Red Sox High, Dry in Fenway

The Boston Red Sox celebrated their homecoming with three homers in their first game at Fenway Park in two weeks.

Brian Daubach’s three-run homer, Mike Stanley’s two-run shot and Carl Everett’s solo home run powered the Red Sox to a 10-6 victory Monday night over the Detroit Tigers.

“It’s nice just to play here,” said Stanley, who has homered in three consecutive games. “We haven’t played here in so long.

“It’s nice to play on a dry field.”

It was the Red Sox’s first home game since April 17 after they were rained out of a three-game series with Cleveland from April 21-23.

And it was their first game since a 2-1 victory Sunday in Cleveland, their only victory in a three-game series in which they scored only seven runs.

“Cleveland’s pitching is pretty tough,” said Daubach, whose pinch-homer in the sixth turned a 5-4 edge into an 8-4 lead. “We faced a lot of guys on the top of their games. With the wind blowing out tonight, it was obvious we’d have to score a lot of runs.”

That wasn’t hard against Detroit, whose 6-18 record is baseball’s worst. The Tigers did break a 25-inning scoreless streak against Boston with a three-run third inning that tied the score.

“We did score some runs early and strung some runs together. So, hopefully, that’s encouraging,” said Bob Melvin, Detroit’s acting manager while Phil Garner serves an eight-game suspension for his role in a brawl April 22 in a game against Chicago.

New York 2, Cleveland 1--Shane Spencer hit a two-run double and started a game-ending double play as the Yankee bullpen barely closed out a victory over the Indians at Cleveland in a game delayed nearly three hours at the start by rain.

After sitting around the clubhouse waiting through a 2-hour 44-minute rain delay, Ramiro Mendoza (3-2) gave up four hits in six innings to improve to 5-0 in his career against the Indians.

Jaret Wright (2-2) pitched eight solid innings, but Cleveland’s offense once again couldn’t get anything going.

Except for giving up Jim Thome’s fifth-inning homer, Mendoza held the Indians in check by working the low part of the strike zone.

The right-hander turned it over to New York’s relievers in the seventh, and once again the Yankee bullpen came through.

Left-hander Mike Stanton struck out David Justice and Thome before Jeff Nelson fanned Richie Sexson for the final out in the seventh.

Nelson gave up a single to Travis Fryman to open the eighth and was pulled after Einar Diaz sacrificed.

Yankee Manager Joe Torre chose to go with Mariano Rivera the rest of the way, and Rivera picked up his league-leading eighth save.

Oakland 7, Kansas City 5--Terrence Long drove in four runs and Omar Olivares won for the first time since April 5 as the Athletics beat the Royals at Kansas City for their fourth straight win.

Long hit a bases-loaded triple in the second inning and an RBI single that capped a three-run in the eighth. The rookie is batting .290.

Oakland trailed, 5-4, in the eighth, then loaded the bases with one out against Dan Reichert (1-1) and tied the score on Eric Chavez’s infield grounder. Pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz singled in the go-ahead run and Long followed with another RBI single.

Olivares (2-3) gave up five runs and eight hits in seven innings.

Toronto 5, Chicago 3--Brad Fullmer hit a two-run, tiebreaking shot in the sixth inning at Chicago--it was one of four Blue Jay homers--and right-hander Chris Carpenter (3-3) stayed perfect in six decisions against the White Sox.

The Blue Jays, who led the AL with 43 homers in April, started off May by also getting home runs from Raul Mondesi, Jose Cruz Jr. and Alex Gonzalez.