For the Yankees, It’s Just Another Victory

Wherever they have to play, the New York Yankees keep winning.

With the Yankees forced out of their own ballpark because of a fallen expansion joint, Tino Martinez hit a grand slam and Derek Jeter hit a three-run homer Friday night in an 11-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium.

“You just have to play,” Martinez said. “When we went to Shea [Stadium to play the Angels on Wednesday], we didn’t let it bother us. Same here. We’ve got the type of guys who don’t let things like that bother them.”

The Yankees won their seventh straight, their longest winning streak since 1995, and sent the Tigers to their sixth consecutive loss, their longest skid since 1996, the season they lost 109.

This series was supposed to be in New York as part of today’s celebration of Yankee Stadium’s 75th birthday--when Babe Ruth homered--but it was moved Wednesday because of ongoing inspection of the ballpark.

Detroit, not enthusiastic about the switch, sold just 12,348 tickets for the game--including those originally sold for April 24. But on a 54-degree night, it appeared that only about 6,000 were in the 46,945-seat park.

Andy Pettitte (2-2) had a shutout through six innings and wound up yielding two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked six and had six strikeouts.

“It was a tough night, because of the weather,” Pettitte said. “You couldn’t get loose. I think I was in trouble every inning.”

It was only the second game for the Yankees since the 500-pound, steel-and-concrete joint crashed Monday. They postponed two games against the Angels, then beat them on Wednesday afternoon at the Mets’ Shea Stadium.

Boston 3, Cleveland 2--Darren Bragg singled with the bases loaded in the 10th inning, as the Red Sox won in their final at-bat for the fifth time on their current homestand and improved to 7-0 at Fenway Park this season.

Boston got another strong outing from Pedro Martinez, who yielded four hits, did not walk a batter and struck out 12 in nine innings. Martinez reached double digits in strikeouts for the 18th time in his last 26 starts. Tom Gordon (2-1) gave up two hits before striking out two and getting Travis Fryman on a liner to end the 10th.

Brian Giles’ solo homer in the third was the only runner off Martinez in the first seven innings. In the eighth, Jim Thome led off with a double and scored on Giles’ single to make it 2-0.

Toronto 6, Chicago 1--Roger Clemens appeared sharp in his first start in 10 days, pitching 6 2/3 innings and yielding one run and five hits while striking out seven.

Clemens (2-1) had removed himself after throwing just seven pitches in an April 7 start because of a strained groin muscle. He was forced to skip a start in Texas before being cleared to face the White Sox.

Under nearly identical circumstances last season, Clemens returned after missing a start because of a groin strain and shut out Texas for seven innings.

Seattle 11, Minnesota 6--Ken Griffey Jr. hit his seventh home run and Jeff Fassero pitched seven strong innings to lead the Mariners at Minneapolis.

Griffey went three for four and drove in four runs and Joey Cora extended his hitting streak to 16 games for Seattle, which had started its road trip with five straight losses.

Griffey’s two-run homer in the third inning off rookie Eric Milton (2-1) gave the Mariners a 3-2 lead.

Kansas City 4, Oakland 1--Johnny Damon, Jose Offerman and Hal Morris had run-scoring singles in the 12th inning, leading the Royals at Oakland.

Morris had his second four-hit game of the week, and raised his average to .460 (29 for 63). He has eight consecutive multi-hit games.