A-Rod Plunked In Yankees' Win Over Jays

Roger Clemens made sure the Blue Jays paid for hitting Alex Rodriguez. <br/><br/>Four innings after Rodriguez was hit in the calf by Josh Towers' pitch, Clemens plunked Alex Rios in the middle of the

Wednesday, August 8th 2007, 7:36 am

By: News On 6

Roger Clemens made sure the Blue Jays paid for hitting Alex Rodriguez.

Four innings after Rodriguez was hit in the calf by Josh Towers' pitch, Clemens plunked Alex Rios in the middle of the back. Clemens was tossed, and the Yankees went on to beat the Blue Jays 9-3 in Toronto on Tuesday night.

Towers (5-9) hit the Yankees' slugger on the first pitch his second at-bat.

``It got me pretty good,'' said Rodriguez, who was still limping after the game. ``We'll see how I wake up in the morning. It hit me in the calf straight up.''

Rodriguez immediately took a few steps toward the mound before he was cut off by umpire Angel Hernandez. The Yankees and Blue Jays spilled out onto the field. Toronto's Matt Stairs had to be restrained by New York's Andy Phillips as he tried to go after A-Rod at first base.

``It was heated,'' manager Joe Torre said. ``I'm just glad it didn't come to blows where it could have gotten ugly.''

In other AL games, it was: Seattle 10, Baltimore 3; Detroit 9, Tampa Bay 6; Kansas City 5, Minnesota 1; Cleveland 2, Chicago 1; and Texas 8, Oakland 6.

Several Blue Jays were angry at Rodriguez after he distracted Howie Clark on a key popup late in a game May 30, yelling at the infielder as A-Rod approached third base. Jesse Litsch threw behind Rodriguez's legs in A-Rod's first at-bat in Monday's series opener.

``I guess yesterday wasn't a mistake,'' said Torre.

Rodriguez went 0-for-4 before being replaced at third base by Wilson Betemit in the eighth.

``His calf was starting to get tight but he should be all right,'' Torre said.

Clemens (4-5) threw six shutout innings before he hit Rios with his first pitch of the seventh.

``We got warned,'' Torre said. ``I guess in his (Hernandez's) estimation, Roger hit him on purpose. It's automatic at that point in time if he feels that's the case.''

Torre came out of the dugout and the Yankees infielders surrounded the entire umpiring crew as Clemens argued with Hernandez before leaving the field. It was the first ejection of the season for Clemens and Torre's third.

``I was asking for another ball and he showed me to the door,'' Clemens said. ``I just wanted to discuss something with him before I left.''

Bobby Abreu went 2-for-5 with four RBIs for New York. Melky Cabrera had two doubles and a triple for his second straight three-hit game.

Clemens won for the first time in three starts, allowing one run and two hits, walking one and striking out seven. He retired 13 consecutive batters between the second and sixth innings and struck out four of five at one stretch.

Called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre before the game, 21-year-old right-hander Joba Chamberlain made his major league debut in the eighth and pitched the final two innings. Chamberlain struck out two, topping out at 97 mph.

``He's electric,'' Torre said. ``It looked like his slider was mean.''

Angels 10, Red Sox 4

At Anaheim, Calif., Gary Matthews Jr. drove in four runs for Los Angeles and robbed Boston's Coco Crisp of a home run.

Joe Saunders (6-0) allowed four runs and eight hits over 5 1-3 innings for the Angels.

Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (13-10) allowed seven runs _ six earned _ and seven hits in four-plus innings for Boston, which saw its lead in the AL East, which was a season-high 12 games as recently as July 5, drop to five games over New York.

Tigers 9, Devil Rays 6

At Detroit, rookie Ryan Raburn had two RBIs and scored the go-ahead run in the Tigers' three-run eighth.

Raburn led off the eighth with a double off Dan Wheeler (0-1). He scored on a groundout by Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco followed with a run-scoring single and Sean Casey had an RBI double to make it 9-6.

Carl Crawford had four hits and Dioner Navarro hit his fourth homer for Tampa Bay, which has lost eight straight road games and 19 of 21 away from home.

Mariners 10, Orioles 3

At Baltimore, Raul Ibanez had two homers and four RBIs for Seattle and Jeff Weaver (3-10) earned his first win since June 25.

Ibanez had gone 31 games and 116 at-bats without a home run until he his solo shot in the second off Steve Trachsel. He added a two-run drive off Jamie Walker (1-2) in the seventh and doubled in a run in the eighth.

Indians 2, White Sox 1

At Chicago, Jake Westbrook (3-6) retired 23 of 24 batters at one stretch and Grady Sizemore hit a go-ahead two-run single in the fifth for Cleveland.

White Sox starter John Danks (6-9) didn't allow a hit until Jhonny Peralta led off the fifth with a single. One out later, Jason Michaels doubled to put runners on second and third. With two outs, Sizemore drove in both runners to give the Indians a 2-1 lead.

Royals 5, Twins 1

At Kansas City, Mo., Mark Teahen had four hits for his third straight multihit game and Brian Bannister (8-6) won his third straight decision for the Royals.

Teahen went 4-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI and is 9-for-13 in his past three games. Boof Bonser (5-8), who is 0-6 in 10 starts since June 10, gave up four runs and nine hits.

Rangers 8, Athletics 6

At Arlington, Texas, Jarrod Saltalamacchia drove in the tiebreaking run with a double in sixth and Kason Gabbard (5-1) went six innings to earn his first win for Texas. Chad Gaudin (8-8) gave up seven runs and eight hits in five innings.