By The Associated Press

BALTIMORE – Coco Crisp had three hits and drove in two runs to back a strong pitching performance by Jake Westbrook, leading the Cleveland Indians over the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 Thursday night.

Jhonny Peralta had two hits, two RBIs and scored twice for Cleveland, which went 17-10 in June. The Indians have won nine of their last 11 on the road and five of six overall.

Westbrook (6-9) allowed three runs, four hits and three walks over seven innings to win his fourth straight start. He left after throwing 95 pitches on a hot, humid night.

Baltimore’s Rafael Palmeiro went 2-for-4 with two RBIs to move within eight hits of reaching 3,000 for his career. He was robbed of a hit in the third inning by second baseman Ronnie Belliard, who stabbed a grounder on the outfield grass and threw out Palmeiro by a step.

Sal Fasano homered for the Orioles, who have lost seven of eight. Sammy Sosa went 0-for-4 and is 1-for-27 in his last seven games.

Cleveland went up 5-2 with a three-run fourth inning. Belliard hit a one-out double and Peralta walked before Grady Sizemore doubled in two runs and Crisp chased Orioles starter Hayden Penn (2-2) with an RBI single.

Rangers 18, Angels 5

ARLINGTON, Texas – Kevin Mench hit a career-high three homers and Mark Teixeira homered twice as the Texas Rangers matched a club record with eight homers in an 18-5 rout of the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.

During the game, Rangers owner Tom Hicks said major league baseball will decide whether to discipline Texas pitcher Kenny Rogers for an outburst Wednesday that sent a television cameraman to the hospital and prompted a police investigation.

“At this point there’s nothing the Texas Rangers will or can do,” Hicks said. “We will support whatever the commissioner decides.”

Athletics 6, Mariners 2

OAKLAND, Calif. – Dan Haren won his career-best sixth straight decision and Dan Johnson and Bobby Crosby homered to lead the Oakland Athletics to their season-high seventh straight victory, 6-2 over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday.

The A’s, helped by three errors from Seattle third baseman Adrian Beltre, completed their second straight sweep after taking three games from San Francisco last weekend. Seattle lost its fifth straight.

Eric Chavez hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the fifth, Scott Hatteberg had an RBI single a day after missing a game with the flu, and Crosby extended his career-best hitting streak to 11 games with a two-out double in the fifth. He hit a two-run homer in the seventh.

White Sox 6, Tigers 1

DETROIT – Freddy Garcia pitched a five-hitter for his first complete game of the season and the Chicago White Sox defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-1 Thursday to finish off a three-game sweep.

Joe Crede and Carl Everett homered for Chicago in a game delayed 2 hours, 4 minutes at the start because of thunderstorms.

With Garcia in control, the game itself took only 2:06.

The Tigers lost their fourth in a row.

The White Sox picked up their first sweep in Detroit since 2002 and are 8-1 against the Tigers this season.

Brewers 10, Cubs 6

CHICAGO – Carlos Lee homered twice, including a first-inning drive off Greg Maddux, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 10-6 Thursday to avoid a three-game sweep.

Lee, who also homered in the eighth off Michael Wuertz, has 22 homers and leads the major leagues with 72 RBIs.

Damian Miller also homered and had a go-ahead single for the Brewers, and Geoff Jenkins had three doubles.

Chris Capuano (8-6) allowed five runs – four earned – and seven hits in six innings, yielding homers to Jerry Hairston and Michael Barrett.

Mets 5, Phillies 3

NEW YORK – Pedro Martinez won for the seventh time in his last eight decisions, and Jose Reyes drove in two runs with his major league-leading ninth triple to lead the New York Mets over the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 Thursday.

Reyes also turned an acrobatic double play in the eighth on Tomas Perez’s grounder to second baseman Marlon Anderson.

Chris Woodward drove in a pair of runs with a bases-loaded single as the Mets sent the slumping Phillies to their sixth loss in the last seven games. Philadelphia has lost 11 of 15 games following a 12-1 homestand.

Nationals 7, Pirates 5

WASHINGTON – Vinny Castilla and Brian Schneider homered as the Washington Nationals won again at RFK Stadium, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-5 Thursday for a three-game sweep.

Chad Cordero wiggled out of a second-and-third, no-out jam in the ninth inning for his 25th straight save and 28th overall. He retired Ryan Doumit on a routine fly with the bases loaded for the final out.

Washington has won 15 of its last 16 home games and taken nine series in a row at RFK. The NL East leaders set a franchise record with 20 wins in June.

Rockies 7, Cardinals 0

ST. LOUIS -Rookie Jeff Francis pitched three-hit ball for six innings, and Garrett Atkins and Danny Ardoin homered Thursday night to lead the Colorado Rockies over the St. Louis Cardinals 7-0 for only their sixth road victory of the season.

Francis (7-5) contributed two hits and scored twice for the Rockies, a major league-worst 6-31 on the road. The start was the most feeble since the 1982 Twins went 5-32, and they had dropped five straight and 11 12 away from Coors Field while getting outscored 77-32.

Dan Miceli, Jay Witasick and David Cortes each pitched an inning and gave up a hit in finishing the Rockies’ second shutout of the season.

and first since June 10 against the Tigers, neither of them on complete games. It came in a game matching teams at the top and bottom of the NL standings.