McMillon Answers Urgent Call by the A’s

Billy McMillon rarely gets a chance to play, so he just wants to be ready when called upon.

McMillon hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, the first game-winning shot of his career, and the Oakland Athletics completed a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with a 9-6 victory Sunday.

“You just hope to have a good at-bat and put the ball in play,” McMillon said. “I’ve done this before in the minors, but I’ve also hit .350 there too. We all want to play every day, but we’re not going to. It’s important for everybody to know their roles.”

The first-place A’s kept their American League West lead over the Angels at two games.

Mark Mulder was in position to become the first 18-game winner in the major leagues until closer Octavio Dotel (4-1) gave up consecutive homers to Aubrey Huff and Jose Cruz Jr. with two out in the ninth, tying the score, 6-6. Cruz was hitless in 13 previous at-bats in the series.

It was Dotel’s fifth blown save in 21 chances with the A’s, and his 17-inning scoreless streak ended. Oakland’s bullpen gave up its first earned run in 27 innings.

“I just didn’t have it out there,” Dotel said. “It doesn’t matter how we win, though, just that we do.”

McMillon, who replaced an ailing Jermaine Dye in the fourth, hit a 2-and-1 pitch over the center-field fence against Danys Baez (3-3). Eric Byrnes walked leading off the ninth, and, after Bobby Kielty’s sacrifice, Baez walked Eric Chavez intentionally to bring up McMillon.

“You have a guy like that on the bench and he isn’t getting a lot of at-bats, but he keeps himself ready,” A’s Manager Ken Macha said. “He takes extra batting practice. Billy played one game in Tampa and hasn’t played since. It was a stroke of fate, I guess.”

Baltimore 7, Texas 6 -- Melvin Mora drove in four runs at Arlington, Texas, and the Orioles ended their season-high 12-game losing streak -- their longest since dropping the last 12 games in 2002.

Sidney Ponson (9-13) gave up five runs and 12 hits -- 11 singles -- in seven innings, but won for the sixth time in his last seven decisions.

The Rangers dropped 3 1/2 games behind Oakland in the AL West and three games behind front-runner Boston in the wild-card race.

Toronto 6, New York 4 -- Carlos Delgado homered in a five-run seventh inning, and the Blue Jays ended a five-game skid after a power outage delayed the start at Toronto for about an hour.

Miguel Batista (10-10) gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings to win for the first time since July 23, a span of seven starts.

Alex Rodriguez had four hits, including a homer, for the Yankees, whose lead over second-place Boston in the AL East dropped to 4 1/2 games.

Boston 6, Detroit 1 -- Tim Wakefield (11-7) gave up three hits in eight innings at Boston, and the Red Sox won their sixth in a row.

Wakefield gave up Nook Logan’s double in the third, Craig Monroe’s homer in the fifth and Logan’s single in the eighth.

Cleveland 9, Chicago 0 -- Scott Elarton (3-3) gave up two hits in the first shutout of his career, and Casey Blake hit two of the Indians’ four homers at Cleveland.

Elarton gave up an infield single to Willie Harris leading off the fourth inning and a one-out single to Joe Crede in the ninth.

It was the fastest game at Jacobs Field -- 1 hour 56 minutes.

Seattle 5, Kansas City 4 -- Ichiro Suzuki homered, scored three times and got three hits to lead the Mariners at Seattle.

Suzuki, chasing George Sisler’s major league season record of 257 hits with the St. Louis Browns in 1920, has 209.