NEW YORK – Mike Mussina pitched eight sharp innings and Robin Ventura hit a two-run double that sent the New York Yankees over the St. Louis Cardinals 5-2 Sunday for a three-game sweep in their first meeting since the 1964 World Series.

The Yankees have won four straight – including Roger Clemens’ 300th career victory – since manager Joe Torre held a team meeting after a record six Houston pitchers combined for the first no-hitter against New York in 45 years.

Albert Pujols homered for the Cardinals.

On a beautiful afternoon in the Bronx, the Yankees maintained their lead in the AL East over Boston, delighting a Father’s Day crowd of 54,797.

The Yankees patiently worked six walks from control artist Woody Williams, matching his career high. The right-hander had issued only 16 free passes all season coming in.

Mussina (9-4) retired his final 13 batters and allowed four hits, winning his second start in a row after losing four consecutive decisions. He walked one and struck out five, giving him 99 this season and passing Clemens for the AL lead.

Mariano Rivera worked the ninth for his ninth save in 10 chances.

Williams (8-2) entered second in the NL with a 2.33 ERA but struggled against the streaking Yankees.

Orioles 5, Brewers 4

BALTIMORE – Rodrigo Lopez returned from the disabled list to earn his first victory of the season, and Tony Batista and Deivi Cruz homered as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-4 Sunday.

Pitching for the first time since May 1, Lopez (1-3) allowed two earned runs and six hits over 6 2-3 innings. He struck out two and walked none in lowering his ERA from 7.36 to 6.50.

After going 15-9 and finishing second in the AL rookie of the year balloting last year, Lopez went six starts without a win this season, then spent six weeks on the DL with a strained muscle in his left side.

Upon his return, he ended a run of eight straight starts without a victory.

Jorge Julio, the fourth Baltimore pitcher, worked the ninth to earn his 15th save. Scott Podsednik hit an RBI single with two outs.

Geoff Jenkins drove in two runs and Brooks Kieschnick homered for the Brewers, who dropped two of three to the Orioles in the first meeting between the teams since 1997.

Blue Jays 5, Cubs 4

TORONTO – Rookie Reed Johnson led off the bottom of the first and 10th innings with home runs, lifting the Toronto Blue Jays over the Chicago Cubs 5-4 Sunday.

Johnson, playing in place of the injured Shannon Stewart, homered off Mark Guthrie (0-3). Johnson went 2-for-3 with three RBIs for the Blue Jays, who took two of three from the Cubs.

Aquilino Lopez (1-1) pitched 2 2-3 scoreless innings for the win.

Troy O’Leary hit a grand slam in the sixth to put the Cubs up 4-2.

Johnson homered in the first off Shawn Estes and hit sacrifice fly in the fifth, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead.

Diamondbacks 12, Twins 8

MINNEAPOLIS – Tony Womack had four hits, including a bunt single during a four-run eighth inning that sent the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Minnesota Twins 12-8 Sunday.

Nine different players scored runs for the banged-up Diamondbacks, who wasted leads of 1-0, 5-1 and 7-5 but used excellent bunting and clutch hitting to make sure they didn’t blow another one. Seven of Arizona’s runs were scored with two out.

A.J. Pierzynski had three hits and drove in three runs for the Twins and Corey Koskie had three hits and scored three times. The Twins lost an interleague series for the first time this season.

After executing two sacrifices earlier, Arizona had two more bunts in the eighth against LaTroy Hawkins (4-2) in scoring four unearned runs.

Royals 5, Giants 4

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mike Sweeney lined an 0-2 pitch into the alley in right-center field for a two-out, two-run single in the ninth inning that rallied the Kansas City Royals over San Francisco 5-4 Sunday.

Barry Bonds hit career home run No. 632 to help stake the Giants to an early 4-2 lead. He connected off Jose Lima, making his first start since being signed from Newark of the independent Atlantic League.

The Royals trailed 4-3 when Angel Berroa hit a leadoff double in the ninth against Tim Worrell (2-3) and was sacrificed to third. With two outs, Worrell had an 0-2 count on Aaron Guiel, but walked him on the next four pitches.

Worrell got two strikes on Sweeney before the Royals’ leading hitter drove the next pitch for the game-winner. Guiel was running on the pitch and came around to score from first, easily beating the throw from center fielder Marquis Grissom.

Padres 1, White Sox 0

CHICAGO – Oliver Perez pitched 6 2-3 scoreless innings and Rod Beck closed for his first save since 2001 as the San Diego Padres defeated the Chicago White Sox 1-0 Sunday.

For the fourth straight series, the Padres faced being swept. And for the fourth straight series, they salvaged the last game, with Mark Loretta’s single driving in the only run.

Perez (2-3), making his first appearance since being promoted back to the majors, allowed five hits in his longest outing of the season. He struck out six and walked two.

After Luther Hackman got four outs, Beck took over to start the ninth. He worked around a leadoff walk for his first save since Sept. 20, 2001, when he pitched for Boston and faced Tampa Bay.

Mets 8, Angels 0

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Steve Trachsel pitched his second career one-hitter and rookie Jose Reyes hit a grand slam for his first major league home run as the New York Mets beat the Anaheim Angels 8-0 on Sunday.

Jeromy Burnitz drove in three runs with a pair of homers for New York. The foundering Mets took two of three against the defending World Series champions in the first interleague series between the teams that began play a year apart during the Kennedy administration.

Trachsel (5-4) earned his sixth shutout and 17th complete game in 292 career starts. The right-hander ended a personal two-game slide just 10 days after the Milwaukee Brewers hit four home runs against him at Shea Stadium to snap his four-game winning streak.

He threw 119 pitches, 70 for strikes to finish the first complete game for a New York pitcher this season.

Pirates 9, Devil Rays 5

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Jason Kendall hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth inning and Jack Wilson hit two more doubles as the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 9-5 Sunday.

A day after four players, including Kendall, were ejected for their involvement in a bench-clearing brawl, there were no problems.

Wilson had three hits and three RBIs and has five doubles in the past two games. Matt Stairs added a season-high three hits, with two doubles.

Scott Sauerbeck (1-4) pitched 2 2-3 innings for the win. Mike Williams entered with runners on first and second and hit Toby Hall with a pitch before getting Marlon Anderson to ground out to second to end it for his 18th save.

Dodgers 4, Indians 3

CLEVELAND – Hideo Nomo pitched two-hit ball for seven innings and Shawn Green drove in three runs as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cleveland Indians 4-3 Sunday.

A bizarre baserunning sequence by the Indians in the eighth helped the Dodgers complete a 6-0 interleague trip in which they gave up just 11 runs. Cleveland lost its fourth in a row.

Any expected confrontation between Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca and Indians outfielder Milton Bradley was quickly put to rest. They exchanged verbal barbs during and after Saturday’s game, but as Bradley stepped up to the plate in the second, he gently tapped his bat on Lo Duca’s shinguards and they appeared to have a friendly exchange.

Lo Duca went 2-for-4, extending his hitting streak to 23 games.

Nomo (7-6) allowed one run, struck out eight and walked one. He won for the first time in four outings since May 24 – Los Angeles averaged just 2.8 runs in his previous eight games.

Athletics 9, Expos 1

OAKLAND, Calif. – Eric Byrnes hit a three-run homer and Tim Hudson pitched seven strong innings as the Oakland Athletics completed a three-game sweep of the Montreal Expos, 9-1 on Sunday.

Ramon Hernandez also homered as the A’s won three straight for the first time since May 3-6. Oakland had lost its last three series.

Byrnes, who had a 22-game hitting streak earlier in the season, extended his current string to 10 games with a third-inning single, then homered four innings later. He hit a 3-2 pitch to left for his third homer in as many days and eighth of the year. Byrnes had six career homers coming into the season.

After Byrnes’ homer in the seventh, Scott Hatteberg doubled and Erubiel Durazo and Eric Chavez each had run-scoring singles. The A’s batted through the order and scored five times in the inning.

Rockies 5, Tigers 4

DETROIT – Mark Sweeney’s three-run double capped a five-run fifth inning and the Colorado Rockies beat the Detroit Tigers 5-4 Sunday to win their first road series of the season.

Colorado took two of three in Detroit for their first series win away from Coors Field since August 12-14 against the Florida Marlins. The Tigers have still not won a set at home this season and have lost nine of their last 10 overall.

Jason Jennings (6-5) won his third straight start, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks in six innings. Three Colorado relievers finished, with Jose Jimenez pitching the ninth for his 16th save in 17 opportunities.

The tiebreaking double was Sweeney’s second big hit of the series. He had a three-run homer in Colorado’s 7-2 win Friday night.

Gary Knotts (2-5) gave up five runs on nine hits and two walks in 4 2-3 innings. He is 0-2 in his last four starts.

The Tigers opened the scoring with a run in the first. With one out, Warren Morris lined a triple to deep center and, after Kevin Witt walked, Dmitri Young hit into a run-scoring forceout at second.

Detroit made it 2-0 in the fourth. Witt singled, took second on Young’s base hit, moved to third on a sacrifice and scored on Eric Munson’s sacrifice fly.

A walk and a hit batsmen let the Tigers load the bases with two outs in the inning, but Jennings struck out Omar Infante to end the threat.

The Rockies took control with five runs in the fifth, all coming with two outs.

Brent Butler singled with one out, and moved to second on Juan Uribe’s grounder before Jay Payton hit a 404-foot homer to left field. The ball easily cleared the older, more distant fence in left.

Todd Helton followed with a single, his third hit of the game, and Larry Walker blooped a double down the right-field line before Knotts walked Greg Norton to load the bases.

Sweeney then lined a bases-clearing double to right-center to put the Rockies ahead 5-2 and end Knotts’ day.

Young made it 5-3 with a leadoff homer in the sixth, and Morris’ RBI single off Steve Reed pulled the Tigers within one in the seventh.

Notes: Morris had three hits and is 7-for-10 the last two games. … Juan Uribe started in center field for the Rockies – his first major league start at that position. … Sweeney’s three RBIs tied his career high. He also had three in the series opener on Friday after only doing it twice in 601 career games. … Detroit went 3-9 in the first two weeks of interleague play. … The Tigers were caught stealing twice in the game, giving them a league-leading 30.

AP-ES-06-15-03 1603EDT