American League Roundup: Short-handed Red Sox spank Yanks

No Martinez? No Ramirez? No problem for Boston as Castillo baffles New York

? Minus Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez, the Boston Red Sox still looked like a first-place team.

Frank Castillo shut down the majors’ most dangerous lineup and, backed by three home runs, Boston breezed past the New York Yankees 7-1 Sunday.

Rickey Henderson, Nomar Garciaparra and Doug Mirabelli homered for the Red Sox, who won two of three at Yankee Stadium in a matchup of the teams with baseball’s best records.

Boston left town with a two-game lead over New York in the AL East, and improved to 7-4 against the Yankees and 22-5 on the road this season.

“We know as a team we can play with them, and we needed to prove to everyone that we’re for real,” Mirabelli said.

The Yankees don’t need to be persuaded.

“It seems like it’s going to come down to these two teams battling all season long,” Yankees slugger Jason Giambi said. “I just hope we don’t look back at the end of the season and say, ‘Oh, if we’d have won one more game.”‘

Almost everything went right for the Red Sox, even with Ramirez on the disabled list and Martinez missing the series for an extra day of rest.

Henderson was carted off to a hospital after crashing into a wall, but X-rays were negative. He bruised his lower back, and was OK to leave with the Red Sox on their trip to Detroit.

Castillo (4-5) once again tamed the club that leads the majors with 91 home runs, holding the Yankees to one run and four hits in eight innings.

“They’ve got a potent lineup,” he said. “Keeping them in the park is good. With one swing of the bat, they can get back in the game.”

Boston’s lone gaffe came in the ninth inning, and that turned out all right, too.

With runners on first and second and one out, Red Sox reliever Casey Fossum fielded pinch-hitter Shane Spencer’s comebacker and threw home, thinking he had a forceout at the plate. Mirabelli alertly fired to first to nip Spencer, who slowed up at the end.

“As soon as I let it go, I thought, ‘there’s no one on third base,”‘ Fossum said. “I’ve only seen a play like that once before. It was in an international game in Italy, and France did it against us. But I don’t think they play the game too much.”

The Red Sox already led 7-1 when Henderson hurt his back and right hip. The injury occurred when he banged into the left-field wall after catching Enrique Wilson’s sliced drive to end the fifth.

The 43-year-old Henderson, baseball’s career leader in runs, stolen bases and walks, stayed down on the warning track for a couple of minutes as the Red Sox checked on him. He tried to limp back to the dugout and then stopped, and a cart was brought onto the field.

Indians 4, White Sox 3

Cleveland Chuck Finley pitched seven shutout innings as Cleveland climbed back to .500 with a three-game sweep of Chicago, which dropped its seventh straight. Finley (4-6) allowed four hits and didn’t walk a batter as the Indians won their fourth in a row and moved into a tie for second in the AL Central with the reeling White Sox.

Mariners 11, Orioles 8

Baltimore Bret Boone hit a grand slam and drove in five runs as Seattle rallied from a six-run deficit for a payback victory over Baltimore. After blowing leads in the late innings of losses on Friday and Saturday, the Mariners pulled off a stunning comeback of their own to salvage a split of the four-game series. Seattle trailed 6-0 after two innings and 7-1 after five before scoring three runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and four in the eighth for its biggest comeback victory of the year.

Athletics 4, Devil Rays 2

St. Petersburg, Fla. Mark Mulder won his second start in a row, and Greg Myers homered as Oakland won for the seventh time in nine games. Mulder (4-4) allowed two runs and six hits in 523 innings. The left-hander has not gone more than six innings in five starts since returning from a left forearm strain May 9.

Angels 5, Twins 4

Minneapolis Aaron Sele pitched three-hit ball into the eighth inning to beat Minnesota again. Sele (5-3) allowed three runs in seven-plus innings to improve to 15-3 with a 2.84 ERA in 18 career starts against the Twins. Garret Anderson and Orlando Palmeiro each had three of Anaheim’s 12 hits. Troy Percival got his ninth save in 11 chances. He has never allowed an earned run against Minnesota in 35 innings.

Blue Jays 7, Tigers 6

Detroit Eric Hinske ended Jeff Weaver’s homerless streak with a tiebreaking, two-run shot in the seventh inning for Toronto. Hinske, who hit an RBI triple in the second inning, drove a 2-0 pitch from Weaver (4-7) into the bullpen in right field. It was the first home run Weaver has given up this season in 84 innings and first in 10523 innings dating to last season. That stretch was the longest in the majors since Kevin Brown went 118 innings during the 1996 and 1997 seasons.