Yankees Making East Race Distant Memory

Yankee Stadium is a pretty unfriendly place for the Boston Red Sox these days.

Darryl Strawberry hit his first home run in 3 1/2 weeks and Jorge Posada also homered as the streaking New York Yankees defeated Boston, 8-3, Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series.

New York, which has won 10 of 12 to improve to a major league-best 36-11, has won five in a row over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium and 19 of 26.

“We’re just going to ride this streak as long as we can and hope it continues. We’re not going to look at the big picture,” New York Manager Joe Torre said. “You can lose four, five straight in a heartbeat.”

David Wells (7-1), pitching at Yankee Stadium for the first time since his perfect game against Minnesota on May 17, won his fourth consecutive start and seventh decision in a row in giving up three runs and a season-high 10 hits in seven innings.

Mike Stanton finished for his fifth save.

The Red Sox, whose losing streak reached a season-high five, dropped 8 1/2 games behind the Yankees in an AL East race that may be just about over by the Fourth of July.

The Red Sox, who outhit the Yankees 13-11, made two errors, gave up two runs in a five-pitch span on a wild pitch by Tim Wakefield (6-2) and a passed ball by Jason Varitek, and saw Jim Leyritz fail to tag up at third on a eighth-inning fly ball.

“We made a couple of mistakes at crucial times,” Varitek said. “We make those plays, a couple of extra outs, and we save ourselves three runs.”

Wakefield had control problems and lost for the first time since April 7. The knuckleballer, who had won six consecutive starts--his best streak since winning 10 in a row three years ago--gave up five runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings and walked four.

Seattle 5, Tampa Bay 2--Alex Rodriguez extended his season-high hitting streak to 12 games and hit his league-leading 20th home run and Edgar Martinez and Glenallen Hill also homered at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Jamie Moyer (3-5) gave up eight hits, struck out four and walked one in eight scoreless innings and was helped by the Mariners’ three home runs, which increased their major league-leading total to 84.

Martinez became the first player to hit a ball off the lowest of four catwalks at Tropicana Field when he drove in three runs with a homer to left off Jason Johnson (2-2) in the first inning.

Earlier this week, the American League approved a change in the stadium ground rules making fair balls that strike the second-lowest catwalk, which hangs over the outfield, an automatic home run.

While three players, two of whom had almost-certain homers turned into doubles, have hit fly balls off the second catwalk, no one had reached the lowest catwalk beyond the outfield wall.

Baltimore 5, Texas 2--Roberto Alomar, the subject of trade rumors this week, had three hits and scored three runs at Baltimore.

Lenny Webster had a season-high three runs batted in and Doug Drabek pitched seven strong innings for the Orioles, who have won four of five after a nine-game losing streak. The Rangers have lost four in a row.

Alomar, who also walked and stole two bases, was the object of trade talks with the New York Mets last week. He has since gone 11 for 31 in the last nine games, and Baltimore has backed off its effort to trade away the second baseman, who will become a free agent after the season.

Drabek (5-5) gave up two runs on seven hits in seven-plus innings, leaving after giving up a leadoff homer to Fernando Tatis in the eighth. Jesse Orosco got the final six outs for his third save.

Cleveland 6, Toronto 2--Manny Ramirez homered, doubled and scored three runs as the Indians took advantage of swirling winds with the SkyDome roof open at Toronto.

Toronto right fielder Shawn Green was charged with a three-base error when a ball sailed over his head, and Brian Giles got a double on a wind-aided fly. Travis Fryman also had a wind-aided double for Cleveland, though that did not lead to a run.

“The wind was swirling, balls were taking off and some were not,” Giles said. “Baseball’s weird. The wind and Manny carried us tonight.”

Dave Burba (6-4) gave up four hits in 7 2/3 innings. He struck out a season-high eight and gave up home runs to Mike Stanley and Ed Sprague as the Indians won their third in a row.

“It seemed as though that if the ball was hit a certain height the wind made it fall down. But if it was hit above that certain height it carried out,” Burba said.

“I had one of my best starts tonight. I got ahead of the hitters and threw strikes.”

Chicago 11, Detroit 7--Five walks, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly led to four 10th-inning runs for the White Sox at Detroit.

Chicago scored five runs with two outs in the eighth to break a 2-2 tie in, but Detroit rallied for five runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings. And the White Sox won it in the 10th without a hit.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Chicago Manager Jerry Manuel said. “I was just counting the runs that came across. I didn’t care how they scored.”

Matt Karchner (1-1), who gave up a game-tying, three-run, pinch-homer to Andy Tomberlin in the ninth, pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win. He had converted 20 consecutive save opportunities since last season.