Varitek Lifts Red Sox

Winning games with last-swing homers is becoming routine for the Boston Red Sox.

Jason Varitek hit one Wednesday, a day after Kevin Millar did it, and Octavio Dotel of the Oakland Athletics served up both one-out fastballs that landed in the seats at Fenway Park.

“You don’t want to make a living doing it the way we’ve done it the last two games,” Millar said after Boston’s 6-5 win Wednesday, “but this team never gives up.”

Boston kept charging after Keith Foulke’s collapse in the top of the ninth. The closer gave up four runs, capped by Eric Byrnes’ two-run homer that put Oakland ahead, 5-4, and saw his earned-run average rise to 7.94.

But for the second straight game, Dotel (1-2) walked David Ortiz in the bottom of the ninth. Then Varitek’s shot down the right-field line barely cleared the low fence just inside the foul pole for his seventh homer of the year.

Right fielder Bobby Kielty jumped against the wall to try to catch the ball, but it landed about two rows into the stands.

“I went in there with the intention of catching it,” Kielty said. “I thought I came pretty close.”

New York 13, Seattle 9 -- Tino Martinez homered for the fifth straight game and the Yankees rallied twice from big deficits to beat the Mariners at New York for their season-high fifth straight win.

Martinez hit a three-run shot to the short porch in right field off Matt Thornton to get the Yankees even at 9-9 in the fourth inning. New York trailed, 5-0, after the top of the first but tied it in the bottom of the inning.

Baltimore 7, Minnesota 4 -- B.J. Surhoff singled home the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning, and the Orioles defeated the Twins at Baltimore.

Twin starter Johan Santana gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings, striking out eight and walking one. He was bidding for his 14th straight road win but left with the score tied after giving up at least one hit in every inning but the third.

Chicago 5, Tampa Bay 2 -- Orlando Hernandez took a two-hitter into the seventh inning to help the White Sox end a two-game losing streak with a victory over the Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Toronto 12, Kansas City 9 -- Alex Rios hit a go-ahead double, and the Blue Jays scored five times in the eighth inning to rally past the Royals at Toronto. Kansas City is a major-league worst 8-26.

Detroit 6, Texas 5 -- Carlos Pena’s single off the glove of first baseman Mark Teixeira broke an eighth-inning tie and the Tigers went on to win at Arlington, Texas.