Red Sox Sweep the Rangers

Mo Vaughn homered to break a seventh-inning tie, giving the Red Sox a 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night and a sweep of a day-night doubleheader at Boston.

In the early game, Pedro Martinez struck out 10 in 8 2/3 innings to lead Boston to a 4-1 victory. The sweep dropped the Rangers 8 1/2 games behind the front-running Red Sox in the AL wild-card race.

Tom Gordon earned the saves in both games, giving him 36.

Martinez (16-4) ate up Texas batters and innings alike, taking a three-hitter into the ninth.

“You’ve got to get the first out of the way and then go for the second one,” he said after beating John Burkett. “I figured that my teammates were going to get to [Burkett], so I just had to hold on and keep the battle tight.”

Last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner stopped a mini-slump by giving up five hits and one walk. In his previous two starts, he was 0-1 while giving up nine earned runs in 13 innings.

The rest of the Red Sox rotation hasn’t been any better: They haven’t had a complete game in more than a month. No starter had pitched more than 6 1/3 innings since Aug. 8.

“If you have to worry about saving your bullpen all the time, then you’re in trouble,” Boston Manager Jimy Williams said.

Williams doesn’t have to worry about that now, thanks to a rainout on Monday and Martinez’s gem in the first game Tuesday.

Juan Gonzalez hit his 34th homer in the first game, his first in seven games and his first RBI in six games. He has 120 this season, a pace that would give him 157, far behind Hack Wilson’s record of 190 in 1930.

New York 3, Kansas City 2--Another game, another milestone for the Yankees.

Chad Curtis hit a run-scoring single in the 13th inning to lift the Yankees past the Roayls at Kansas City.

New York (92-30) is 10-0 against Kansas City, the first time in a non-strike year the Yankees blanked an AL opponent for an entire season series.

The Yankees have won 12 of 13 and 15 of 17, moving 62 games over .500 for the first time since Sept. 28, 1939, when they were 105-43. New York remains on pace to break the record of 116 wins set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs.

After Mariano Rivera failed to hold a 2-1 lead in the ninth, Bernie Williams led off the 13th with his third hit, a single off Matt Whisenant (1-1). Williams, who earlier homered for the the third consecutive game, advanced on a two-out wild pitch and scored without a play on Curtis’ single.

Baltimore 7, Minnesota 1--Eric Davis had his fourth two-homer game of the season and drove in four runs at Baltimore.

Baltimore is 29-8 since the all-star break, winning 11 of 13 series and sweeping seven of them. But the Orioles lost ground in the wild-card race, falling seven games behind Boston, which swept a doubleheader from Texas.

Davis, who sat out Monday night’s game after having his 30-game hitting streak ended Sunday in Cleveland, returned with a flourish. He hit a solo shot in the first inning, and gave the Orioles a 5-1 lead in the seventh with his 24th homer, a three-run drive.

Davis went three for four and is hitting .385 with 13 homers and 40 RBIs in 35 games since the all-star break.

Baltimore won the season series, 7-3, and outscored the Twins, 60-37. Over the past two seasons the Orioles are 17-4 against Minnesota, including 9-1 at home.

Cleveland 4, Tampa Bay 2--Dwight Gooden dazzled the team from his hometown as the Indians salvaged a shaky homestand.

Gooden (5-6), a Tampa native, gave up one run and eight hits in six innings with three walks and four strikeouts.

Gooden struck out Kevin Stocker and Randy Winn with the bases loaded in the fourth, then froze Quinton McCracken with the tying runs on in the fifth. He struck out Winn again with a runner on second to end the sixth.

Cleveland, which dropped three of four to Baltimore over the weekend, evened its record at 4-4 on the homestand and crept within a game of .500 since the all-star break (19-20).

Oakland 10, Toronto 5--Scott Spiezio and Matt Stairs each homered twice and drove in four runs, and two Athletic teammates added solo homers at Oakland.

Spiezio hit a three-run homer in the first and had a solo shot, his ninth, in the third.

Stairs’ first homer was a solo shot in the third. He then hit a three-run shot in the seventh, his 23rd.

Ryan Christenson added his fourth homer and Jason Giambi had his 18th, a 426-foot shot to right center in the fifth.

Jimmy Haynes (9-5) tied the A’s season high with 10 strikeouts, including three of Kevin Brown, while giving up four runs and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings.