DETROIT (AP) -- C.C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander squared off in a marquee matchup of starting candidates for next week's All-Star game.
The Detroit Tigers knocked some of the luster off Sabathia's sensational season.
Gary Sheffield, Carlos Guillen and Placido Polanco hit homers off Sabathia on Thursday, giving Detroit a 12-3 win over Cleveland and contributing to the star pitcher's worst game of the year and the Indians' most lopsided loss of the season.
"Sometimes you get those pitching matchups that don't turn out quite like you thought they would," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "Fortunately for us, it turned out our way."
Like Sabathia, Verlander gave up a home run in the first inning before outdueling the first pitcher in the majors to reach 12 wins.
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Verlander (10-3) gave up three runs -- two earned -- and six hits with seven strikeouts and no walks over seven innings. The 24-year-old right-hander struck out five batters in a row from the end of the third inning to the start of the fifth.
"That's a lot of equipment," Leyland said. "You see guys throw 97, 98, but it's really rare that you see guys that young with three pitches like he has -- fastball, curveball, changeup -- that are all above average."
Red Sox 15, Devil Rays 4
BOSTON -- Coco Crisp hit a grand slam in the first inning, and Josh Beckett earned his 12th win as the Boston Red Sox handed Tampa Bay its 11th consecutive loss.
The Devil Rays were swept for the third straight series. A fourth this weekend in Kansas City would pull them within one of the franchise record of 15 straight losses set in 2002.
Mike Lowell had a career-high four hits of Boston's season-high total of 21, and he and Crisp each drove in five of Boston's season-high 15 runs.
The Red Sox led 6-0 lead after one inning, 9-0 after two and 13-2 after three, when Beckett (12-2) already had seven strikeouts. The All-Star right-hander finished with nine, allowing three runs, nine hits and a walk in six innings.
J.P. Howell (1-3) allowed six runs, six hits and two walks, retiring just two of the 10 batters he faced before being chased in the first inning. He even needed good defense to do that: David Ortiz was retired on a fielder's choice line drive off the first baseman's glove for the first out in the inning.
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Ortiz went 3-for-5 and scored four runs for Boston. Delmon Young went 3-for-4 and Brendan Harris drove in two runs for Tampa Bay.
White Sox 11, Orioles 6
CHICAGO -- Tadahito Iguchi fell a single shy of the cycle, and Jermaine Dye hit a three-run homer to lead the Chicago White Sox over the Baltimore Orioles.
The 11 runs were a season high for the White Sox, who have won eight of 11 and are trying to turn around a brutal season. They began the night 36-45, 13½ games behind in the AL Central and, it seemed, light years removed from their championship run in 2005.
Thursday's outburst was a small step -- albeit one that included several big rips.
Dye's shot in the first inning capped a five-run outburst, and Iguchi's two-run drive with one out in the second made it 7-0 and knocked out Brian Burres (4-3). Iguchi also doubled in the first and tripled in the sixth, before he walked in the eighth. He drove in three runs and scored three.
