Whew! The Chicago White Sox and their nervous fans can take a deep breath - at least for the moment.

　　The White Sox finally pulled one out on Tuesday night, stopping their agonizing slide and beating the hard-charging Cleveland Indians 7-6 when Joe Crede hit his second homer of the game in the bottom of the 10th inning in Chicago.

　　"This can do nothing but help our confidence," Crede said.

　　Chicago increased its American League Central lead to 3 1/2 games - it was 15 on August 1 - and snapped the Indians' six-game winning streak. Cleveland lost for only the second time in 15 games.

　　The rest of the playoff races remained tight. Boston blew out Tampa Bay 15-2 to stay a half-game ahead of the Yankees in the AL East. New York downed Baltimore 12-9, moving within a half-game of Cleveland in the wildcard chase. And the Los Angeles Angels maintained their 1 1/2-game edge over Oakland in the AL West as Bartolo Colon beat Texas 2-1 for his league-leading 20th win.

　　Colon also won 20 in 2002, splitting that season between Cleveland and Montreal.

　　"I was pretty excited about the whole thing," he said through a translator. "It's a very special feeling to do it for one team."

　　In other AL games, Oakland beat Minnesota 8-3, Toronto topped Seattle 6-4 and Kansas City swept a doubleheader by defeating Detroit 5-4 and 4-2.

　　Colon (20-7) allowed only an unearned run and four hits in seven innings, becoming the first Angels pitcher to reach 20 wins since Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1974.

　　"He's a special pitcher," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "If you look at what he's accomplished from the middle of last year till now, I don't think there's a pitcher who can match what he's done."

　　Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his 39th save, and the Angels won their fourth straight. The visiting Rangers had won five in a row.

　　In Chicago, Crede led off the 10th and drove a 1-0 pitch from David Riske (3-4) to left for his 19th homer. It was the fifth game-ending shot of his career and his first since last September against Kansas City.

　　Dustin Hermanson (2-4) pitched a scoreless 10th for the victory in a back-and-forth game. The White Sox had dropped eight of 11.

　　In the National League, the San Diego Padres ended their run of three straight close wins in a big way. The NL West leaders fell back to .500 with a 1-20 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

　　Manager Bruce Bochy went to an old joke and another sport when asked for a bright spot in the worst loss in franchise history.

　　"Nobody got hurt," he said. "We got knocked out early in the first round."

　　It was 7-0 after the first round, er, inning, 10-0 after two and 15-0 after three. The 20 runs matched the most scored in the majors this season - the Yankees beat Tampa Bay 20-11 on June 21 - and tied Colorado's franchise record.

　　Still, the Padres (75-75) only lost one game off their division lead. San Francisco beat Washington 4-3 to move within five games of the Padres, whose magic number held at eight.

　　"Our objective is to get to the playoffs and play good baseball," Bochy said. "We'll figure that out once that happens."

　　It didn't on Tuesday.

　　Matt Holliday hit two homers and had eight RBIs for the Rockies, who had 23 hits in matching the largest margin of victory in franchise history.

　　"It was kind of humbling," said Holliday, whose RBI total was the most in the NL this season and tied the franchise record.

　　Luis Gonzalez had four hits and four RBIs for the Rockies and reliever Marcos Carvajal had his first major league hit, a two-run single in the seventh that made it 17-1.

　　Elsewhere, it was: Astros 7, Pirates 4; Mets 3, Marlins 2 (in 12 innings); Reds 6, Cardinals 5; Braves 4, Phillies 1; Brewers 5, Cubs 3; and Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 1.

　　(The Associated Press)