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MINNEAPOLIS - Back to the .500 mark, the Twins have nearly forgotten about their awful first-half finish.
Chris Gomez hit a go-ahead single in the eighth to lead Minnesota to its fifth consecutive victory, 5-4 over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
"We're just playing better overall baseball," said Gomez, the former Devil Rays shortstop who's 8-for-20 with four RBIs during the streak.
Minnesota had lost 22 of 28 going into the All-Star break.
"A lot of stuff is going our way now," Gomez said.
Torii Hunter homered and Shannon Stewart went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Minnesota, on its best stretch since winning six straight from May 4-9.
"Hopefully we can keep on rolling," said manager Ron Gardenhire, whose team moved within 51/2 games of first-place Kansas City in the Central and evened its record for the first time since July 8.
Mark McLemore keyed a four-run rally in the seventh with a two-run double for the West-leading Mariners, who have won one of their past six series. Seattle, which finishes a two-game set with the Twins tonight, has dropped three straight for the first time since April 9-11.
"I like to look at it as a positive sign that we don't give up early in the game," manager Bob Melvin said. "That's a sign of a team that keeps clawing. That's what we'll continue to do."
Hunter led off the eighth with a single against Arthur Rhodes and A.J. Pierzynski forced him at second with a fielder's choice grounder. Jacque Jones hit a long single off the tall wall in right, and Gomez hit a soft liner over McLemore's head at shortstop off Jeff Nelson.
Seattle's bullpen lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Signed to a minor-league contract in January, Gomez is batting .296 in 115 at-bats. He has been valuable for the Twins with third baseman Corey Koskie on the disabled list with a back injury.
"He's played very well at third base; that's big shoes to fill," Gardenhire said. "He's gotten a lot of big hits for us."
A'S 6, ROYALS 1: Rich Harden pitched seven sharp innings in his major-league debut and visiting Oakland took advantage of Kansas City's wild bullpen.
The Athletics drew five straight walks with two outs in the ninth to break a tie at 1.
The right-handed Harden, 21, started for the World team in the Futures Game during the All-Star break and struck out three in his inning. He began this season by pitching 13 perfect innings at Double-A Midland, then went 9-4 at Triple-A Sacramento.
BLUE JAYS 8, YANKEES 0 (71/2): Mark Hendrickson returned from the minors to shut down New York and Vernon Wells homered twice for Toronto.
Wells drove in three and Eric Hinske and Chris Woodward had two RBIs each for the Blue Jays, who tagged Jeff Weaver for 11 hits and ended the Yankees' five-game winning streak.
The Blue Jays have won five straight in New York. They swept a four-game series at Yankee Stadium for the first time in franchise history May 22-25.
RED SOX 14, TIGERS 5: Manny Ramirez went 4-for-4 with his 23rd homer and host Boston hit a season-high nine doubles. The Red Sox had 18 hits and batted around twice in a game for the second time this season as they continued to shake off a brief slump. The highest-scoring team in the majors had 17 runs in six games before beating Toronto 9-4 Sunday.
WHITE SOX 4, INDIANS 3: Joe Crede homered and Carl Everett added a two-run single as host Chicago won its four straight to move within six games of Kansas City in the Central. The Indians have lost six in a row.
ORIOLES 3, RANGERS 2: Pat Hentgen took a four-hitter into the seventh and B.J. Surhoff homered as host Baltimore won its fifth straight.