Red Sox Rally and Tie for First

Jason Varitek punctuated a comeback that moved the Boston Red Sox into a tie for first place in the American League East.

“I can’t stress enough how important every game is, even during this time of year,” Varitek said after Thursday night’s 11-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Toronto.

Varitek hit a home run and a key two-run single as the Red Sox moved into a tie with the idle New York Yankees for the division lead.

Trailing, 5-4, the Red Sox scored four runs in the eighth inning. Varitek’s single finished the rally.

“It’s satisfying because we had the lead, blew it and then we battled back,” Varitek said.

The Red Sox added three runs in the ninth on John Valentin’s two-run single and Troy O’Leary’s run-scoring double.

Manny Ramirez ended an 0-for-14 slump with a two-run homer in the sixth inning, giving Boston a 4-1 lead.

“You knew they weren’t going to hold down Ramirez for long,” Boston’s Dante Bichette said.

Alex Gonzalez and Shannon Stewart homered, helping Toronto come back for a 5-4 lead.

Jose Offerman and Brian Daubach opened the Boston eighth with singles against Kelvim Escobar (0-4). After Carl Everett’s groundout advanced the runners, Escobar loaded the bases by intentionally walking Ramirez.

Bichette tied the score with a sacrifice fly.

Reliever Dan Plesac walked O’Leary to reload the bases, and Paul Quantrill hit pinch-hitter Trot Nixon with his first pitch, giving the Red Sox the lead. Varitek followed with his single to make the score 8-5.

Seattle 2, Baltimore 1--Aaron Sele became the American League’s first eight-game winner and picked up his 100th victory as the Mariners won their eighth in a row.

Sele gave up Cal Ripken Jr.’s third homer of the season, a 402-foot shot into the upper deck in left field in the seventh inning at Seattle.

Sele (8-0) is off to the best start by a Mariner pitcher. In 7 1/3 innings, he gave up four hits and two walks and struck out two. He lowered his earned-run average to 2.69.

Sweeping their seventh series, the Mariners ended May with a 20-7 record after their 20-5 start in April. With a 40-12 record, they enter June with a 14-game lead in the American League West.

Kansas City 8, Texas 2--Rey Sanchez had four hits, extending his career-best hitting streak to 18 games, to lead the Royals at Arlington, Texas.

Blake Stein (2-4) earned his first victory in 1 1/2 months despite throwing 51 balls and 49 strikes. He gave up two runs and three hits in five-plus innings, and overcame six walks to win for the first time since April 15 at Toronto.

Sanchez is batting .372 during his streak, the longest ever by a Royal shortstop and the longest current streak in the majors.

Oakland 10, Tampa Bay 1--Jason Giambi hit two homers and drove in four runs to lead another rout by the Athletics at Oakland.

Terrence Long and Miguel Tejada also homered as the A’s picked up where they left off in their 15-2 Wednesday defeat of the Devil Rays, who have the majors’ worst record at 15-38.

The A’s led, 8-0, by the time they made their fifth out, and every starter got a hit except Johnny Damon, who still scored two runs.

Frank Menechino drove in three runs in his first two at-bats as Devil Ray starter Paul Wilson (2-6) lasted only two innings.

Detroit at Chicago, ppd. rain--The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader Sept. 4.