Resilient Wright propels New York

Up-and-down Yankees still in thick of things for American League playoffs

? When Jaret Wright walked off the mound at Yankee Stadium with an aching right shoulder on April 23, he didn’t know whether his season was over.

He returned triumphantly Monday night, giving the New York Yankees his second straight strong start following a layoff of nearly four months.

Wright got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first and went on to allow just four hits in seven sharp innings, pitching the Yankees to a 7-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays that moved New York into a tie for the AL wild-card lead.

In that April start, Wright came out after 51â3 innings of a 10-2 loss to Texas and his ERA stood at 9.15.

“There was a lot of doubts whether I’d be able to play again,” he said.

He made it back to the major leagues on Aug. 15, pitching 61â3 innings in a 5-2 victory at Tampa Bay. In the two starts since he was activated, he has allowed two runs in 131â3 innings, a 1.35 ERA. He joined Mike Mussina and Randy Johnson to give the Yankees three of their original starting pitchers. Al Leiter and Shawn Chacon fill out the rotation for now.

“I think it’s the best our pitching staff has been since I’ve been here, in over a year-and-a-half,” said Alex Rodriguez, who doubled in a run in the eighth to reach 100 RBIs for the eighth straight season.

Carl Pavano (shoulder) and Kevin Brown (back) remain sidelined along with fill-in Chien-Ming Wang (shoulder). Johnson, who has a bad back, is winless in four starts since July 26.

“If we’re going to do it, it’s going to be our pitching,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

Hideki Matsui drove in three runs for New York, which broke open a close game with a four-run seventh. The $200 million Yankees (68-55) moved within 31â2 games of idle Boston (71-55), the AL East leader, and tied Oakland in the wild-card race, less than a percentage point ahead of Cleveland (69-56).

“In our situation, we were just happy to be hanging around,” Torre said. “As badly as we played at times and as frustrating as some streaks have been, we always managed to stay close enough to make sure that if we did go into a little hot streak, we could do something. And right now, we control our own destiny. That’s really all you want. We have our future in our hands.Ã:

Indians 11, Devil Rays 4

St. Petersburg, Fla. – Victor Martinez and Ben Broussard hit two-run homers in Cleveland’s seven-run seventh inning.

Coco Crisp, Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta homered for Cleveland, which has won five straight to move within a percentage point of Oakland and the New York Yankees in the AL wild-card race. It was Cleveland’s eighth straight road win and the Indians (69-56) are a season-high 13 games over .500.

Travis Lee and Jorge Cantu homered for Tampa Bay, which had a five-game winning streak end.

Travis Hafner broke a 4-all tie in the seventh with a sacrifice fly off reliever Travis Miller (1-1). Martinez followed with his two-run shot. Broussard hit a two-run drive off Jesus Colome.