In other games
* At Baltimore, White Sox rookie Dylan Axelrod took a three-hitter into the eighth inning and Chicago spoiled the Baltimore debut of Joe Saunders, scoring seven runs off the lefthander in an 8-1 victory over the Orioles.
* At New York, Yunel Escobar hit a two-run homer, three doubles and drove in five runs as Toronto beat the Yankees, 8-5, ending CC Sabathia's 5 years of dominance over the Blue Jays.
Sabathia (13-4) was undefeated over his last nine starts against Toronto - 8-0 with a 2.48 ERA - since the beginning of his Cy Young Award season of 2007 with Cleveland.
* At Cleveland, Josh Donaldson hit a three-run homer and five Oakland Athletics pitchers combined to beat the Indians, 8-4. Oakland took over the AL wild-card lead by one game over Baltimore with its 11th win in 13 games.
* At Kansas City, Bruce Chen allowed four hits over a season-high eight innings, and Eric Hosmer's infield single in the fourth drove in the only run in the Royals' 1-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
* At Minneapolis, Samuel Deduno (5-2) threw seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball while striking out nine as the Minnesota Twins banged out 16 hits in a 10-0 rout of the Seattle Mariners.
Noteworthy
* The Baltimore Orioles are close to signing free agent lefthander Randy Wolf, who was released by the Milwaukee Brewers last week.
* Shelley Duncan has been designated for assignment by the Cleveland Indians, who claimed lefthander Scott Maine on waivers from the Chicago Cubs.
* Minnesota Twins lefthander Scott Diamond has dropped his appeal of a six-game suspension for throwing behind Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton. He started serving his suspension on Wednesday and will miss one turn in the rotation.
