RESULTS

* at Toronto 8, Baltimore 3: Frank Thomas hit his 509th home run, one of a club-record seven consecutive hits to begin the game. Toronto won for only the second time in eight games, and Baltimore lost for the 19th time in 24 games. Roy Halladay worked seven strong innings to win for the first time in six starts.

* at Oakland 7, Texas 3: Nick Swisher homered for the third straight game, and Dan Johnson connected twice and had a two-run single to help Joe Blanton win his third straight start. Johnson hit solo shots in the fourth and sixth innings for his third career multihomer game and second this season, then singled in two runs in Oakland’s three-run seventh.

* at Cleveland 6, Kansas City 0: Fausto Carmona pitched three-hit ball over eight innings, retiring his final 16 batters. Travis Hafner homered for Cleveland, which cut its magic number to nine for clinching its first AL Central title since 2001. The Indians have won 17 of their last 21 games.

* Tampa Bay 6, at Seattle 2: Scott Kazmir (13-8) gave up three hits in six innings and struck out 11, his fifth double-digit strikeout game of the season. Kazmir has 220 strikeouts, tied with Minnesota’s Johan Santana and one behind Baltimore’s Erik Bedard for the major league lead.

* at Boston 10, New York 1: Josh Beckett pitched three-hit ball over seven innings.

* Detroit 4, at Minnesota 3: Carlos Guillen had a run-scoring single and Ivan Rodriguez hit a three-run double in the first inning as the Tigers pulled to within 2 1/2 games of the Yankees in the wild-card race.

* Angels 2, at Chicago 1: Jered Weaver gave up four hits in six innings to get his 12th victory.