Red Sox Defeat Yankees Again

The revived Boston Red Sox are playing with such intensity that even John Kerry offered a high-five.

The Democratic presidential candidate cheered from a seat next to the Boston dugout Sunday night and slapped hands with Kevin Millar after the first baseman’s fifth-inning homer during Red Sox’s 9-6 win over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park.

“He was fired up,” Millar said. “I was just high-fiving the fans and his hand was the last one.”

The Red Sox gave their fans plenty to cheer in the last two games of the series with the Yankees, who were threatening to run away with the AL East title. Boston fell a season-high 9 1/2 games behind after an 8-7 loss Friday, then cut that to 7 1/2 with an 11-10 win Saturday and Sunday’s victory.

“We got the feeling back last night,” Millar said. “We had to get that swagger back that we had last year.”

Millar went 10 for 13 in the series with four homers and eight runs batted in after hitting six homers with 24 RBIs in 87 games. He attributed that to a change in his stance he made in Wednesday’s home game against Baltimore that allowed him to pull the ball better.

Derek Lowe (9-9) pitched one of his best games in a subpar season, helping the Red Sox improve to 8-5 in the season series with six games remaining.

Oakland 9, Texas 2 -- Eric Chavez and Mark Kotsay homered for the second straight day at Oakland.

Eric Byrnes and Erubiel Durazo also homered for the A’s, who took two of three from the first-place Rangers to cut Texas’ division lead to 2 1/2 games.

Oakland Manager Ken Macha considered this a key series for the two-time defending AL West champions, who have become accustomed to surging in the season’s second half. The clubs play three times in Texas next weekend, then don’t meet again until seven games in September.

Detroit 9, Chicago 2 -- Marcus Thames hit his first grand slam and the Tigers overcame the ejections of starter Jeremy Bonderman and Manager Alan Trammell at Chicago.

Carlos Guillen had three singles -- he was eight for 13 in the series -- as the Tigers avoided a three-game sweep and knocked the White Sox out of first place in the AL Central.

Bonderman and Trammell were ejected in the second inning after Bonderman hit Chicago’s Aaron Rowand with a pitch, minutes after Paul Konerko’s homer.

Minnesota 8, Baltimore 4 -- Justin Morneau had three hits, including a long three-run homer, and the Twins roughed up rookie Daniel Cabrera at Baltimore.

Mike Cuddyer also homered and had three hits for the Twins.

Cabrera (8-4) was 5-0 with a 1.90 earned-run average in eight starts since June 15, but he fell behind, 6-0, in the second inning and didn’t make it out of the sixth. He gave up eight runs and 11 hits in five-plus innings.

Cleveland 5, Kansas City 1 -- The Indians moved above .500 for the first time since the start of the 2003 season, beating the Royals behind Jake Westbrook’s six-hitter to sweep the four-game series at Cleveland.

Cleveland (50-49), which took a 4-0 lead in the first inning, won for the eighth time in 11 games to surpass .500 for the first time since the Indians were 2-1 on April 3, 2003.

Toronto 5, Tampa Bay 3 -- Carlos Delgado hit a three-run homer at Toronto to become the first Blue Jay to drive in 1,000 runs.

Toronto completed a three-game sweep of the Devil Rays, who have lost six straight overall and nine in a row on the road. Since moving a season-high two games over .500 on July 3, Tampa Bay has gone 5-15.