Red Sox Sluggers Pound Out Win

Trot Nixon homered twice as the Boston Red Sox turned a tasty pitching matchup between Derek Lowe and Jamie Moyer into a slugfest, beating the Seattle Mariners, 12-5, Wednesday night at Seattle.

The Red Sox homered four times, with Nixon hitting a solo shot in the fourth, when they tied it at 3-3, and a two-run homer in Boston’s seven-run sixth.

Manny Ramirez and Shea Hillenbrand also homered for the Red Sox, who remained five games behind American League East-leading New York and two back of the Angels in the AL wild-card race.

Lowe (17-5) earned his fifth consecutive victory to become the AL’s first 17-game winner.

After giving up a solo home run to Edgar Martinez in the third, Lowe retired 11 consecutive batters before Jeff Cirillo singled to start the seventh.

Moyer (12-5) had Boston in check early. He threw first-pitch strikes to his first 10 hitters and retired nine of the first 10 before Nixon’s first home run.

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New York 3, Kansas City 2--Bernie Williams hit an RBI single in the 14th as the Yankees overcame Mike Sweeney’s straight steal of home to win at Kansas City, Mo. Alfonso Soriano singled with one out in the 14th off Blake Stein (0-3) and moved to third on Jason Giambi’s two-out single. Williams followed with a single to right field as the Yankees won for the 16th time in their final at-bat.

Sweeney stole home with two out in the sixth to give the Royals a 2-1 lead. After Sweeney doubled in a run and moved to third on a bunt, Sweeney surprised left-hander Andy Pettitte, who was holding the ball on the mound, by taking off and sliding in ahead of the throw home. It was only Sweeney’s fifth steal of the season and 35th of his career.

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Baltimore 6, Minnesota 5--Geronimo Gil homered with two out in the top of the 14th to lift the Orioles at Minneapolis. Gil connected off Tony Fiore (9-3) for his ninth homer of the season and first since June 18. The Orioles improved to 8-2 in extra-inning games. Rick Bauer (6-4) pitched four innings of scoreless relief.

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Texas 11, Chicago 6--Rafael Palmeiro hit a three-run homer and Herbert Perry added a two-run shot to back starter Ismael Valdes as the Rangers won at Arlington, Texas. Perry had four RBIs and Alex Rodriguez had an RBI to give him 100 for the fifth consecutive season.

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Cleveland 6, Tampa Bay 4--Jim Thome hit a two-run homer and Karim Garcia added a three-run double as the Indians won at St. Petersburg, Fla. Cleveland’s Ellis Burks had a broken-bat single to left in the first inning for career hit No. 2,000.