By The Associated Press
Boston – David Ortiz tied the game in the eighth inning with his 47th homer, then singled home the winning run in the ninth to give the Boston Red Sox a critical 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night.
Boston trailed 4-1 and a loss would have dropped the Red Sox two games back of New York in the East and one game behind the Cleveland Indians in the wild-card race.
Instead, the Red Sox enter their season-ending, three- game series with the Yankees at Fenway Park trailing New York by one game, and they would leapfrog their rival to win the East by taking two of three.
Rookie Jonathan Papelbon (3-1) pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings for the victory, and Manny Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the sixth off Jason Frasor that cut the deficit to 4-3.
Ortiz homered off Vinnie Chulk leading of the eighth, and Miguel Batista (5-8) allowed a one-out single in the ninth to Johnny Damon, who stole second. Edgar Renteria walked, and Ortiz lined a 3-2 pitch into the shortstop hole as Damon easily scored.
Yankees 8, Orioles 4
Baltimore – Aaron Small took a one-hitter into the seventh inning to improve to 10-0, and New York got homers from Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui to maintain a one-game lead over Boston in the East and Cleveland in the wild-card chase.
Alex Rodriguez had two hits and scored twice for the Yankees, who built an 8-0 lead in winning for the 15th time in 18 games.
Small gave up two runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking five. After breezing through the first six innings, the right-hander gave up a two-run homer to Javy Lopez in the seventh.
The Orioles then loaded the bases with two outs before Tanyon Sturtze retired Chris Gomez on a grounder.
Lopez homered for the third time in three games, and Jay Gibbons also connected for the Orioles, who have lost 11 of 12.
Gibbons hit his 25th with a runner on against Sturtze in the eighth. Tom Gordon got two quick outs to end the inning, and Scott Proctor worked a scoreless ninth – allowing closer Mariano Rivera to rest.
Indians 6, Devil Rays 0
Cleveland – C.C. Sabathia pitched eight shutout innings, Travis Hafner homered and Cleveland remained atop the wild-card standings.
Sabathia (15-10) allowed five hits and improved to 9-1 in his past 11 starts as the Indians ended Tampa Bay’s five-game win streak at Jacobs Field. He walked two, struck out nine.
Angels 7, Athletics 1
Oakland, Calif. – Bartolo Colon became the franchise’s winningest pitcher since Nolan Ryan went 22-16 in 1974.
Colon (21-8) gave up one run and five hits in five innings. He pitched on three days’ rest to get on schedule for starting Tuesday’s playoff opener.
Mariners 4, Rangers 3
Seattle – Richie Sexson had three hits and two RBIs for Seattle, which drew 19,781 – the first crowd under 20,000 in the 5 1/2-year history of Safeco Field.
Royals 10, Twins 6
Minneapolis – Mike Sweeney went 3-for-4 with a homer and five RBIs as Kansas City avoided setting the club record for losses in a season.
