Santana Defeats Indians for No. 20

Johan Santana became the second 20-game winner in the major leagues with his 13th consecutive victory, leading the Minnesota Twins past the Cleveland Indians, 8-2, Friday night at Cleveland.

Santana (20-6), who set a club record for strikeouts in a season, ended his 33-inning scoreless streak. He gave up a run, his first in September, and two hits in six innings, striking out six to put his league-leading total at 260. Bert Blyleven set the previous Twin mark with 258 in 1973.

Santana improved to 13-0 with a 1.18 earned-run average in 14 starts since the All-Star break. He has won 12 starts in a row since yielding one run in a no-decision July 22 against Tampa Bay.

The left-hander, who entered this season with a 23-12 career record, tied Boston’s Curt Schilling for the major league lead in wins.

Santana’s 13th straight win broke the club mark set by Scott Erickson in 1991 and matched by Brad Radke in 1997.

The Twins won for the first time in four games since clinching the Central Division title.

The Twins built a 6-0 lead by scoring five runs with two out in the fourth off Kyle Denney (1-2). Henry Blanco, Shannon Stewart and Jacque Jones hit consecutive RBI singles. Lew Ford then hit a two-run double.

Seattle 8, Texas 7 -- Randy Winn’s infield single in the top of the ninth inning helped the Mariners end the Rangers’ five-game winning streak.

The Rangers fell three games behind the first-place Oakland Athletics in the West Division and remained in a second-place tie with the Angels.

Ichiro Suzuki had two singles in four at-bats. His 249 hits moved him past Ty Cobb and into sole possession of seventh place on the single-season list. He moved to within eight hits of George Sisler’s major league record, set in 1920.

With the score 7-7, Francisco Cordero (3-3) came in to start the ninth. Scott Spiezio and Dan Wilson had one-out singles to put runners on first and third. Pinch-hitter Edgar Martinez struck out, then Cordero intentionally walked Suzuki to load the bases.

Winn then beat out an infield chopper to drive in pinch-runner Willie Bloomquist with the go-ahead run.

Baltimore 7, Detroit 5 -- Miguel Tejada hit a game-winning three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. Tejada, who went four for five with four RBIs, hit a 1-and-0 pitch from Esteban Yan over the center-field wall for his 31st homer and the Orioles’ fourth walk-off win of the season.

Kansas City 8, Chicago 6 -- John Buck homered twice to lead the Royals at Chicago. He broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning with a 431-foot solo shot to center off reliever Felix Diaz. Jimmy Gobble (9-8) yielded four runs and eight hits in six-plus innings to remain the only Kansas City starter with a winning record.

Tampa Bay 4, Toronto 2 -- Julio Lugo broke a 2-2 tie with a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth for the Devil Rays, who lead the Blue Jays by 1 1/2 games for fourth place in the East Division. The Devil Rays have finished last in all six years of the team’s existence.

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Oriole reliever Jorge Julio started serving his four-game suspension. Julio was initially suspended for four games and fined $1,000 on Sept. 10 by the league for throwing a pitch that nearly hit Minnesota’s Augie Ojeda in the head. No games were dropped after an appeal, but he is no longer responsible for paying the fine.