Schilling Beats Texas for No. 18

Curt Schilling pitched into the ninth inning for his major league-leading 18th win, David Ortiz hit his 35th homer and the Boston Red Sox held on for a 6-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox, whose 10-game winning streak ended Saturday, completed a 9-1 homestand and remained 2 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the East Division.

Boston, which opens a seven-game trip today against West Division-leading Oakland, has won 17 of its last 19, and 12 of its last 13 at Fenway Park.

Schilling (18-6) gave up three runs and five hits in 8 1/3 innings, struck out 10 and didn’t walk a batter in winning his fifth consecutive start. He struck out the final batter in the second through seventh innings, and improved to 10-1 at home this season.

New York 4, Baltimore 3 -- Jorge Posada drew a bases-loaded walk from Jorge Julio (2-3) in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Yankees their major league-leading 53rd comeback victory.

Rafael Palmeiro hit a three-run homer in the first inning -- his 544th career homer -- for the Orioles, who were looking for their first three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium since June 6-8, 1986.

Chicago 6, Seattle 2 -- Joe Borchard and Paul Konerko hit two-run homers to back a strong outing by Felix Diaz, and the White Sox completed a three-game sweep at Chicago. Diaz (2-4), who entered with a 9.09 earned-run average, yielded one run and five hits in six innings.

Ichiro Suzuki was one for four to give him a major league-leading 224 hits, 33 short of the single-season record. He has 26 games remaining to reach the record of 257 hits, set by George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns in 1920.

Kansas City 12, Minnesota 3 -- Jimmy Gobble (7-8) pitched a complete game, David DeJesus hit a two-run homer, and the top five batters in the Royal lineup each had two runs batted in at Minneapolis. Gobble gave up six hits and walked two.

The Royals, officially eliminated from postseason play Saturday, won at the Metrodome for the first time in nine games this season.

Toronto 13, Oakland 5 -- Rookie Gabe Gross hit his first grand slam, and Russ Adams hit his first major league home run, helping the Blue Jays at Toronto.

It was a big day for rookies. Gross had five RBIs, Adams drove in three, and Bobby Crosby and Nick Swisher homered for the A’s.