Red Sox Rout Yankees and Keep Hopes Alive

The Boston Red Sox made sure the New York Yankees will not clinch the American League East Division title in Fenway Park.

Manny Ramirez doubled in the tiebreaking run during a seven-run eighth Saturday night and the Red Sox defeated the Yankees, 12-5, to preserve their chances of winning the division title. Jason Varitek and Doug Mirabelli each doubled in two runs during the inning.

New York’s magic number is four, so victories Saturday and today would have won the division. Instead, Boston, comfortably ahead in the wild-card race, cut its deficit to 4 1/2 games and clinched the season series, 10-8, with one game left.

Closer Keith Foulke went in with the score tied, 5-5, two out in the eighth and runners on first and second. He got Jorge Posada, who had two two-run doubles in the game, to end the inning and then pitched a perfect ninth for the win.

The Yankees announced that right-hander Kevin Brown will return to the rotation today to start the series finale.

Brown has been out since breaking his non-pitching hand when he punched a clubhouse wall in frustration Sept. 3. He will pitch wearing a glove with extra padding. He practiced with it Saturday, taking grounders during infield practice.

Tampa Bay 6, Toronto 5 -- Geoff Blum gave the Devil Rays a victory -- with 39 minutes to spare. He made up for an error by hitting a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning.

With a 9:15 p.m. EDT curfew imposed because of Hurricane Jeanne, the game lasted only 2 hours 20 minutes and ended at 8:36. Hoping to beat the storm, the Blue Jays were scheduled to leave St. Petersburg, Fla., immediately after the game.

Even though the Devil Rays play in a dome, today’s series finale was canceled.

Chicago 5, Kansas City 1 -- At Chicago, Mark Buehrle pitched a four-hitter and Jose Valentin hit his 28th homer to lead the White Sox, who have won six of their last eight games.

Buehrle (15-10) pitched his third complete game of the season, striking out six and walking one.

Cleveland 5, Minnesota 3 -- Coco Crisp drove in three runs, including a tiebreaking two-run double that capped a three-run eighth inning at Cleveland.

After Jacque Jones hit a two-run double against Bob Howry (4-1) for a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth, Josh Phelps homered to tie the score with two out in the bottom half against J.C. Romero (7-3). Victor Martinez and Ben Brossard walked, and Crisp doubled on a 2-and-0 pitch.

Baltimore 3, Detroit 0 -- Matt Riley (2-4) yielded two hits over six innings, leading the Orioles at Baltimore. Miguel Tejada had a run-scoring groundout for his major league-best 139th run batted in and Rafael Palmeiro hit a run-scoring single to help the Orioles win their third in a row.