Despite Their Split, Red Sox Tie It Up

Neither a stranger to drama nor afraid of its glare, Curt Schilling saw the opportunity set out in front of him and he welcomed it.

“We’re in first place, with five days left in the season. We have a winnable game sitting there; with the chance to be in first place all alone; with me on the mound,” he said. “In my mind, that’s a lock. And it hasn’t been, and I haven’t made it. That is probably the most frustrating thing.”

After a victory over Toronto in the first game of the doubleheader put Boston in a tie atop the AL East, Schilling twice blew a three-run lead and Russ Adams hit a sacrifice fly to break an eighth-inning tie and help the Blue Jays to a 7-5 victory in the second game at Boston.

When the Yankees lost to Baltimore later, New York and Boston were left tied with five games left.

Tuesday’s results guaranteed that the AL East title will be up for grabs when New York comes to Fenway Park for a three-game series this weekend to close the season.

“We’d be kidding ourselves if this weekend wasn’t going to determine the outcome of this season,” Boston outfielder Johnny Damon said. “It’s going to come down to this weekend. It’s the master plan. God’s way. Yankees-Red Sox. We just need to win some games before that series starts.”

Tim Wakefield pitched seven strong innings to give Boston a 3-1 victory in the day game.

In that game, Miguel Batista got two outs for his 31st save in 39 chances, getting David Ortiz on a broken-bat grounder to first for the final out.

Baltimore 17, New York 9 -- The Orioles ended a nine-game losing streak with a rout of the Yankees at Baltimore.

Jay Gibbons and Javy Lopez homered for the Orioles, offsetting Gary Sheffield’s two-homer, six-RBI effort for New York in a game that lasted 4 hours 16 minutes.

Aaron Rakers (1-0) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn his first major league win.

Tampa Bay 5, Cleveland 4 -- Scott Kazmir held the Indians to one run in six innings and Julio Lugo hit a three-run homer to lead the Devil Rays at Cleveland.

Former Indian pitcher Danys Baez got his 40th save by getting Ronnie Belliard to hit into a game-ending double play with the tying run on third, handing Cleveland consecutive losses for the first time since Sept. 3-4.

Cleveland is tied with Boston and New York for the wild-card lead.

Detroit 3, Chicago 2 -- Omar Infante and Craig Monroe homered and the Tigers won at Detroit.

The White Sox retained a two-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central but have lost 12 of 19.

Minnesota 3, Kansas City 1 -- Johan Santana (15-7) gave up six hits over seven innings at Minneapolis and the Twins ended a four-game losing streak.

Texas 3, Seattle 2 -- Estaban German, in his first at-bat of the season, doubled home Mark Teixeira from first base with one out in the 11th inning to lift the Rangers at Seattle.