Zito Remains King of the Road in Texas

Even without his best stuff, Barry Zito was still good enough to continue his mastery of the Rangers in Texas.

Zito remained unbeaten in eight career road decisions against the Rangers and the Oakland Athletics moved back into first place in the American League West with a 9-4 victory Saturday night.

Zito (7-7) gave up four runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The Rangers took a 4-0 lead after three innings, but the A’s rallied for their seventh victory in eight games. Oakland took advantage of seven walks and several defensive lapses for what Manager Ken Macha called “a scrappy nine runs.”

“I gathered myself,” Zito said of the early deficit. “It’s nice to get some runs when you give up a few.... I’ve got something to take into my next start.”

The A’s have taken two of the first three games of the four-game series that concludes today and lead the second-place Rangers by half a game.

New York 6, Baltimore 4 -- Alex Rodriguez stole home and hit a long homer and Gary Sheffield also homered to help lift the Yankees at New York.

Mariano Rivera got three outs for his major league-leading 37th save in 40 chances and the 320th of his career, tying him with Roberto Hernandez for ninth place on the career list.

Rodriguez stole home on a double steal in the fourth inning.

Minnesota 5, Boston 4 -- Jacque Jones hit a tiebreaking homer against Alan Embree (2-2) in the eighth inning at Minneapolis.

It was the 17th homer for Jones and it came one inning after Michael Cuddyer had tied the score, 4-4, with a bases-empty homer against Derek Lowe.

Detroit 3, Chicago 2 -- Cliff Politte walked Carlos Guillen to force in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, stretching Chicago’s season-high losing streak to seven games.

First baseman Paul Konerko saved a potential winning hit, making a diving catch of Dmitri Young’s liner, but Guillen followed by walking on a 3-and-1 pitch.

Kansas City 10, Cleveland 3 -- Matt Stairs hit a three-run double and the host Royals ended an eight-game losing streak.

Mike Sweeney and Desi Relaford also homered for Kansas City, and Stairs matched a career high with his third triple of the season.

Omar Vizquel homered and extended his hitting streak to 13 games for Cleveland.

Tampa Bay 6, Toronto 5 -- Jorge Sosa (3-0), moved into the rotation after Victor Zambrano was traded to the New York Mets on Friday, gave up two runs in five innings in his first start this season and was supported by a two-run homer by Robert Fick at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Carlos Delgado homered in his two at-bats against Sosa, giving the Toronto slugger homers in five consecutive at-bats against the right-hander.