Sammy Sosa has spent more time trotting to home plate than sliding into it. The Texas Rangers capitalized on his lack of practice - and were sparked by it.

On the night Sosa took sole possession of fifth place on the career list with his 587th home run, his spikes-first slide was what the Rangers were talking about after they rallied to beat the Baltimore Orioles 11-8 in 11 innings on Wednesday night.

Gary Matthews threw out Sosa at the plate to keep the score tied in the 10th, then hit his second homer of the game, a three-run shot in the 11th. Sosa slid into catcher Rod Barajas with his right leg up in the air, causing both benches to empty before order was quickly restored.

"The play at the plate definitely fired us up," Texas first baseman Mark Teixeira said. "I'm not sure it was the difference in the game, because anytime you're in extra innings anything can happen. But it got us fired up."

Sosa's 587th career homer helped the Orioles build a 5-0 lead and broke a tie for fifth place on the career list with Frank Robinson. But he didn't feel like talking about that, or his slide, after the game.

"I'm not in the mood today," he said.

After struggling for most of his first season in Baltimore, Sosa has begun to hit home runs at a more familiar pace. He has three in four games and is batting .302 (13-for-43) with four homers and nine RBIs in 11 games. He has 13 homers and is batting .233 for the season.

But while Sosa has been improving, Baltimore continues to struggle. The Orioles have dropped nine of 11 and have fallen into a tie for third in the AL East, 4½ games behind Boston.

At Kansas City, Mo., Mike Sweeney homered twice and drove in five runs, and Emil Brown hit a run-scoring single off Luis Vizcaino (4-5) in the 13th inning as the host Royals overcame a five-run deficit.White Sox starter Jon Garland, trying to become the first 16-game winner in the majors, left in the eighth with a 5-2 lead but his bullpen couldn't hold it, partly because of sloppy fielding.

At New York, Johan Santana allowed seven hits in seven innings, and Minnesota ended a 10-game regular-season losing streak at Yankee Stadium.Santana (10-5) struck out five and walked two. Joe Nathan got four outs for his 28th save.

At Oakland, Calif., Marco Scutaro singled to drive in the winning run in the 10th and the host Athletics won for the eighth time in nine games and improved to 8-2 in extra innings.Mark Ellis hit a two-out single in the 10th, and Jay Payton followed with a double off David Riske (2-3), who then gave up Scutaro's single. Rookie Huston Street (4-1) pitched two innings for the victory.

At St. Petersburg, Fla., Tim Wakefield (9-9) scattered six hits over 7innings, and Curt Schilling earned his third save in four opportunities by getting the final out of a nervous ninth inning.

At Toronto, Brendan Donnelly's wild pitch with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Blue Jays the victory.Russ Adams led off with a single off Donnelly (6-3) and Frank Catalanotto laid down a sacrifice bunt. Donnelly intentionally walked Vernon Wells to face rookie Aaron Hill, who ended an 0-for-18 slump with an infield single to third before the decisive wild pitch.

At Seattle, Jamie Moyer (9-3) worked eight innings for his 201st career win and Richie Sexson homered twice to lead the host Mariners.

At San Diego, the Padres snapped their season-worst, eight-game losing streak with a last at-bat victory over St. Louis.Jake Peavy and Trevor Hoffman combined on a three-hitter for the Padres, and Robert Fick drove in the winning run with a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning.

At Milwaukee, Arizona scored its runs on a wild pitch and two errors, and Claudio Vargas won for the fourth time in five decisions. Vargas (4-5) allowed six hits in six innings, struck out six and walked one. Brian Bruney earned his 12th save.

At Chicago, Jeromy Burnitz drove in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the ninth and the Cubs won for the fourth time in five games. The Cubs tied it at 3 in the eighth when a fly ball by pinch-hitter Matt Murton was lost in the sun by right fielder Michael Tucker and dropped for an RBI single.Ryan Dempster (5-3) was the winner and Kevin Correia (1-3) was the loser.

At Atlanta, Jeff Francoeur, making his first start against a right-hander, had three hits, including a go-ahead, eighth-inning double, for the Braves. Atlanta, which led 3-1 in the eighth only to be tied, went ahead in the bottom half of the inning against Gary Majewski (2-2). Francoeur gave the Braves a 2-1 lead with a fourth-inning single.

At Houston, Roger Clemens (9-4) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings, taking his major league-leading ERA up from 1.40 to 1.46, for his sixth win in seven decisions. The Astros benefited from a fielding gaffe by Philadelphia pitcher Vicente Padilla (5-9) to win their fourth straight and 10th of 11. They beat Philadelphia for the ninth straight time and improved to 18-2 in their last 20 home games at home.

At Denver, Marlon Anderson hit two homers for his first career multihomer game and Ramon Castro homered and had three RBI for the Mets, who avoided a three-game sweep in Coors Field.

At Los Angeles, Ryan Freel went 3-for-4 and set a franchise record with five stolen bases, while Ken Griffey Jr. homered and drove in two runs for visiting Cincinnati.