Twins extend lead as Thome goes long

The Minnesota Twins extended their lead at the top of the American League Central conference with a comfortable 10-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.

The Twins have now won 10 of their last 12 games and while most of those have been close encounters a 7-0 lead after three innings meant this was never likely to be.

Jim Thome contributed three runs, including a solo shot, his 22nd homer of the year.

Western leaders Texas saw their sticky spell continue with a fifth straight loss as the Toronto Blue Jays beat them 8-5.

Texas native Vernon Wells haunted his hometown club with two home runs.

Defeat was also on the cards for East conference pace setters the New York Yankees, who went down 6-2 to bottom riders Baltimore Orioles.

Jake Arrieta kept the Yankees quiet with 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball.

Tonight's Money Lines:

KC Royals (Z Greinke) 2.46 @ MIN Twins (B Duensing) 1.62.

TEX Rangers (D Holland) 2.05 @ TOR Blue Jays (M Rzepczynski) 1.86.

BAL Orioles (B Bergesen) 3.20 @ NY Yankees (I Nova) 1.40.

The Tampa Bay Rays closed the gap on the Yankees with a decisive 14-5 victory at the Boston Red Sox.

Five of the Rays players homered as they collected 12 hits, while starter David Price was taken for just two runs on two hits in his six frames.

The Detroit Tigers were easy winners in a 9-1 thrashing of the Chicago White Sox, whose seven-game winning run ended abruptly.

Johnny Damon set up the win from the first inning when he powered a two-run homer.

CHI White Sox (J Danks) 1.69 @ DET Tigers (J Bonderman) 2.33.

Five runs in the second inning set up the Seattle Mariners for a 7-5 win over the Oakland Athletics, while the Cleveland Indians coasted to a 7-1 win at the expense of the Los Angeles Angels.

SEA Mariners (L French) 2.85 @ OAK Athletics (G Gonzalez) 1.48.

CLE Indians (J Tomlin) 2.33 @ LA Angels (S Kazmir) 1.69.

In the National League, Philadelphia replaced Atlanta at the top of the Eastern conference.

The Phillies were 8-7 victors against the Florida Marlins thanks to three runs in the fifth inning and one game-stealer in the bottom of the eighth.

With the Atlanta Braves defeated 5-0 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, that win was enough to take Philadelphia to the summit for the first time since 30th May.

FLA Marlins (A Miller) 3.30 @ PHI Phillies (C Hamels) 1.38.

ATL Braves (D Lowe) 1.63 @ PIT Pirates (Z Duke) 2.43.

The Milwaukee Brewers had a number of players to thank for their 4-2 triumph over St Louis Cardinals with Trevor Hoffman claiming his 600th career save, Casey McGehee driving in three and Chris Narveson striking out nine.

Central leaders the Cincinnati Reds were turned over by Colorado Rockies 4-3.

The in-form Carlos Gonzalez made a decisive contribution in the first inning when he clubbed a three-run shot off Johnny Cueto.

Dillon Gee of the New York Mets got the better of the Washington Nationals' Yunesky Maya on the pair's big league debuts, the former conceding a single run to the latter's four in a 4-1 Mets victory.

NY Mets (R Dickey) 1.94 @ WAS Nationals (L Hernandez) 1.96.

San Diego saw off the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1, the San Francisco Giants condemned Western strugglers the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 6-3 defeat and the Houston Astros scored a 7-3 win against the Chicago Cubs.

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