Boston’s Hopes Are Dashed at Chicago

They’ve won 91 games and had what would be considered by most standards a stellar season. Still, the Boston Red Sox won’t be in the playoffs.

Their slim hopes for a playoff spot were officially ended Wednesday night when the Chicago White Sox hit three homers in a 7-2 victory at Comiskey Park, eliminating Boston from the American League wild-card chase.

“We tried to prolong it as long as we could,” first-year Manager Grady Little said. “It was a situation where for this thing to happen, we had to win 10 in a row and [the Angels] had to lose eight in a row.

“It is possible, but it was definitely a long shot. But as long as you still have a pulse, you have hope.”

Boston needed to win its final five games and have the Angels lose their last five to set up a playoff for the wild card. The Angels lost to Texas, 4-3, Wednesday, but the Red Sox already were out of the wild-card mix.

Right-hander Derek Lowe (21-8) gave up five runs and two homers in seven innings.

Lowe gave up a single to Frank Thomas and a walk to Jeff Liefer in the fourth, and Joe Crede hit the next pitch into the left-field bullpen for his 12th homer and a 4-0 lead.

Liefer hit a solo homer against Lowe in the seventh. Magglio Ordonez hit a two-run homer, his 37th, in the eighth.

New York 4, Tampa Bay 3--Alfonso Soriano hit a tiebreaking double at Yankee Stadium and Mariano Rivera got his first save in more than a month.

The Yankees reached 100 victories for the 16th time in franchise history.

Roger Clemens recovered from a rocky start to retire 14 of the last 15 batters and Jeff Weaver (11-11) pitched three scoreless innings for his first relief victory ever.

Rivera, who came off the disabled list Saturday, earned his 28th save and first since Aug. 15.

Soriano doubled twice but remained stuck on 39 homers. He is trying to become the fourth player in major league history with 40 homers and 40 stolen bases. Soriano leads the AL with 41 steals.

Clemens gave up three runs and four hits in five innings. He remained at 293 career victories.

Tanyon Sturtze (4-18) became the first AL pitcher to lose 18 games since Minnesota’s Scott Erickson had 19 losses in 1993. Albie Lopez lost 19 games for Tampa Bay and Arizona last season.

Toronto 3, Baltimore 2--Vernon Wells homered at Toronto to reach 100 runs batted in, and the Blue Jays sent the Orioles to their eighth loss in a row.

Wells’ 23rd homer made the 23-year-old outfielder the youngest Toronto player to drive in 100 runs.

Former NBA player Mark Hendrickson (3-0) won his third consecutive start. The 6-foot-9 rookie gave up one run and five hits in seven innings.

Minnesota 7, Cleveland 5--David Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the 12th inning to lift the Twins at Minneapolis.

Cleveland’s Jim Thome hit two home runs to give him a career high 50, tying Albert Belle’s team record set in 1995.

Detroit 7, Kansas City 6--A sacrifice fly by Chris Truby in the 12th inning lifted the host Royals.