Minneapolis ? The Toronto Blue Jays started a 10-game trip a couple of weeks ago, lost eight times and fell well back in the AL wild-card race.

An opportunity to redeem their road record and climb back into contention started Thursday night with a 5-0 win over the Minnesota Twins.

Ted Lilly threw six shutout innings, Bengie Molina backed him with a two-run homer and the Blue Jays began another stretch of 10 straight games away from home.

“We haven’t been a good road team to begin with,” manager John Gibbons said. “We’re not really looking at that now. Everybody’s written us off anyway, so we’re just going to play it out and see what happens.”

Alex Rios had two RBIs for Toronto, which trailed Minnesota by 71â2 games in the wild-card standings when the day began. Chicago was a half-game back and Boston was 11â2 games behind.

A day after a dramatic, 4-3 comeback victory over division-leading Detroit, the Twins moved into the wild-card lead for the first time. But their bats were stifled by Lilly (10-10), taking a bit of the buzz out of the Metrodome crowd of 30,118.

“We put ourselves in a position where we’re out of the hole,” said Michael Cuddyer, who went 0-for-3 with a walk. “We’ve just got to continue playing the way we’ve been.”

Carlos Silva (8-10) threw well but lost for the first time in six starts.

White Sox 5, Yankees 4

Chicago – Javier Vazquez (11-6) got his 100th career win in a game that started after a rain delay of nearly 11â2 hours. Tadahito Iguchi had his second straight three-hit game, and Scott Podsednik broke a 1-for-14 slump with RBI singles in the second and sixth innings. The Yankees had their chances, too, but left nine runners in scoring position. Alex Rodriguez, recently plagued by wild throws, made his 19th error of the season, and left fielder Melky Cabrera let a ball get past him, helping the White Sox score four times in the second inning.

Indians 14, Angels 2

Cleveland – Ryan Garko hit his first career homer and drove in four runs to help Cliff Lee win for the first time in nearly a month, leading Cleveland over Los Angeles.

Garko hit a three-run double that capped Cleveland’s seven-run fourth inning, then opened the sixth with a 431-foot drive to center. Cleveland won consecutive games for the first time since July 3-4 and won its first series since taking two of three from Cincinnati June 30-July 2.

Rangers 8, Mariners 2

Arlington, Texas – Mark Teixeira and Michael Young hit three-run doubles in consecutive innings, and Texas beat Seattle to move a game ahead of the Mariners and out of last place in the AL West.

Teixeira’s bases-clearing double in the sixth put the Rangers ahead 3-2, and extended his on-base streak to 34 games. Adam Eaton (2-2), who threw only 18 pitches in his start Sunday before being ejected, went six innings in only his fourth start for the Rangers since coming off the disabled list.