Nathan's error dooms Twins
Bobby Crosby and Emil Brown both scored on a throwing error by Minnesota closer Joe Nathan in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Oakland Athletics beat the Twins 3-2 on Saturday night in Oakland, Calif.
Huston Street (5-5) pitched 2 scoreless innings for the win and the A's rallied for their 10th walkoff win of the season and second in three days. Kurt Suzuki hit a game-winning double in the ninth inning Thursday in a 3-2 win over the Twins.
Crosby singled off Nathan (0-1) leading off the ninth before the Minnesota right-hander hit Brown to put runners on first and second. Ryan Sweeney then attempted a sacrifice bunt, but Nathan fielded the ball and tried to throw to third. The ball skipped past Twins' third baseman Brendan Harris and into foul territory and Crosby raced home, with Brown scoring behind him.
Denard Span homered for Minnesota, which missed an opportunity to regain first place in the AL Central. The front-running White Sox lost to Boston, but Nathan's error kept the Twins one-half game behind.
Brewers 11, Pirates 3: Corey Hart and Mike Cameron (4 RBI) homered, Jeff Suppan (10-7) won his fifth consecutive decision and visiting Milwaukee handed Pittsburgh its ninth straight loss.
Milwaukee moved within 5 games of the Cubs, which lost to the Phillies, in the NL Central. The Brewers extended their lead in the NL wild-card race to 5 games over St. Louis, which also lost Saturday.
Marlins 4, Mets 3: Aaron Heilman issued a bases-loaded walk to Josh Willingham in the ninth inning as the sputtering New York bullpen failed again in a loss to host Florida. Mike Pelfrey worked 6 solid innings before handing a 3-2 lead to the bullpen, which has blown 11 of 26 save opportunities since the all-star break and is second in the NL with 24 blown saves overall.
Astros 8, Cardinals 5: Ty Wigginton and Hunter Pence hit home runs during a 6-run first inning, and host Houston held on to beat St. Louis.
Dodgers 6, D'backs 2: Manny Ramirez homered twice and visiting Los Angeles ended an eight-game losing streak with a victory over Dan Haren (14-7) and Arizona.
American League
Rays 10, Orioles 9: Rocco Baldelli hit a game-winning RBI double in the ninth inning, and the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays came back from a 4-run deficit to beat visiting Baltimore. Carlos Pena drew one-out in the ninth off Rocky Cherry (0-2) and scored on Baldelli's double down the third-base line.
The Rays, an AL-best 51-19 at home, have won the first two games of the three-game set and improved to 12-0-1 in series play since the all-star break.
Blue Jays 7, Yankees 6: Vernon Wells hit a 2-run homer, Gregg Zaun drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, and visiting Toronto rallied off New York's tired bullpen.
Joe Inglett and Jose Bautista each drove in a pair of runs for the Blue Jays, who came back from 4 down and might well have dashed the Yankees' fading postseason hopes. New York is now 7 games behind Boston in the AL wild-card race with 28 to play.