Tribe logs third straight win

Modest streak longest for Cleveland this season

? The Cleveland Indians had waited all season for a three-game winning streak, so they certainly didn’t mind sitting through more than two hours of rain delays to earn one.

Jhonny Peralta homered to snap a seventh-inning tie, and the Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2, Saturday to extend their longest winning streak of the year to three.

“It’s a step,” manager Eric Wedge said.

Peralta hit a 2-2 pitch from Jason Frasor (1-3) over the wall in right-center for his fifth homer, helping Cleveland to its fourth victory in five games.

Arthur Rhodes (2-1) retired all three batters he faced for the win. He was the fourth of six pitchers used by Wedge.

Bob Howry worked a perfect eighth, and Bob Wickman pitched the ninth for his 11th save in 13 tries, retiring Orlando Hudson on a grounder with a runner on third to end it.

“That’s all good, but what’s on our minds is going out tomorrow and getting another,” Rhodes said.

Play was halted for 28 minutes in the middle of the first inning and again for 1 hour, 51 minutes in the bottom of the third.

A 72-minute rain delay Friday night forced each club to go to its bullpen earlier than usual. That was the case again Saturday, when Cleveland’s Kevin Millwood and Toronto’s Gustavo Chacin had their starts cut short.

Cleveland's Jhonny Peralta watches his game-winning home run against Toronto. The Indians edged the Blue Jays, 3-2, Saturday in Cleveland.

“It is like spring training,” Blue Jays catcher Ken Huckaby said. “You’ve got specialists coming into a game in the fifth and sixth innings instead of later, and they are getting the job done.”

Five Indians relievers allowed only one hit and one walk over the final six innings Saturday and have yielded just one run over 111/3 innings in the series.

“The bullpen did a great job again,” Wedge said. “It’s been a little tough on them because you can’t control the weather, but we even had a couple of guys we didn’t use, and we’re in good shape.”

Toronto right-hander Pete Walker gave up one hit and one walk in 32/3 innings before turning it over to Frasor.

Peralta hit the right-hander’s fifth pitch an estimated 406 feet into the rain-soaked bleachers. It was Cleveland’s 41st homer and 30th with the bases empty.

“Any time you leave a fastball down the middle of the plate … good luck,” Frasor said. “Sometimes you get away with it. I didn’t.”

In his first full season starting at shortstop, the 22-year-old Peralta is batting .417 (10-for-24) with four homers and six RBIs during a seven-game hitting streak.

“Jhonny has some strength in his bat,” Wedge said. “That was a huge hit in a late-inning situation, but he’s been swinging the bat well for a while now.”

Three stolen bases helped Toronto go ahead 2-0 in the second inning.

Yankees 15, Athletics 6

Oakland, Calif. — Derek Jeter and Tino Martinez hit three-run homers, Alex Rodriguez added his major-league-leading 12th shot, and New York won its seventh straight. New York has beaten Oakland four times in the last eight days. The A’s have lost a season-high seven straight.

Jorge Posada also homered, while Martinez had three hits and drove in five runs for the Yankees, who have scored 59 runs during their longest winning streak in more than a year. Hideki Matsui matched his career high with four of New York’s 18 hits.

Kevin Brown (2-4) won his second straight start for the Yankees (18-19), who are back within a game of third-place Toronto in the AL East after their April struggles.

Rangers 5, Twins 0

Minneapolis — Kenny Rogers pitched a five-hitter and ran his scoreless streak to 30 innings, leading Texas over Minnesota.

Rogers (4-2) has won his last four starts and has not allowed a run since the sixth inning of a 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay on April 21. It is the longest streak in the majors this season and Rogers’ longest since his team-record streak of 39 consecutive innings in 1995.

The 40-year-old left-hander threw 104 pitches and did not allow a base-runner past first until the ninth in a dominating performance against one of his former teams.

Orioles 9, White Sox 6

Chicago — Brian Roberts had three doubles, and Miguel Tejada doubled in the go-ahead run in a four-run seventh inning to lead Baltimore past Chicago.

The Orioles erased an early three-run deficit to win after losing the first two games of the four-game series between division leaders.

Freddy Garcia (3-3) walked Melvin Mora to start the seventh and left after Tejada’s double.

Angels 4-2, Tigers 2-3

Detroit — Brandon Inge hit a two-run homer, Craig Monroe had a solo shot, and Detroit defeated Los Angeles, 3-2, to split a doubleheader. Jeff DaVanon’s suicide squeeze broke a seventh-inning tie in the opener, sending the Angels to a 4-2 victory.

After rain postponed Friday night’s game, the start of Saturday’s doubleheader was delayed 26 minutes by showers — and there was a 39-minute delay in the sixth inning. But Game 2 was played under sunny skies.

Red Sox 6, Mariners 3

Seattle — Trot Nixon, dropped from second to fifth in the batting order, hit a two-out grand slam in the seventh inning as Boston rallied past Seattle. After Seattle’s J.J. Putz struck out Manny Ramirez on a 97-mph fastball, Nixon hit an 0-1 pitch for his eighth career grand slam, his first since Sept. 1, 2003.