AL: Twins' Santana makes one hit stand

MINNEAPOLIS - With Johan Santana and Freddy Garcia in an old-fashioned pitchers' duel, the Twins and White Sox put on a pennant-race classic despite the distance between them in the Central.

Jacque Jones ended Garcia's no-hit bid with a home run to lead off the eighth, and Santana pitched Minnesota past Chicago 1-0 on Tuesday night.

"When you have a game like that," Santana said, "you know it's only going to take one mistake."

It was Garcia who faltered, leaving a 1-and-2 curveball a little too high for Jones, who smacked it over the centerfield wall for his team-leading 18th homer and the Twins' only hit of the game.

"I didn't look," Garcia said. "I knew that it was gone."

Santana gave up three hits and walked one in eight innings, striking out seven in a battle of perhaps Venezuela's best pitchers. Santana, last season's Cy Young Award winner, improved to 6-1 since the All-Star break.

Garcia, who walked two and struck out three in eight innings, is the first White Sox pitcher to lose a one-hitter since 1983.

The first-place White Sox saw the Twins move within 91/2 games of them, with Cleveland in second, seven games out.

"Keep playing like that and it'll turn. We're on the right track, I can tell," said Chicago's Paul Konerko, providing a positive reflection of his team's eighth loss in nine games. "It's still in our hands, and there aren't many teams in baseball that can say making the playoffs is in their hands."

Minnesota plays Chicago nine more times this season.

"I knew, coming into this game, that we needed to fight," Santana said. "Tonight, we did a great job from top to bottom."

YANKEES 5, BLUE JAYS 4: Felix Escalona's bases-loaded single with two outs in the ninth moved host New York into the wild-card lead.

Hideki Matsui hit a tying homer in the ninth, and Derek Jeter had two hits in his return to the lineup for the Yankees, who scored in each of the final four innings to win for the ninth time in 12 games and reach 14 games over .500 for the first time this season.

Toronto took a 4-3 lead off Mariano Rivera in the ninth, but Matsui led off the bottom half with his 20th homer, a drive off Miguel Batista. Jorge Posada walked with one out, and Robinson Cano walked with two outs. Batista then intentionally walked Jeter to load the bases for Escalona, who singled to center on an 0-and-2 pitch.

TIGERS 4, A'S 1: Carlos Pena hit two homers and Nate Robertson won for the first time in just over a month as Detroit won its fifth straight. The Tigers matched their longest winning streak of the season. Oakland, starting a 10-game road trip, has lost seven of eight.

RED SOX 5, ROYALS 2: David Wells improved to 16-3 against Kansas City as visiting Boston snapped the Royals' two-game winning streak that followed a team-record 19 straight losses.

ANGELS 7, ORIOLES 6: Orlando Cabrera had three hits and three RBIs to back Jarrod Washburn's fine pitching performance as visiting Los Angeles held on.

RANGERS 6, MARINERS 4: Kevin Mench had three hits, including his 21st home run, and rookie Chris Young ended host Texas' four-game skid.

[Last modified August 24, 2005, 01:16:13]