O’Neill, Justice Power Yankee Comeback

Paul O’Neill and David Justice hit 10th-inning home runs against Derek Lowe at New York as the Yankees overcame two homers by Manny Ramirez to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3, Sunday.

“When you get Boston and the Yankees together, you’re going to have games like this--back and forth. It’s going to be like that the whole season,” Justice said.

Jason Varitek gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead in the 10th with a broken-bat single against Mariano Rivera (1-1), but the Yankees came right back against Lowe (1-3) and avoided falling four games back in the East for the first time since Sept. 24, 1997.

O’Neill connected with one out for his seventh home run and, one out later, Justice hit his fourth.

“It’s like a nightmare I can’t get out of,” said Lowe, who has a 6.48 earned-run average. “We’ve lost five games and I’ve got three of them. Who knows when I’ll be out there again? I faced four guys, they hit two homers and we lost. This is the worst stretch I’ve ever been through.”

Minnesota 4, Chicago 2--David Ortiz hit a go-ahead home run against Keith Foulke (0-2) in the eighth inning at Chicago and the Twins won their fifth consecutive game.

At 14-3, the Twins are off to their best start and have won 10 of 11. The Twins completed their first three-game sweep in Chicago since June 1985 at the old Comiskey Park.

Cleveland 11, Detroit 3--Russell Branyan drove in four runs, Jim Thome hit a two-run home run and Juan Gonzalez had a solo shot at Cleveland as the Indians won their sixth in a row.

Wil Cordero had three hits and scored three runs as every Indian starter got at least one of the Indians’ season-high 19 hits. Branyan had a two-run single, an RBI triple against Dave Mlicki (0-2) and a sacrifice fly for the Indians, who have won eight of nine.

Texas 11, Oakland 2--Rick Helling struck out eight at Arlington, Texas, for his first victory of the season and Ivan Rodriguez homered for the third consecutive game.

Rafael Palmeiro hit a three-run home run against Tim Hudson (2-2) and Alex Rodriguez went three for four with a walk to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.

Kansas City 5, Toronto 1--Dan Reichert gave up two hits in eight-plus innings and Mark Quinn and Mike Sweeney hit two-run home runs at Kansas City, Mo.

Baltimore 10, Tampa Bay 8--Delino DeShields hit an RBI single against Esteban Yan (1-1) in the 11th inning to lead the Orioles at St. Petersburg, Fla. The Orioles won despite blowing a three-run lead with two out in the bottom of the ninth.