Another baserunning gaffe by B.J. Upton took some of the shine off Tampa Bay’s latest big win.
The first-place Rays beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-4 Monday night, but the postgame buzz was more about Upton getting caught jogging on the bases again instead of the AL East leaders improving to 5-2 against the team with the top record in the majors.
Upton slipped away from Tropicana Field without speaking to reporters, leaving others to answer questions about his latest blunder.
“I’ll tell you one thing about tonight, he’s hurting,” said designated hitter Cliff Floyd, who hit a two-run homer to help right-hander Andy Sonnanstine get his team-leading 13th win. “He’s hurting bad.”
Upton, who has been benched three times in the last two weeks for not hustling, was thrown out at second base on what should have been a routine double in the fourth inning.
But unlike Friday at Texas, the speedy center fielder wasn’t removed from the game by manager Joe Maddon.
“That’s a mental mistake he made right there. It’s not a lack of effort,” Maddon said, explaining why he didn’t take action.
“It’s one of those situations where he assumed. We’ve talked about assumptions. That’s an assumption on his part. That’s part of his game we’ve got to get rid of.”
Floyd, whose locker is three cubicles away from Upton’s in the clubhouse, said that will be done.
“I think everybody in here will do everything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s not in Joe’s hands any more. It’s in nobody’s hands but ours,” the 14-year veteran said.
“It bothers me. You get choked up a little bit because it’s like, ’Man, we’ve got something real special here.’ We don’t need to be talking about this stuff.”
Eric Hinske also hit a two-run homer and Sonnanstine (13-6) allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1-3 innings to pull within one victory of the Rays’ single-season record. Rolando Arrojo won 14 in 1998, and Sonnanstine’s total matches the 13 Scott Kazmir won a year ago.
Dan Wheeler, the sixth Tampa Bay pitcher, worked a perfect ninth for his sixth save in seven opportunities, enabling the Rays to maintain their 41⁄2-game lead over Boston in the division.
Hinske hit his 19th homer in the second and Floyd added his ninth in the third, both coming off right-hander Jon Garland (11-8), who allowed five runs and 10 hits in six innings.
White Sox 13, Mariners 5
Nick Swisher hit a two-run homer for host Chicago, and Orlando Cabrera started a six-run fifth inning with another two-run shot.
After hitting a grand slam on Sunday, rookie Alexei Ramirez hit a three-run homer and Jermaine Dye doubled twice and drove in two runs for the White Sox, who have won six of their last seven and moved one game ahead of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central.
Carlos Quentin hit his major league-leading 35th home run in the eighth for Chicago, which leads the majors with 182 homers. Mark Buehrle (11-10) improved to 8-3 at home.
Jarrod Washburn (5-13) allowed eight runs and seven hits in 4 1-3 innings for Seattle.
Athletics 3, Twins 2
At Minneapolis, Kirk Saarloos pitched 3 2-3 shutout innings after Oakland ace Justin Duchscherer left with a hip injury.
Red Sox 6, Orioles 3
Jon Lester outpitched Jeremy Guthrie, and Jason Bay homered twice for visiting Boston.
Lester (12-4) allowed one run, four hits and a walk in seven innings to improve to 5-0 lifetime against the Orioles. The left-hander is 9-1 since May 25.
Manny Delcarmen issued a pair of two-out walks in eighth before Jonathan Papelbon gave up a double to Aubrey Huff that cut Boston’s lead to 4-3. After David Ortiz hit an RBI double in the ninth and scored on a grounder by Bay, Papelbon finished for his 33rd save in 37 tries.
Jason Varitek also homered for the Red Sox, who have won eight of 12 and lead the AL wild-card race.
Guthrie (10-9) gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings. Huff hit his 27th home run, drove in three runs and finished with two of Baltimore’s five hits.
Tigers 8, Rangers 7
At Arlington, Texas, Gary Sheffield hit career homer No. 493 and Curtis Granderson had two triples and four RBIs for Detroit.
Sheffield hit a two-run drive in Detroit’s four-run seventh for his 13th of the season, moving into a tie with Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff for 25th on the home run list.
The Tigers trailed 3-0 before the big seventh, and added four more in the eighth to make it 8-3. Brandon Inge tied it with an RBI single off Frank Francisco (2-5) in the seventh and Granderson’s triple to right-center made it 4-3.
Kenny Rogers (9-10) allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings for the Tigers.
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