Yankees Have a Blast Against the A’s

If New York Yankee Manager Joe Torre was trying to shake Jason Giambi out of a slump and if Oakland General Manager Billy Beane was hoping to end his team’s skid, neither were all that successful Friday night.

But Giambi did provide a bit of hope in his last at-bat, on a night when the Yankees didn’t need any help to produce a 9-4 victory at Oakland that pushed the A’s losing streak to five.

Tony Womack, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui each drove in two runs as Giambi went one for four, singling and scoring a run in his last at-bat and striking out twice.

“We’ve just got to see if that’s going to happen here,” Torre said of Giambi’s chance for rejuvenation in the series against his former team after being benched with a .195 average. “I certainly think with a great portion of the season left, that unless you find out, you don’t know what kind of weapons you have.”

Giambi, who returned to the starting lineup, got a warm pregame welcome from A’s Manager Ken Macha.

Macha and his staff were summoned by Beane before the game.

The chat didn’t help. The loss was Oakland’s ninth in its last 10 games, and Beane, who did not return a phone call from Associated Press seeking comment, could be contemplating changes to his roster.

Three team officials said that Beane focused on personnel matters and gave a vote of confidence to his staff at the meeting. Not surprisingly, first baseman Dan Johnson’s name came up. Oakland’s top hitting prospect began the day batting .305 with six homers and 29 runs batted in in 34 games for triple-A Sacramento.

There also has been speculation about Macha’s job status this week. Macha refused to confirm any particulars about the meeting.

“If I do have a meeting with somebody, I’ll do it outside the public view,” Macha said.

Seattle 14, Boston 7 -- Adrian Beltre’s three-run homer, a 440-foot shot off the top of the out-of-town scoreboard in left-center field at Seattle, highlighted a three-home run night for the Mariners. Beltre had two hits and a season-high four runs batted in. Richie Sexson and Raul Ibanez added solo homers.

Chicago 5, Baltimore 3 -- Paul Konerko hit a two-run, bases-loaded single in the seventh as the White Sox rallied at Chicago. The White Sox have had a lead in all 36 of their games.

The comeback from a 3-0 deficit bailed out Chicago starter Mark Buehrle (6-1), who gave up five hits in eight innings to win his fifth consecutive decision.

Dustin Hermanson pitched a perfect ninth for his eighth save in as many opportunities. Hermanson has not given up a run in 18 1/3 innings this season.

Texas 9, Minnesota 6 -- Chad Allen hit a run-scoring double off Joe Nathan in the 11th inning to lift the Rangers at Minneapolis.

Michael Young homered and tripled, Richard Hidalgo was three for five with a home run and a double, and Joaquin Benoit pitched 3 1/3 innings of hitless relief to help the Rangers to rally from a 6-2 deficit.

Francisco Cordero pitched the bottom of the 11th to record his American League-leading 12th save.

Tampa Bay 3, Kansas City 2 -- Alex Gonzalez hit a tiebreaking home run with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting the Devil Rays to their first road victory in more than three weeks.

It was the Devil Rays’ 10th home run of the year from the No. 9 spot. They still do not have a homer from anyone batting cleanup.

Cleveland 6, Toronto 4 -- Ben Broussard delivered a three-run double in a four-run first inning and Ryan Ludwick hit a solo homer at Cleveland as the Indians snapped the Blue Jays’ three-game winning streak.