BALTIMORE – Jeremy Sowers pitched eight innings of four-hit ball, Travis Hafner had two singles in his long-awaited return from the disabled list and the Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Sowers (3-8) gave up one run, struck out seven and walked one. The left-hander was 1-5 with a 7.43 ERA in nine road starts and 0-2 with a 9.50 ERA in four career appearances against the Orioles. It was the most effective performance of the season by the former No. 1 draft pick, who twice retired 10 consecutive batters. He threw 96 pitches, 72 for strikes.

Athletics 3, Tigers 2

DETROIT – Emil Brown’s sacrifice fly capped Oakland’s two-run eighth inning that gave the Athletics a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.

Rajai Davis had two triples for Oakland, which has won three of four. Edgar Renteria drove in both runs for Detroit, which had its three-game winning streak snapped.

Mets 10, Nationals 8

NEW YORK – Carlos Delgado hit two impressive homers for the second straight game, Carlos Beltran had a go-ahead shot to reach 100 RBIs and the New York Mets increased their NL East lead by beating the scrappy Washington Nationals 10-8 Tuesday night.

Ryan Church also homered, Jose Reyes snapped an 0-for-15 slide with two hits and the Mets started a stretch of 12 games against the bottom two teams in the division with an offensive display that offset Oliver Perez’s rough outing.

Braves 5, Rockies 4

ATLANTA – Taylor Buchholz balked in the winning run, allowing pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson to score from third, and giving the Atlanta Braves a 5-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies in 10 innings Tuesday night.

Buchholz, pitching from the stretch, had already moved his feet to begin his windup when he paused, apparently wanting to restart the pitch.

Home plate umpire Wally Bell instantly threw up his arms and waved home Johnson for the winning run.

Marlins 10, Phillies 8

PHILADELPHIA – Jorge Cantu, Mike Jacobs and Cody Ross homered and the Florida Marlins held off the Philadelphia Phillies for a 10-8 victory on Tuesday night.

The Phillies fell 21/2 games behind the NL East-leading New York Mets. They began the day three games behind Milwaukee in the wild-card race. Ryan Howard hit his major league-leading 41st homer, but Philadelphia, which trailed 9-1, couldn’t overcome a terrible outing by Kyle Kendrick (11-9), who allowed seven runs and six hits in 1 1-3 innings.

Astros 9, Pirates 3

HOUSTON – Lance Berkman hit a three-run homer and Randy Wolf shut down Pittsburgh after a shaky first inning as the Houston Astros continued their second-half surge with a 9-3 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday night.

Berkman had an RBI double and scored three runs for the Astros, who have won four straight and 12 of 13. Houston’s 34-16 record is the best in the majors since the All-Star break. Wolf (10-11) allowed four hits and struck out four in seven innings to improve to 4-1 in nine starts since the Astros acquired him from San Diego on July 22. The Astros have won eight of the nine games Wolf has started for them.

Twins 7, Royals 2

MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Twins started a must-win series against Kansas City in convincing fashion.

Denard Span had three hits and scored two runs and Justin Morneau homered to lead the Twins to a 7-2 victory over the Royals on Tuesday night to close within a game of Chicago in the AL Central race.

The White Sox were swept by the Blue Jays in a doubleheader. Jose Guillen had three hits and an RBI and Miguel Olivo homered for Kansas City.

Blue Jays sweep

CHICAGO – The Toronto Blue Jays are on such a good run they think they can make the playoffs.

Marco Scutaro hit a leadoff homer, Scott Rolen and Vernon Wells went deep and the Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox 8-2 to complete a day-night doubleheader sweep Tuesday and extend their winning streak to 10.

Besides the sweep, the White Sox also got a big scare.

Paul Konerko was helped off the field in the top of the fifth inning of the nightcap with what the team called a mildly sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee.