Red Sox Stand Tall Against Yankees

Minus Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez, the Boston Red Sox still looked like a first-place team.

Frank Castillo shut down the majors’ most dangerous lineup and, backed by three home runs, Boston breezed past the New York Yankees, 7-1, Sunday at New York.

Rickey Henderson, Nomar Garciaparra and Doug Mirabelli homered for the Red Sox, who won two of three at Yankee Stadium in a matchup of the teams with baseball’s best records.

Boston left town with a two-game lead over New York in the AL East, and improved to 7-4 against the Yankees and 22-5 on the road this season.

“We know as a team we can play with them, and we needed to prove to everyone that we’re for real,” Mirabelli said.

The Yankees don’t need to be persuaded.

“It seems like it’s going to come down to these two teams battling all season long,” Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi said. “I just hope we don’t look back at the end of the season and say, ‘Oh, if we’d have won one more game.’”

Almost everything went right for the Red Sox, even with Ramirez on the disabled list and Martinez missing the series for an extra day of rest.

Henderson was carted off to a hospital after crashing into a wall, but X-rays were negative. He bruised his lower back, and was OK to leave with the Red Sox on their trip to Detroit.

Castillo (4-5) once again tamed the club that leads the majors with 91 home runs, holding the Yankees to one run and four hits in eight innings.

Cleveland 4, Chicago 3--Chuck Finley pitched seven shutout innings as the Indians climbed back to .500 with a three-game sweep of Chicago, which dropped its seventh in a row.

Finley (4-6) gave up four hits at Cleveland and didn’t walk a batter as the Indians won their fourth in a row and moved into a tie for second in the AL Central with the reeling White Sox.

Rookie Chris Magruder homered and drove in three runs for the Indians, who have won eight of 10.

Seattle 11, Baltimore 8--Bret Boone hit a grand slam and drove in five runs at Baltimore as the Mariners rallied from a six-run deficit for a payback victory over the Orioles.

After blowing leads in the late innings of losses on Friday and Saturday, the Mariners pulled off a stunning comeback of their own to salvage a split of the four-game series.

Seattle trailed 6-0 after two innings and 7-1 after five before scoring three runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and four in the eighth for its biggest comeback victory of the year.

Oakland 4, Tampa Bay 2--Mark Mulder won his second start in a row, and Greg Myers homered as the Athletics won for the seventh time in nine games.

Mulder (4-4) gave up two runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings at St. Petersburg, Fla. The left-hander has not gone more than six innings in five starts since returning May 9 from a left forearm strain.

Toronto 7, Detroit 6--Eric Hinske ended Jeff Weaver’s homerless streak with a tiebreaking, two-run shot in the seventh inning for the Blue Jays at Detroit.

It was the first home run Weaver has given up this season in 84 innings and first in 105 2/3 innings dating to last season. That stretch was the longest in the majors since Kevin Brown went 118 innings during the 1996 and 1997 seasons.

Texas 8, Kansas City 6--The first five Ranger batters reached base and scored at Arlington, Texas, quickly ending Paul Byrd’s bid to become the AL’s first nine-game winner.

Juan Gonzalez, the No. 5 hitter, had a two-run double on Byrd’s 18th pitch to give the Rangers a 4-0 lead.

Chan Ho Park (2-2) gave up five runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, including a two-run homer by Carlos Febles.