Yankees, Red Sox headed for another fantastic finish
Get ready for another best of seven between Boston and New York.
Tied atop the AL East with seven regular-season games to go, the Red Sox and Yankees appear headed for a fantastic finish again.
After splitting a pair of seven-game thrillers in the past two AL championship series, the upcoming week will not only decide the division title — it could leave one of these longtime rivals out of the postseason altogether.
“We need to go out and win all the games, as Boston does,” New York manager Joe Torre said Sunday. “A week from today, the smoke clears. Hopefully, we’re standing tall.”
Both teams won Sunday to remain even at 91-64.
The Red Sox got home runs from Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon, plus a solid outing from David Wells, in a 9-3 victory at Baltimore.
At Yankee Stadium, Robinson Cano hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh, Gary Sheffield added a three-run shot in the eighth and rookie Chien-Ming Wang pitched New York past Toronto 8-4 in its final scheduled home game of the regular season.
The Yankees head to Camden Yards for a four-game series beginning Monday night, while Boston hosts the Blue Jays for four. Then the rivals go head-to-head three times at Fenway Park to close the season.
Both are a half-game behind Cleveland in the wild-card race.
New York swept four games from the slumping Orioles in the Bronx last week. Boston’s 50-24 record at home is the best in the major leagues, but the Red Sox are only 5-9 against pesky Toronto.
“We have a lot of business to tend to, but at home we hope to be a force,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “We have an important week; it’ll be fun.”
In other AL games, it was: Chicago 4, Minnesota 1; Kansas City 5, Cleveland 4; Tampa Bay 8, Los Angeles 4; Texas 6, Oakland 2; and Detroit 8, Seattle 1.
Ramirez hit his 41st homer in a five-run first inning against rookie John Maine (2-3) and Damon connected in a four-run fifth, helping the World Series champions complete a three-game sweep in Baltimore.
A majority of the 46,559 fans in attendance were cheering for the Red Sox. There was no Green Monster in left field, but for a third straight day the stands were filled with fans in red and the Orioles’ home stadium sounded very much like Fenway Park.
“This place has been very good to our team,” Damon said. “A bunch of our fans cannot get tickets in Boston. For them to come down on a weekend and take part in this, that says a lot.”
It was the fifth homer in five games for Ramirez, who moved into a tie with former Oriole Cal Ripken for 34th place on the career list (431).
Wells (14-7) allowed three runs in 6 2-3 innings before leaving with pain in his right knee.
“It was burning,” he said. “I’m sure it will be fine. Why push it?”
Melvin Mora and Miguel Tejada homered for the Orioles, whose eight-game losing streak matches a season high. Tejada was guilty of two mental blunders and a fielding error that fueled Boston’s two big innings.
At New York, Wang (8-4) allowed three runs in seven innings to help the Yankees win for the 12th time in 14 games, and Bernie Williams got an afternoon full of ovations.
A fan favorite since he came up to the Yankees in 1991, Williams was cheered repeatedly during perhaps his final game with New York in Yankee Stadium. The 37-year-old center fielder, whose production has declined the past three years, can become a free agent after the season.
Williams went 1-for-4 with an infield single, with fans standing and applauding through each of his at-bats. The sellout crowd of 55,136 raised New York’s home attendance to an AL-record 4,090,696.
On the facing of the second deck was a large sign: “BOSS: BRING BERNIE BACK.”
When the Yankees began the bottom of the eighth, fans chanted his name, reminiscent of their tribute to Paul O’Neill during Game 5 of the 2001 World Series. Sitting in the dugout, Williams wasn’t sure what to do and turned to Torre for advice before walking up the steps for a curtain call.
“I was trying to make sure I was within protocol within the team, and trying not to disturb anybody,” Williams said. “They were not going to stop, so I sort of looked at Joe and said, `Can I do this?’ and he said, `Yes.’ It was a great moment, and I appreciate it a lot.”
New York trailed 3-2 against Josh Towers (12-12) before Jorge Posada singled on the first pitch of the seventh. Cano connected two pitches later, and Mariano Rivera got four outs for his 42nd save in 46 chances.
White Sox 4, Twins 1
At Chicago, Mark Buehrle (16-8) pitched a four-hitter and Paul Konerko homered to help the White Sox push their AL Central lead back to 2 1/2 games over Cleveland.
Royals 5, Indians 4
At Kansas City, Mo., Cleveland center fielder Grady Sizemore lost Paul Phillips’ ninth-inning double in the sun, allowing Angel Berroa to score the winning run. Victor Martinez hit a three-run homer for the Indians, who lost for only the third time in 20 games. They had won 10 straight against Kansas City.
Devils Rays 8, Angels 4
At Anaheim, Calif., Jorge Cantu and Aubrey Huff homered on consecutive pitches from Bartolo Colon (20-8), and Tampa Bay ended Los Angeles’ eight-game winning streak.
Mark Hendrickson (11-7) won his seventh straight decision. The AL West-leading Angels remained four games ahead of second-place Oakland with a magic number of four for clinching the division title. The Angels and Athletics begin a four-game series in Oakland on Monday night.
Rangers 6, Athletics 2
At Oakland, Calif., Rod Barajas hit a three-run homer and Michael Young extended his career-best hitting streak to 22 games with an RBI double.
Juan Dominguez (4-5) pitched 7 1-3 strong innings for Texas, which took two of three in the series. The Rangers have 258 homers, passing the 1996 Baltimore Orioles for the second-best total in major league history, six behind the 1997 Seattle Mariners.
Tigers 8, Mariners 1
At Detroit, Mike Maroth (14-13) pitched seven effective innings for the Tigers. Carlos Pena’s two-run homer off Jeff Harris traveled 461 feet, the longest in Comerica Park’s six-year history.