Red Sox Still in Race After Wild Victory

Johnny Damon scored the tiebreaking run on a wild pitch in the 15th inning, and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4, Monday night to complete a four-game sweep at Baltimore.

The victory kept the Red Sox alive in the American League wild-card race. One more Boston loss or an Angel victory will eliminate the Red Sox from playoff contention.

With two out in the 15th, Damon reached on a walk by Willis Roberts (5-4). Damon took third when Roberts threw wildly to first on a pickoff attempt, and scored the unearned run when Roberts threw a high fastball with a 1-1 count on Shea Hillenbrand.

The Red Sox blew one-run leads in the ninth and 14th innings.

Jay Gibbons hit two solo homers for the Orioles and Jeff Conine homered in the 14th, but Baltimore lost its sixth in a row and has lost 26 of 30.

Boston took a 4-3 lead in the 14th when pinch-runner Rickey Henderson scored on a single by Tony Clark after an error by Conine at first. But Conine made amends by leading off the bottom half with a home run on the first pitch from Alan Embree (1-2).

Wayne Gomes earned his first save.

Tampa Bay 3, New York 2--Aubrey Huff had the eighth and last hit off Orlando Hernandez, an RBI single that broke a fifth-inning tie and led the Devil Rays over the Yankees at New York.

New York (98-58) missed an opportunity to move into a tie with Oakland (99-57) for the league’s best record.