Wakefield outduels Vazquez in Sox win

ATLANTA – Tim Wakefield pitched six scoreless innings to win a duel with Javier Vazquez as the Boston Red Sox blanked the Atlanta Braves, 1-0, in interleague play on Saturday.

Mark Kotsay drove in the game’s only run with a sixth-inning single.

Wakefield (10-3) came up with a performance worthy of the day he tied Roger Clemens’ record for the most career starts by a Red Sox pitcher at 382. His knuckleball was fluttering in 95-degree (35-degree C) heat as the Braves managed just three singles off the 42-year-old right-hander.

Vazquez (5-7) struck out eight to lead the National League with 125, but a brief spurt of wildness in the sixth was costly.

At Toronto, J.A. Happ pitched a five-hit shutout, Jayson Werth homered twice and Philadelphia whitewashed Toronto, 10-0.

In the first complete game of his career, Happ (5-0) won for the first time in four starts, helping the Phillies snap a three-game losing streak.

Werth’s two-run drive into the Bell Center upper deck was the first there in five years.

At St. Louis, Albert Pujols hit a pair of two-run homers, helping St. Louis pound Minnesota’s 10-game winner Kevin Slowey for a 5-3 victory.

Pujols leads the majors with 28 homers and 74 RBIs after his 29th career multihomer game, and sixth this season. Both homers came off Slowey (10-3). Pujols’ second long ball put the Cardinals ahead 5-3 in the third and helped see off Slowey, who matched his shortest outing of the season.

At Phoenix, Mike Napoli hit a tiebreaking home run in the top of the ninth inning to lift Los Angeles over Arizona, 2-1.

Napoli hit a one-out, 0-1 pitch from Chad Qualls (1-1) 428 feet to center field to give the Angels their fourth straight win and 11th in the last 14. (AP)