Cleveland ? Torii Hunter and the Minnesota Twins headed home in first place.

Hunter tied his career high with five RBIs as the Twins defeated the Cleveland Indians, 13-6, Monday night and took sole possession of the AL Central lead for the first time since June 30.

“I’m so pumped up for every series, every game right now,” Hunter said. “We’re playing good ball. It’s the right time of year for that.”

Hunter, Michael Ryan and Cristian Guzman each drove in two runs during an eight-run sixth inning. Hunter added a three-run homer in the ninth off Terry Mulholland, giving him 99 RBIs, a career high.

Minnesota won three straight after losing the series opener.

“Mission accomplished. We’re going home with the lead,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’ll see what happens now. This is where you want to be, in the pennant race at the end. We’re excited.”

Minnesota (81-69) moved a half-game ahead of idle Chicago (80-69). The defending AL Central champions, 37-20 since the All-Star break, begin a three-game series today against the White Sox, the start of an eight-game homestand.

“It’s going to be tough because they are pumped up, just like us,” Hunter said. “We can’t think of sweeping them. That would be great, but we’ve got to take two of three.”

Johan Santana (11-3) improved to 7-0 in nine starts since July 29 as the Twins won for the 10th time in 13 games. He gave up four runs — three earned — and four hits in five-plus innings.

Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez, left, tags out Minnesota's Luis Rivas (2) at home in front of Twins Shannon Stewart (23) and Corey Koskie. The Twins won, 13-6, Monday in Cleveland.

“Santana sat for like about three hours during that big inning, so he had to come out,” Gardenhire said. “Cleveland kept swinging the bats. They played us tough, so this win really was huge.”

Jason Davis (8-11) allowed seven runs and six hits in 52/3 innings, dropping to 1-5 in 11 starts since June 29.

Shannon Stewart’s RBI double put Minnesota ahead in the third, but the Indians tied it in the bottom half when Chris Magruder hit his first homer since July 21 last year.

Cleveland made it 2-1 in the fourth on a two-out RBI double by Victor Martinez.

A fielding play on an infield single led to the eight-run sixth.

Red Sox 8, Devil Rays 2

Boston — Derek Lowe won his fifth straight decision, and Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz homered in another Boston slugging display as the Red Sox beat Tampa Bay. The Red Sox increased their wild-card lead over Seattle to 11/2 games. Boston trails New York by 51/2 games in the AL East. Ramirez and Ortiz also doubled for Boston, which has 605 extra-base hits, two short of the major-league record Seattle set in 1996.

Rangers 6, Mariners 4

Arlington, Texas — Rafael Palmeiro and Mark Teixeira homered as Texas ended a five-game losing streak and dropped Seattle farther back in the AL wild-card race. The Mariners fell 11/2 games behind Boston.

Palmeiro’s shot made him just the second player in major-league history to reach 35 homers and 100 RBIs in nine straight seasons. Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx is the only other player to do it. Palmeiro’s 525th career homer came in the fourth inning off Joel Pineiro (14-11) and gave him 103 RBIs.

Yankees 13, Orioles 1

Baltimore — Alfonso Soriano went 4-for-5 with two home runs, and Aaron Boone also connected twice to lead a six-homer attack that carried New York past Baltimore. Soriano set the tone by driving the first pitch of the game into the left-field seats against Rodrigo Lopez (7-10). Jason Giambi and Enrique Wilson homered for the Yankees, who stayed 51/2 games ahead of Boston in the AL East. The six homers were a season-high

Athletics 7, Angels 4

Anaheim, Calif. — Miguel Tejada hit a grand slam as Oakland beat Anaheim to win its seventh in a row and open a 41/2-game lead in the AL West. Ted Lilly (11-9) pitched five innings of one-hit ball for Oakland.