Red Sox Have the Final Shea in 8-3 Win

To baseball fans in New York, there is only one Shea.

Not on Saturday.

Rookie Shea Hillenbrand hit a home run and a two-run double off Mike Mussina before a sellout crowd of 55,483 at Yankee Stadium, leading the Boston Red Sox to an 8-3 victory over the New York Yankees.

Frank Castillo outpitched Mussina for the second time in a week and Manny Ramirez hit a home run and singled twice for Boston.

“Any time you can take two in a week, it’s very satisfying,” Castillo said.

The Red Sox took advantage of a key error by shortstop Derek Jeter to improve to 4-2 against the Yankees.

New York has lost five of seven.

With the Yankees trailing, 6-3, Paul O’Neill lined out with two runners on base to end the seventh inning. He threw down his bat, as did on-deck hitter Bernie Williams.

Mussina (1-2), who lost to Castillo and the Red Sox, 4-1, on Monday at Fenway Park, started out strong but lasted only four innings.

“I threw some pitches down the middle. You can’t do that against these guys, they’re just too good,” Mussina said.

Once Hillenbrand hit a home run on the first pitch in the third, Boston broke loose. Lou Merloni singled and scored on Jose Offerman’s double.

Ramirez began the fourth with a single. Troy O’Leary also singled, and Scott Hatteberg followed with a grounder that easily could have turned into a double play. But Jeter misplayed the ball as he slipped, and the error loaded the bases.

“I missed it. No excuse,” Jeter said. “You make that play, all of those runs that they scored don’t score.”

Hillenbrand took two balls, then lined an opposite-field, two-run double past first baseman Tino Martinez for two runs. Brian Daubach and Merloni added sacrifice flies for a 6-3 lead in Mussina’s last inning.

Kansas City 5, Toronto 4--Joe Randa was four for six with four runs batted in, including a two-out single in the 13th inning to lead the Royals at Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, which overcame a 4-0 deficit created by Brad Fullmer’s grand slam, got a runner on with one out in the 13th when Dan Plesac (0-1) hit Jermaine Dye with a pitch.

Dye stole second, Mike Sweeney was intentionally walked and Dee Brown struck out. That brought up Randa, who tied the score with a sixth-inning homer.

Randa, who began the game batting .161, then singled to right. He also had a two-run single that cut the deficit to 4-2 in the fourth.

Doug Henry (1-0), Kansas City’s fifth pitcher, threw a hitless inning for the victory.

Royal right-hander Jose Santiago was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Fullmer in the 11th inning. After hitting Santiago, the ball had so much force that it rebounded into short center field, where second baseman Luis Alicea caught it for an out.

After a few minutes, Santiago sat up and was led off the field with a cut on his forehead.

Oakland 7, Texas 6--Jeremy Giambi and Eric Chavez hit home runs in the seventh inning as the Athletics rallied twice at Arlington, Texas.

Giambi connected on the first pitch of the seventh off Pat Mahomes (0-1) to tie the score at 5-5. After Miguel Tejada reached on an error by third baseman Scott Sheldon, Chavez homered for a 7-5 lead.

Ivan Rodriguez homered on Jeff Tam’s first pitch in the bottom half. Jason Isringhausen, Oakland’s fifth pitcher, got three consecutive outs for his third save.

Tampa Bay 6, Baltimore 5--Ben Grieve hit a home run onto a walkway behind a center-field restaurant at St. Petersburg, Fla. and new Tampa Bay Manager Hal McRae won for the first time in four games.

Grieve’s first homer at Tropicana Field traveled an estimated 463 feet and put the Devil Rays ahead, 5-3, in the sixth inning. It was the first ball to reach the walkway.

Cleveland 5, Detroit 4--Jim Thome hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning at Cleveland that gave the Indians their fifth consecutive victory.

After Jose Macias’ run-scoring single in the top of the 11th gave Detroit a 4-3 lead, Ellis Burks led off the bottom half with a walk against Todd Jones (0-2).

After a sacrifice bunt by Wil Cordero, Thome hit a 2-1 pitch into the right-field seats.

Juan Gonzalez hit a two-run homer for Cleveland to tie the score at 3-3 in the sixth. Roberto Alomar drew a leadoff walk before Gonzalez homered on an 0-2 pitch from Tiger starter Matt Perisho.

Minnesota 4, Chicago 3--Eric Milton (3-0) pitched seven solid innings at Chicago and Torii Hunter hit a home run and made a great catch for the Twins (13-3), who won their fourth consecutive game and are off to the best start in team history.

James Baldwin, making his first start after undergoing off-season shoulder surgery, gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings. Chicago has lost seven of nine.

Around the League

Chicago put reliever Antonio Osuna on the 15-day DL retroactive to April 12 because of a sore shoulder. Osuna, a former Dodger, has struggled in four games for the White Sox and has a 20.77 earned-run average in 4 1/3 innings.