run homer for Chicago, becoming only the fourth player in major league history to drive in 100 runs in each of his first six seasons.

Toronto 6, Minnesota 2--Pat Hentgen pitched his major league-leading seventh complete game, Ed Sprague hit his 30th homer and Carlos Delgado hit a two-run homer for the Blue Jays at Minnesota.

Hentgen (15-7) won for the ninth time in 10 starts. He gave up six hits and tied his season high with seven strikeouts with no walks.

Hentgen, who retired 12 of 13 batters in the middle innings, has lost only once since July 1.

Texas 10, Kansas City 3--Will Clark drove in four runs with a single, double and homer and Dean Palmer and Kevin Elster each hit two-run homers at Arlington. The victory kept Texas, in first place later than in any previous season, six games ahead of second-place Seattle in the AL West.

The Rangers played their 14th consecutive errorless game, tying the AL record set by the Angels in 1991. The major league record is 16 by the 1992 St. Louis Cardinals.