Blue Jays’ Wells Hits Three Homers

Vernon Wells hit three homers for the first time in his career and Troy Glaus homered twice to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to an 8-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night at Toronto.

Wells and Glaus hit back-to-back homers in the first off Josh Beckett (7-2), who had won his previous four starts. They got Beckett again with solo homers, Wells in the third and Glaus, his 17th, in the fifth. It was the fourth multihomer game of the season for both.

Wells is six for 12 with four home runs in his career against Beckett

“I’d rather miss him one of these times to be honest with you. It’s not a fun at-bat,� Wells said. “I’m going up there swinging early and often just to give myself a chance. He’s supplying all the power. I just have to figure out how to put the bat on it.�

Wells added a solo shot -- his 15th -- off David Riske in the eighth. He went three for four with four runs batted in.

Eight of his home runs have come against Boston.

“Hopefully, I can continue to close my eyes and swing as hard as I can,� Wells said.

Beckett said anybody could have homered off him on the pitches he threw to Wells.

“They were right down the middle. You guys could have hit either one of those balls out,� Beckett said to a pack of writers. “But it’s not a fluke he hit three home runs. He’s a pretty good player.�

It was the first time two Toronto players had multihomer games together since Carlos Delgado hit three and Raul Mondesi hit two on April 20, 2001, at Kansas City.

Kansas City 8, Oakland 7 -- Mark Grudzielanek hit a tiebreaking single to right in the 10th inning, and the Royals won their first extra-innings game of the season by defeating the Athletics at Oakland.

Elmer Dessens (3-5) pitched two innings for the win. Ambiorix Burgos got his seventh save.

New York 11, Detroit 6 -- Jason Giambi’s solo homer sparked a five-run 11th inning for the Yankees, who won at Detroit.

The Yankees are a season-high 10 games over .500 with their fourth consecutive victory.

Cleveland 4, Chicago 3 -- C.C. Sabathia finished a marvelous May by working six solid innings and Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run homer to lead the host Indians to victory.

Sabathia (5-1) missed nearly all of April after getting hurt on opening night in Chicago, but went 5-1 in May with 1.20 earned-run average and tossed two complete games.

Texas 6, Seattle 4 -- Brad Wilkerson’s grand slam highlighted a six-run third inning and the Rangers handed the Mariners their season-high sixth consecutive loss at Arlington, Texas.

Baltimore 7, Tampa Bay 5 -- Corey Patterson hit two solo homers, Miguel Tejada had one, and the Orioles handed the Devil Rays a fifth consecutive loss at Baltimore.