Santana KOs Rangers

MINNEAPOLIS — Johan Santana finished with a franchise-record 17 strikeouts in eight innings to lead the Minnesota Twins past the Texas Rangers 1-0 Sunday.

Santana's 17 strikeouts were the most in the majors since Ben Sheets fanned 18 in Milwaukee's 4-1 win over Atlanta on May 16, 2004, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He broke the Minnesota record of 15, accomplished four times — the last by Bert Blyleven on Aug. 1, 1986, against Oakland.

Santana (13-9) retired the first 12 batters he faced before Sammy Sosa led off the fifth with a single to left-center. Sosa also doubled with two outs in the seventh for Texas' only other hit against the left-hander.

Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless ninth for his 27th save in 29 chances. He struck out Brad Wilkerson and Michael Young with a runner on second to finish off the two-hitter.

Minnesota's 19 strikeouts for the game were also a team record. The previous mark was 18 set in a 4-3, 13-inning victory over Cleveland on June 2, 2005. Santana had 14 Ks in that win.

Michael Cuddyer hit a 425-foot home run off Kevin Millwood (8-10) in the second inning. That was Millwood's only mistake — he allowed four hits and struck out three in seven innings for Texas.

ANGELS 3, RED SOX 1: At Boston, Joe Saunders took a shutout into the eighth inning and the Angels gained a split of the four-game series between the teams with baseball's best records. In his 26th major league start, Saunders (7-1) scattered six hits and allowed just two runners to reach second base in 7 2/3 innings. The 26-year-old left-hander struck out seven, walked two and was charged with one run. Boston's lead in the AL East dropped to four games over the New York Yankees, who beat Detroit for the second straight day.

YANKEES 9, TIGERS 3: At New York, Johnny Damon hit a tiebreaking homer and New York got lights-out relief pitching from a pair of rookies in a win over Detroit. Wilson Betemit had four RBIs and Hideki Matsui drove in three early runs for the surging Yankees, who took the final three meetings in a key four-game series between AL playoff contenders. With his 1,149th win as manager of the Yankees, Joe Torre tied Hall of Famer Casey Stengel for second place on the franchise list behind Joe McCarthy (1,460).