HOUSTON - Chris Young connected on a three-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the Oakland Athletics to a 6-5 win over the Houston Astros on Friday night.
Young, who grew up in Houston, is hitting just .189 this season. But he's a career .418 hitter at Minute Maid Park with seven home runs and 27 RBIs in 19 games in his hometown.
The A's trailed 5-3 before closer Jose Veras (0-3) walked two of the first three batters of the inning to set the table for Young. He turned on a curveball to put Oakland up 6-5. Young stood at the plate for a couple of seconds admiring the towering shot before heading to first base.
Seth Smith had a solo pinch-hit homer for Oakland in the sixth inning.
DETROIT - Anibal Sanchez took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Minnesota's Joe Mauer broke it up with a one-out single, and that was the only hit the Detroit right-hander allowed in the Tigers' 6-0 victory over the Twins on Friday night.
Sanchez fell two outs shy of his second career no-hitter, but thanks to Mauer it was just another near miss this season. There have already been five one-hitters this year, according to STATS.
It was Sanchez's second gem in about a month - he set a franchise record with 17 strikeouts in eight marvelous innings against Atlanta on April 26.
Sanchez (5-4) struck out 12 on Friday and allowed three walks.
The home crowd gave him a standing ovation when he came out to start the ninth, and he immediately struck out Jamey Carroll. Mauer, followed with a clean line drive up the middle - to almost the same spot where Pittsburgh's Josh Harrison's hit landed last year when he broke up a no-hit bid by Detroit's Justin Verlander, also with two outs to go.
BOSTON - John Lackey allowed two hits in seven innings and Mike Carp hit a three-run homer.
TORONTO - Chris Davis hit his major league-leading 16th home run and Nick Markakis had three hits and three RBIs.
J.J. Hardy, Danny Valencia and Adam Jones all went deep as the Orioles matched a season high in runs and set a season high with four home runs. Baltimore has hit an ML-best 66 homers this season.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Brett Gardner, Lyle Overbay and Jayson Nix each drove in two runs.
Gardner made it 5-0 with a two-run homer off Roberto Hernandez (2-5) during the fourth. The Yankees took a 3-0 lead in the second on Overbay's two-run double and an RBI single by Nix.
David Phelps (3-2), who retired his first 13 batters before James Loney hit a one-out double in the fifth, allowed four runs and six hits in 7 2-3 innings. He left in the eighth after it appeared he was hit on the right arm by a drive up the middle by Ben Zobrist.