Seattle fires manager Wakamatsu

The last-place Seattle Mariners fired manager Don Wakamatsu. The team announced the dismissal of the major leagues' first Japanese-American manager hours before last night's game against Oakland.

The Mariners said that Daren Brown, 43, manager for Triple-A Tacoma the past three-plus seasons, will replace Wakamatsu on an interim basis. Seattle also fired bench coach Ty Van Burkleo and pitching coach Rick Adair.

"The truth of the matter is, I lost confidence in Don, Ty and Rick," Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said. "New leadership is needed and it is needed now."

Seattle entered the day 42-70, the second-worst record in the American League.

Wakamatsu had guided Seattle to an 85-77 record in his first season after taking over a team that went 61-101 in 2008. But the Mariners have the worst offense in baseball and it has doomed them to 221/2 games behind first-place Texas in the AL West.

Rays 6, Tigers 3

Matt Joyce homered and the Tampa Bay Rays snapped their five-game losing streak. Tampa Bay got within 1 1/2 games of first-place New York, and Detroit lost for the eighth time in 10 games to stay nine behind Chicago in the AL Central.

Cardinals 7, Reds 3

Skip Schumaker hit his first career grand slam during St. Louis' biggest inning of the season, supplying more than enough runs for Chris Carpenter (13-3) to beat host Cincinnati for the ninth time in a row. The Cardinals trimmed Cincinnati's lead to one game in the NL Central.

St. Louis sent 12 batters to the plate for seven runs in the fourth against rookie Mike Leake (7-4). Schumaker's grand slam - only his 19th career homer - made it 6-0.

Earlier in the day, the Reds acquired outfielder Jim Edmonds from Milwaukee for Chris Dickerson. Edmonds went 0-for 4 last night.

Orioles 3, White Sox 2

Brian Roberts hit his first home run of the season leading off the 10th inning, and host Baltimore continued its run of success (6-1) under new manager Buck Showalter.

Astros 10, Braves 4

Chris Johnson drove in three runs, including two in host Houston's six-run seventh, as Atlanta committed three errors and had a wild pitch.

D-backs 7, Brewers 4

Stephen Drew's two-run single broke a 4-4 tie in the 10th inning in Milwaukee and Ryan Church added an RBI single moments later.

- AP