Texas Rangers' Elvis Andrus (left) congratulates Leonys Martin after their 2-1 win over St Louis Cardinals in St Louis, Missouri, on Sunday. The win also helped Texas make a three-game sweep of the Cardinals. (Reuters)

Agencies/Los Angeles


The Detroit Tigers took full advantage of a pair of late Boston errors as they topped the Red Sox 7-5 on Sunday in a battle of two first-place teams.
With the game tied 4-4 in the eighth inning, Boston outfielder Daniel Nava dropped a fly ball before reliever Andrew Miller made an errant throw that led to Detroit’s go-ahead rally.
Prince Fielder delivered a two-run single and the Tigers scored three runs in the critical eighth to key their victory and give them a four-game lead atop the American League Central. Despite the defeat, the Red Sox (45-33) remained two games in front of Baltimore (42-34) in the AL East.
The Orioles had a chance to gain some ground, but they ran into the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays, who routed them 13-5 for a team record-equalling 11th straight win. Toronto buried Baltimore early by building a 9-0 lead through three innings and cruised in the finale of a three-game home sweep.
Edwin Encarnacion hit his 21st home run and finished with three hits and four RBIs, while Jose Bautista added three RBIs to help the Blue Jays match their record winning streak, last accomplished in 1998.
In Washington, Michael Cuddyer continued his own hot stretch by extending his Major League-best hitting streak to 21 games in Colorado’s 7-6 win over Washington.
Cuddyer homered in his first at-bat in the second inning and ended up 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
He surpassed St Louis infielder David Freese, who had a 20-game hit streak that ended earlier this month, for the longest hitting stretch this season. The Rockies grabbed a 7-0 lead but had to hold on as the Nationals tallied four runs in the eighth to pull within one.
Meanwhile in St Louis, it was worth the wait for the Texas Rangers — again. Ian Kinsler singled in the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning after the Rangers knocked 10-game winner Adam Wainwright out of the game, and Texas completed a soggy, three-game sweep of the St Louis Cardinals with a 2-1 victory.
"It says a lot when you sweep a team that's that talented, so I think that's definitely a boost," said seventh-place hitter David Murphy, whose double kick-started the rally. "We had a lot of fun, we played with energy and we did exactly what we wanted to."
The finale of Texas' first visit to Busch Stadium since losing Games 6 and 7 of the 2011 World Series, and first time ever in the regular season, was delayed 2 hours and 59 minutes by heavy rain with less than half of a near-capacity crowd sticking around, and even less around for the finish at 1:06 am.
"You can't take that as an excuse," the Cardinals' Carlos Beltran said. "The other team is also going through what you're going through."
Rookie Nick Tepesch had a resurgent outing for Texas, allowing a run on four hits in 5 2-3 innings after surrendering 11 runs in 8 2-3 innings the previous two starts. Kinsler and Murphy had two hits apiece for the AL West-leading Rangers, who have won five in a row after losing six straight.
The Cardinals, who have the majors' best record at 47-29, were swept for the first time this season.
Wainwright fell short in a bid to become the first 11-game winner in the National League, allowing an earned run in 6 2-3 innings with six strikeouts and one walk. Leadoff man Matt Carpenter homered to start the sixth, singled and walked for St Louis.
He disagreed with Matheny's assessment that he'd been laboring the last two innings. "He's wrong. You don't want to call your manager out and I would never do that," Wainwright said. "Laboring is not what I was doing. He's the manager. He makes the call. I should have got the last hitter out I faced."
Robbie Ross (4-1) got the last out of the sixth to strand a pair of runners and Joe Nathan worked around two hits in the ninth to earn his third save of the series and 25th overall in 26 chances.
Both teams had an off-day yesterday with the Rangers headed to New York to face the Yankees and the Cardinals opening a two-game set at Houston.