Varitek Is Top Star for Boston

One mistake dearly cost Orlando Hernandez. Jason Varitek and the Boston bullpen made sure of it.

Varitek homered into the upper deck off Hernandez and four Red Sox relievers shut down the New York Yankees on one hit for 6 2/3 innings for a 5-3 victory Tuesday night at New York.

“A lot of different people contributed,” Red Sox Manager Jimy Williams said.

Carl Everett delivered a triple, double and single as the Red Sox moved into a virtual first-place tie with the Yankees in the AL East. Boston has won eight of its last nine regular-season games against New York.

With the score tied at 3-3, Everett opened the sixth inning with a grounder up the middle that hit the second-base bag, and he hustled for a double.

Hernandez retired the next two batters and, with Varitek at the plate and ninth-place hitter Wilton Veras on deck, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre went to the mound.

“He just gave him a choice of who to pitch to,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “There’s a certain advantage to pitching to a hitter with a base open.”

A calm crowd of 52,142 came to life as Hernandez got two strikes on Varitek. But after taking a close, 2-2 breaking ball, Varitek teed off for a two-run homer deep into the upper deck in right field for a 5-3 lead.

Varitek had gone 105 at-bats since April 26 without a home run.

“He just happened to leave a ball out over the plate,” Varitek said. “It’s been a long time. It’s been a frustrating time for me hitting.”

Baltimore 3, Texas 2--B.J. Surhoff and Charles Johnson homered, and Scott Erickson overcame eight walks at Baltimore as the Orioles extended the Rangers’ losing streak to a season-high six games.

Erickson’s eight walks matched a career high, and he also allowed five hits in seven innings. But Texas went one for nine with runners in scoring position and hit into three double plays, all started by shortstop Mike Bordick.

Erickson (3-3) threw 114 pitches, 59 of them outside the strike zone.

Buddy Groom and Mike Trombley worked the eighth, and Mike Timlin got three outs for his sixth save in eight opportunities.

Chicago 4, Cleveland 3--Ray Durham homered in the top of the 10th and the White Sox survived a scary bottom half to win at Cleveland and open a four-game lead in the AL Central.

By winning the first two games of the key series and 11 of 13 overall, the White Sox have their largest lead in the division since May 28, 1994, when they also led by four.

Chicago has won four of the first five meetings this season with Cleveland, and with the win improved the majors’ best road record to 22-14.

Oakland 6, Minnesota 5--This game at Minnesota had a bit of everything, except for the ever-popular home run. The 3-hour 24-minute game featured 25 hits, 13 walks, a bungled pickoff play that scored a run, and 23 runners left on base.

It wasn’t decided until Oakland closer Jason Isringhausen struck out Minnesota pinch-hitter Midre Cummings with the tying run on third.

Oakland’s No. 7-8-9 hitters Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez and Ramon Hernandez, each had three hits and combined for four runs and three RBIs.

Seattle 7, Kansas City 0 (5 1/2 innings)--The Mariners scored three runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth as Gil Meche began to pick up his pitching pace.

In the top of the fifth, everyone knew a heavy thunderstorm was rumbling toward Kauffman Stadium and might halt play for the night. Leading 7-0, the Mariners made outs as quickly as they could in the sixth, swinging weakly at every first pitch to make sure the minimum 5 1/2 innings were played to make it an official game.