MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Danny Valencia welcomed Joe Mauer back to Minnesota with a three-run home run in the first inning Friday, and the Twins held on to beat the San Diego Padres 6-5 for their fifth straight win.
Mauer played for the first time since April 12, the leg problems finally behind him. Greeted with a standing ovation before his first at-bat, Mauer hit an RBI single, but he later grounded into a double play and left five men on base. The Twins have won 12 of their last 14 games.
Brian Duensing (4-6) picked up the victory with six effective if inefficient innings, and the Padres lost for the sixth time in seven games despite a 4-for-5 performance by Chase Headley. He drove in two runs, and Ryan Ludwick hit a three-run homer in the seventh.
Clayton Richard (2-9) lost his fifth straight decision, a career-longest streak. He gave up five runs in the first inning.
Glen Perkins, making his first appearance for the Twins since May 21, struck out two in a scoreless eighth. Matt Capps followed with a perfect ninth for his 10th save, in 15 attempts this season.
Mauer, the three-time American League batting champion and ever the patient hitter, predictably took the first pitch he saw from Richard. He drove in the game's first run with a bouncer up the middle and scored on Michael Cuddyer's broken-bat bloop ground-rule double, before a walk by Delmon Young and the big hit by Valencia gave the Twins a 5-0 advantage.
That hit raised Mauer's batting average 22 points, a strange sight for a June night.
Rockies 13, Tigers 6
DENVER (AP) - Chris Nelson hit his first major league home run during a six-run second inning and Carlos Gonzalez homered and doubled to drive in four runs for Colorado.
Rookie Charlie Blackmon added four hits and two RBIs, helping to fuel the Rockies' second-highest scoring output of the season and improve their winning percentage in interleague competition to .620 (49-30) since 2006, tops in the NL in that span.
Jason Hammel (4-6) weathered Jhonny Peralta's grand slam in the sixth to win for the first time since April 30, snapping a string of five consecutive losing decisions. He allowed six runs on eight hits in 6 1-3 innings and walked four with two strikeouts.
The Rockies, who won their third in a row, did most of their damage against Detroit starter Rick Porcello (6-5), who allowed nine runs - six earned - in three innings. He walked two and struck out none.
Nationals 8, Orioles 4
WASHINGTON (AP) - Jerry Hairston doubled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning and Washington extended its winning streak to seven games despite giving up a season-high 18 hits.
Roger Bernadina homered and Ian Desmond had two hits and two RBIs for the Nationals, whose seven-game run is their longest since the final week of the 2009 season. Hairston had three hits and scored twice.
Derrek Lee went 5 for 5, and Adam Jones and Nick Markakis had four hits apiece for the Orioles. But Baltimore stranded 12 and went 4 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
The game, dubbed the Battle of the Beltways, attracted a crowd of 35,562. The Nationals entered the weekend averaging 21,735 per contest.
Washington went up 7-4 with a three-run sixth. Wilson Ramos drew a leadoff walk off Jeremy Accardo (3-3) and Hairston followed with an RBI double. Accardo then walked pitcher Sean Burnett (3-3) on four pitches, and Jayson Werth singled in a run before Desmond hit a sacrifice fly.
That was enough to dispatch the Orioles, who got at least one hit in every inning.
Royals 5, Cardinals 4
ST. LOUIS (AP) - First baseman Albert Pujols made a fielding error with two outs in the eighth, allowing the tiebreaking run to score from second base and St. Louis lost its seventh straight.
Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter appeared to have pitched around a walk to Mike Moustakas leading off the inning when he induced Alcides Escobar to hit a grounder to Pujols. But the ball went under Pujols' glove. Moustakas, who had advanced to second on a sacrifice by Matt Treanor, scored to break a 4-all tie and spoil manager Tony La Russa's 2,500th game with the Cardinals.
Blake Wood (3-0) pitched a scoreless seventh inning for Kansas City. Joakim Soria worked the ninth for his 11th save in 16 chances.
Carpenter (1-7) allowed 10 hits and four runs over eight innings. He struck out seven and walked one. Lance Berkman drove in three runs for the Cardinals with a bases-loaded double in the third.
Angels 4, Mets 3
NEW YORK (AP) - Peter Bourjos hit a tiebreaking double and turned in a sensational catch to help Joel Pineiro nail down his 100th major league win.
Hard-throwing rookie Jordan Walden walked his first two batters in the ninth inning, then struck out the next three to hold on.
Torii Hunter had three hits, including an RBI single, while Maicer Izturis and Howie Kendrick each scored twice. The Angels, who had lost seven of 10, used some slick defense to improve to 27-10 in interleague road games since 2007 - the best mark in the majors.
Los Angeles has won 28 of its last 40 overall against National League teams.
Pineiro (3-3) had failed six times to earn win No. 100 since his previous victory May 10 against the Chicago White Sox. But he ran into the right opponent Friday, pitching 6 1-3 solid innings to up his record against the Mets to 4-0 with a shutout in seven career starts.
The right-hander, who allowed two runs and six hits, shook off an early line drive to his leg and held nemesis Jose Reyes in check.
Rangers 6, Braves 2
ATLANTA (AP) - Colby Lewis and Nelson Cruz shook off slumps, Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer and Texas protected its lead in the AL West.
Cruz, who had been 0 for 18 with 10 strikeouts in his last five games, drove in three runs with two doubles. Hamilton had four hits and drove in three runs, including a run-scoring single in the ninth.
Lewis (6-7) recovered after two ugly losses in which he gave up a combined 15 runs on 17 hits in only 4 2-3 innings. The right-hander gave up two runs on five hits in 6 2-3 innings while matching his career high with 10 strikeouts.
Lewis gave up homers to Brian McCann in the fourth and Freddie Freeman in the sixth.
Texas began the night with a half-game lead over Seattle in the AL West. The Rangers snapped a five-game losing streak with their first win in four tries at Turner Field.
Right-hander Randall Delgado (0-1), recalled from Double-A Mississippi, gave up seven hits and four runs, three earned. He was knocked out without recording an out in the Rangers' four-run fifth, when Hamilton hit his fifth homer.
Red Sox 10, Brewers 4
BOSTON (AP) - John Lackey retired 15 straight batters after a shaky start, Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz had three hits each and Boston won for the 12th time in 13 games.
Tied at 4 in the fifth inning, the Red Sox went ahead to stay on Gonzalez's leadoff homer. They added two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh.
Boston increased its AL East lead to 2½ games over the New York Yankees, who lost 3-1 to the Chicago Cubs. Milwaukee's lead in the NL Central was cut to a half game over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Lackey (5-5) improved to 3-0 since coming off the disabled list. He gave up four runs before getting an out in the third. Then second baseman Dustin Pedroia started a double play, starting Lackey's hitless streak that ended when Nyjer Morgan singled in the eighth.
Milwaukee starter Shaun Marcum left the game after the first with a strained left hip flexor and was replaced by Marco Estrada (1-4).
Indians 5, Pirates 1
CLEVELAND (AP) - Carlos Santana homered and Travis Hafner had an RBI double in his return to Cleveland's lineup.
Josh Tomlin (8-4) bounced back from three consecutive rocky starts, giving up six hits but no walks over 6 2-3 innings, striking out five.
Vinnie Pestano struck out Michael McKenry with two on to end the seventh, then worked a perfect eighth. Tony Sipp pitched the ninth.
Santana broke a 2 for 26 slump by hitting his eighth homer of the season. With two outs in the fourth, he connected for a solo shot off Kevin Correia (8-6) that made it 2-0. He added a bases-loaded RBI single in a three-run eighth.
Pittsburgh had a four-game winning streak snapped and failed to move three games over .500 for the first time since being 40-37 on July 1, 1999.
Hafner had been out since May 18 with a strained right oblique muscle. Cleveland went 10-18 without him, including 5-11 in June.
Rays 5, Marlins 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Sean Rodriguez and Kelly Shoppach homered, Wade Davis pitched six solid innings and Tampa Bay beat Florida.
Rodriguez finished with four RBIs. He put the Rays ahead with a two-run homer during the second off Brad Hand (0-3), and added a two-run double in the eighth.
Shoppach made it 3-0 on a third-inning solo shot.
Davis (6-5) allowed one run, six hits, two walks and had two strikeouts.
The Marlins, who have lost eight in a row and are 1-16 in June, got a homer from John Buck.
Before the game, Florida optioned outfielder Chris Coghlan to Triple-A New Orleans.
Blue Jays 3, Reds 2
CINCINNATI (AP) - Adam Lind homered for the fourth straight game, hitting a tiebreaking two-run shot in the seventh inning, and Toronto held on for a victory that featured bothersome birds.
Lind's homer off Mike Leake (6-3) marked the 11th time in Blue Jays history that a player homered in four straight.
Jo-Jo Reyes (3-5) gave up a pair of solo homers, including Drew Stubbs' inside-the-park dash off a misplayed fly.
The Jays weren't the only birds on the field. Three pigeons roamed the infield together most of the game. At one point, Leake left the mound and tried to shoo them away - they didn't go far.
Frank Francisco gave up a single in the ninth before finishing for his seventh save in 10 chances.
Cubs 3, Yankees 1
CHICAGO (AP) - Doug Davis pitched into the eighth inning in easily his best start of the season and Chicago began a rare series against New York with a victory.
Aramis Ramirez hit a pair of RBI singles and made a couple nice plays in the field for Chicago, which has won four of five after dropping a season-high 14 games under .500. Starlin Castro doubled twice and is batting .458 (11 for 24) in the last six games.
A season-high crowd of 42,219 packed Wrigley Field for the Bronx Bombers' first trip to the neighborhood ballpark in eight years. There was a smattering of "Let's go Yankees!" chants but the mostly red-and-blue clad fans were firmly behind the Cubs on a sunny, breezy afternoon.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who was born in Peoria, went to college at nearby Northwestern and rooted for the Cubs when he was a kid. He also played six seasons for the Cubs during two stints with the club that drafted him in 1986.
Robinson Cano and Eduardo Nunez had the Yankees' only hits off Davis before Nick Swisher doubled with one out in the eighth to chase the left-hander.
Davis (1-5) received a thunderous ovation as he left the mound following his longest start since he pitched eight innings in a 5-2 victory for Arizona at Wrigley Field on Oct. 4, 2009.
Diamondbacks 4, White Sox 1
PHOENIX (AP) - Daniel Hudson threw a three-hitter in his first career complete game and the Arizona beat his old team, the Chicago White Sox.
Hudson (8-5) earned his eighth win in nine decisions since starting the season 0-4. The 24-year-old right-hander, in his second major league season, outpitched the player he was traded for last July 30, Chicago's Edwin Jackson. Hudson's RBI double with two outs in the seventh ended the night for Jackson (4-6), who gave up four runs on eight hits in 6 2-3 innings.
Paul Konerko's leadoff homer in the seventh ended a string of 18 scoreless innings for the White Sox, who have two runs total in their last three games.
Mariners 4, Phillies 2
SEATTLE (AP) - Michael Pineda took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, Ichiro Suzuki had three hits and the Mariners ended Philadelphia's season-high seven-game winning streak.
Shane Victorino singled to right with two outs in the sixth inning for the first hit against Pineda (7-4). Utley followed with an RBI single.
Suzuki, the two-time batting champion, had his six straight multihit game, raising his batting average from .252 to .275.
Dustin Ackley, the second pick in the 2009 draft, called up before the game, stroked his first big league hit - a single through Roy Oswalt's legs - in his first at-bat in the second inning.
Oswalt (4-5), who has won just once since April 21, went 6 1-3 innings, allowing four runs and eight hits. He walked two and struck out three.
Athletics 5, Giants 2
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Josh Willingham hit an RBI double and also scored on a throwing error, and the Athletics ended their winless streak against San Francisco ace Tim Lincecum.
Conor Jackson had three hits and an RBI, and Graham Godfrey pitched seven innings to win in just his second major league start for Oakland.
The A's ended a six-game losing streak against the Giants and have won three straight under interim manager Bob Melvin.
The A's hadn't defeated Lincecum (5-6) in six previous interleague games between the two teams and were shut out by the two-time NL Cy Young Award winner on May 21.
Godfrey (1-0) allowed six hits and gave up both San Francisco runs. He had three strikeouts.
Astros 7, Dodgers 3
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Brett Myers pitched a four-hitter and retired 17 consecutive batters in the first complete game by Houston's staff this season.
Myers (3-6) struck out six, allowing a first-inning sacrifice fly by Matt Kemp and a two-run homer in the ninth by Andre Ethier after an error by first baseman Brett Wallace.
The right-hander threw 98 pitches and went the distance for the 11th time in 231 career starts - after going 1-6 with a 6.16 ERA in his previous 10 outings.
The Dodgers lost their fourth straight and are nine games under .500 for the first time since 2005, when the team finished with a 71-91 record.
Ted Lilly (5-6) was charged with six runs - five earned - and eight hits over 5 1-3 innings in his 300th major league start.