Boston Red Sox blank the punchless Atlanta Braves

The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) – Tim Wakefield pitched six scoreless innings to win a duel with Javier Vazquez, and the Boston Red Sox blanked the punchless Atlanta Braves 1-0 Saturday.

Mark Kotsay drove in the game’s only run with a sixth-inning single.

Wakefield (10-3) came up with a performance worthy of the day he tied Roger Clemens’ record for the most career starts by a Red Sox pitcher at 382. His knuckleball was really fluttering on a sweltering day at Turner Field – it was 95 degrees at first pitch – and the Braves managed just three singles off the 42-year-old right-hander.

Wakefield became the AL’s third 10-game winner, joining Minnesota’s Kevin Slowey and Toronto’s Roy Halladay. Jonathan Papelbon worked around a shaky ninth for his 18th save.

Vazquez (5-7) certainly pitched good enough to win. He struck out eight to claim the NL strikeout lead from San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum (125-124), but a brief spurt of wildness in the sixth was costly.
Phillies 10, Blue Jays 0

TORONTO – J.A. Happ pitched a five-hit shutout, Jayson Werth homered twice and the Philadelphia Phillies blanked the Toronto Blue Jays.

In the first complete game of his career, Happ (5-0) struck out four and didn’t walk a batter to win for the first time in four starts, helping the Phillies snap a three-game losing streak. The victory was Philadelphia’s third in 14 games.

Werth hit a towering two-run drive into the upper deck, his 14th, and Pedro Feliz added a two-out homer to left. Werth’s upper-deck blast was the 14th in the 20-year history of Rogers Centre, formerly SkyDome, and the first since Toronto’s Vernon Wells in 2004.

Toronto left-hander Brad Mills (0-1) allowed eight runs on eight hits in four-plus innings, striking out seven in his second career start.
Cardinals 5, Twins 3

ST. LOUIS – Albert Pujols hit a pair of two-run homers, helping the St. Louis Cardinals pound 10-game winner Kevin Slowey in a victory over the Minnesota Twins.

Pujols leads the majors with 28 homers and 74 RBIs after his 29th career multihomer game, sixth this season and second in six days. Both homers came off Slowey (10-3), whose bid to take the major league lead in victories was a bust, and Pujols’ second long ball put the Cardinals ahead 5-3 in the third.

Josh Kinney (1-0) allowed two hits in 1 2-3 innings of relief for his first career victory.

Slowey lasted only three innings, matching his shortest outing of the season, and gave up five runs on six hits.
Angels 2, Diamondbacks 1

PHOENIX – Mike Napoli hit a tiebreaking home run in the top of the ninth inning to lift the Los Angeles Angels over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Napoli hit an one-out, 0-1 pitch from Chad Qualls (1-1) 428 feet to center field to give the Angels their fourth straight win and 11th in the last 14.

Darren Oliver (2-0) pitched a scoreless eighth and Brian Fuentes got the last three outs for his major league-leading 21st save.

Los Angeles also improved its major league-best record in interleague play this season to 13-4.

Arizona has lost four straight and seven of eight. The D-backs are 0-7-1 in their last eight home series, and haven’t won a series at home since taking two of three from the Chicago Cubs on May 27-29.
White Sox 8, Cubs 7

CHICAGO – Gordon Beckham singled in the winning run with two outs in the ninth, and Scott Podsednik homered while tying a career high with four hits to lift the Chicago White Sox over the Cubs.

With the game tied at 7, Paul Konerko lined a single to left with one out off Sean Marshall (3-6) to start the winning rally.

Josh Fields ran for him and moved to second on A.J. Pierzynski’s grounder, and Jose Ascanio walked pinch-hitter Jayson Nix. Beckham ended it with a long drive to right and got mobbed near second base by his teammates.

Bobby Jenks (2-2) retired the Cubs in the ninth before the White Sox pulled it out in the bottom half.

: Kansas City Royals’ Willie Bloomquist, foregpound, sprints home as Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche, background right, leaps to cut off the throw from center field in the third inning of the baseball game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, June 27, 2009. Bloomquist scored for the second time in the game on a hit by teammate Billy Butler. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)