Chicago ? Any other time, the Minnesota Twins would be celebrating Brad Radke’s stellar pitching outing and the gutty way they climbed back into a tie for the AL Central lead.

But one look at third-base coach Al Newman’s jersey hanging in the dugout was enough to remind the Twins there are other things more important than baseball. Even when they’re in the hunt for the playoffs.

“Our thoughts are still with Al Newman, so it’s a little tough for us in here,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said after the Twins beat Esteban Loaiza and the Chicago White Sox, 5-2, Thursday.

“That was a big performance by us. We take a little bit off of it because of what’s going on with our coach,” Gardenhire added. “That makes it a little harder. But it doesn’t take away from the performance our baseball team put out on the field today.”

Newman remained hospitalized in serious condition after suffering a hemorrhage in his brain before Wednesday night’s game. He was still undergoing tests Thursday afternoon to determine the cause of the hemorrhage, but Gardenhire said his prognosis was good.

“Not having him here is difficult, but one thing you have to do is you have to focus on the task at hand, and that’s playing,” Denny Hocking said. “When you have a situation like we have, you try to elevate your game, and I think everybody in this locker room did that these last two days.”

The Twins certainly did Thursday. Radke pitched a complete game to win his most important start of the year, and Shannon Stewart and Hocking each drove in a pair of runs.

Minnesota salvaged a split of the four-game series, pulling even with the White Sox with two straight wins.

The Twins spoiled Loaiza’s bid for his 20th victory. The All-Star starter (19-7) lost for only the second time since the break, giving up five runs and seven hits over seven innings.

Minnesota pitcher Brad Radke, left, accepts congratulations from teammate A.J. Pierzynski after pitching a complete game against Chicago. The Twins defeated the White Sox, 5-2, Thursday in Chicago.

Earlier in the afternoon, Toronto’s Roy Halladay became the first 20-game winner in the majors when he beat Tampa Bay.

“It didn’t go my way,” Loaiza said. “I made a couple of mistakes throwing middle-away, and they got some base hits and took advantage.”

Radke (12-10) didn’t give the White Sox much of anything. Besides Frank Thomas’ first-inning homer and a solo shot by Jose Valentin in the ninth, Radke gave up only singles.

He allowed a total of nine hits, walked none and struck out five in his third complete game of the season. It was his fourth straight victory.

“We had to come out and get a win today,” Radke said. “That was a big win for us.”

The schedule favors Minnesota from here on out. The teams play a three-game series next week in Minnesota, but the Twins’ other games are against Detroit and Cleveland.

Yankees 5, Tigers 2

New York — Roger Clemens earned his 307th career victory, and Jorge Posada hit a go-ahead, two-run single and made a nifty tag at home plate, leading New York over Detroit. Nick Johnson and Bernie Williams added solo homers for the Yankees.

On the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there was a brief ceremony before the game, and the crowd of 31,915 chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!” after “God Bless America” was played during the seventh-inning stretch, which happened to occur at 9:11 p.m.

After watching their AL East lead over second-place Boston shrink from 7 1/2 games Aug. 20 to 1 1/2 games Saturday, the Yankees have won five straight and boosted their margin to four games, their largest since Sept. 2.

Detroit (37-108), which has lost six straight, was swept in a series for the 19th time this season and has lost the most games in the major leagues since the 1998 Florida Marlins went 54-108.

Athletics 14, Angels 4

Oakland, Calif. — Eric Chavez hit two of Oakland’s six homers in its third straight victory. Eric Byrnes and pinch-hitter Billy McMillon hit three-run homers, and Ramon Hernandez and Mark Ellis also homered as the A’s wrapped up their next-to-last homestand of the regular season with an impressive power display in their 11th victory in 12 games at the Coliseum.

Miguel Tejada and Jose Guillen also had RBI singles for Oakland, which won the final three games of its series with the Angels to maintain its lead atop the AL West.

Chavez hit a solo homer in the first and a long two-run shot in the fifth. The A’s don’t estimate home run distances, but Chavez’s fifth-inning blast off reliever Gary Glover landed in the stands at least 30 feet above the 388-foot marker.

Blue Jays 3, Devil Rays 1

St. Petersburg, Fla. — Roy Halladay became the first 20-game winner in the majors this season, pitching a five-hitter that led Toronto past Tampa Bay. Halladay (20-6) has seven complete games this year, including his past three starts.

The 26-year-old righty’s career-high streak of 23 scoreless innings ended when Tampa Bay scored an unearned run in the sixth.

Halladay struck out three, walked two and needed only 93 pitches to win. He is the Toronto’s first 20-game winner since David Wells went 20-8 in 2000.

Mariners 8, Rangers 2

Seattle — Gil Meche pitched eight steady innings for his 15th win and Randy Winn had three hits as Seattle beat Texas. Meche (15-10) spent last season in the minors following two shoulder operations. The last major-league pitcher to win more than 14 games after a two-year absence was Whitey Ford, who went 18-6 in 1953 for the New York Yankees.

Seattle took two of three from Texas, which has never won a series at Safeco Field.