Yankees Defeat Red Sox

Paul O’Neill and the New York Yankees have found the secret formula: They know how to win when facing Pedro Martinez.

Baseball’s most dominant pitcher failed for the fifth consecutive time to defeat the rival Yankees, with Mike Mussina outdueling Martinez for a 2-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday at New York.

The Yankees overcame Martinez in a familiar way, using stellar starting pitching, a couple of timely hits and an unbeatable bullpen.

“Obviously, he’s throwing out zero after zero, and you’ve got to scratch and claw,” said O’Neill, who had a tiebreaking single in the fifth inning. “He’s the king of the hill, and to beat him is real satisfying.”

Martinez (6-1) dropped to 0-3 in his last five starts against the Yankees--despite a 2.75 earned-run average in that stretch.

A sellout crowd of 55,592 saw the Yankees edge past the Red Sox for first place in the American League East. Bernie Williams homered, O’Neill hit his key single and Mussina (5-4) made it stand up.

Texas 9, Tampa Bay 3--Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs in a game for the fourth time this season and drove in five runs at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Chicago 3, Toronto 1--Kip Wells pitched six strong innings at Toronto to help the White Sox end an eight-game losing streak.

Cleveland 8, Detroit 5--Wil Cordero, who had a home run taken away by umpires a day earlier, homered twice and Juan Gonzalez had three runs batted in to help the Indians rally from a 3-0 deficit at Cleveland.