BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : AMERICAN LEAGUE : Boston Closer Aguilera Is Hurt

Boston closer Rick Aguilera injured his left hamstring when slipped on the rain-soaked mound after delivering a pitch in the 11th inning of Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to Cleveland.

Aguilera didn’t pitch in Game 2 and Red Sox Manager Kevin Kennedy called his status day to day.

“I’m really not going to blame it on the rain,” said Aguilera, who pitched two thirds of an inning Tuesday, giving up three hits, including the game-tying homer to Albert Belle. “My footing seemed fine.”

Said Kennedy: “Anybody could have got hurt on that field. Unfortunately it was our closer.”

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Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove on whether Tony Pena, who hit the game-winning home run on a 3-and-0 count in the bottom of the 13th inning of Game 1, had the green light to swing: “It was amber. I gave him the take sign, but it was kind of late in coming.”

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When Belle’s bat was confiscated in Chicago last year, it disappeared from the umpire’s room before it could be examined. The Indians produced another bat, but it was the wrong one.

Eventually, after they turned over the correct bat, it was found to have been corked and Belle was suspended for seven days by then league president Bobby Brown.

Brown, administrating the series for the AL, didn’t want a repeat when Belle’s bat was confiscated Tuesday.

“The bat was taken, placed in the umpire’s room and the head of stadium security Mr. [Al] Williams guarded it with his life,” Brown said when asked if he had the right bat.

“You don’t just walk into the emergency room at 3 o’clock in the morning and say you want to have a bat X-rayed. . . . That’s why I had the bat sawed last night.”

The bat was then displayed for the media, and, sure enough, it was all wood.