Cleveland ? Manny Ramirez’s final strut was back to Boston’s dugout.

Ramirez hit a 459-foot homer in the sixth inning, but struck out with the tying run on in the ninth Tuesday night as the Red Sox lost their fifth straight, 7-6 to the Cleveland Indians.

Boston, which started the season 15-6, hadn’t been 0-5 in May since 1976.

“Last week at this time, people were talking about how awesome we were,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Rafael Betancourt fanned Ramirez for the final out to earn his second save in two days as the Indians held on for their fourth win in a row, highlighted by Jason Davis (1-2) and Ramirez jawing at each other.

After Ramirez connected for his sixth homer — a drive that landed five rows from the top of the left-field bleachers — to make it 7-2, he and Boston’s bench yelled at Davis, who apparently was upset with Ramirez for posing to watch the ball’s flight.

“He’s earned the right to do that,” Boston center fielder Johnny Damon said. “It wasn’t like it just cleared the wall. The ball was crushed. He has 354 career home runs, he can pimp. I hope to see Manny pimp a lot more this season.”

Davis chose his words carefully when discussing his on-field conversation with Ramirez.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” said Davis, who walked down off the mound to challenge Ramirez. “I don’t worry about stuff like that.”

Boston's Manny Ramirez watches the flight of his home run against Cleveland. Ramirez's home run traveled 459 feet, but he struck out to end the game in the Indians' 7-6 victory Tuesday night in Cleveland.

It was just Davis’ second win in his last 17 starts, but he had to survive yet another hair-raising ninth by Cleveland’s shaky bullpen to get it.

The Red Sox played poorly until rallying for four runs in the ninth off Japanese rookie Kazuhito Tadano, who gave up a three-run homer to Damon on a pitch he wasn’t even supposed to throw.

With one out and two on, and the left-handed hitting Damon coming up, the Indians needed to buy some time to get lefty Scott Stewart ready in the bullpen.

Manager Eric Wedge signaled for catcher Victor Martinez to have Tadano throw over to first, but Martinez missed the sign, and Damon drove the reliever’s first pitch over the wall in right.

“There was a miscommunication,” Wedge said. “We had a young catcher and a Japanese pitcher, and the worst-case scenario happened there. That can’t happen again.”

Stewart came on and got the second out before Betancourt, the Indians’ current closer, struck out Ramirez for his second save.

Angels 11, Tigers 4

Anaheim, Calif. — Bengie Molina and Jose Guillen each homered and drove in three runs, leading Anaheim over Detroit. Troy Glaus also connected for the Angels, who have won 10 of 12 overall and 18 of their last 20 meetings with Detroit.

Vladimir Guerrero had two RBIs for Anaheim, which has scored at least 10 runs in eight of its last 11 games against the Tigers — including the last three. Jarrod Washburn (5-1) earned the victory.

Yankees 10, Athletics 8

Oakland, Calif. — Alex Rodriguez hit his 350th homer, and Ruben Sierra had a three-run double in a six-run seventh to give New York its seventh straight victory.

New York rallied from a 7-1 deficit and spoiled a strong offensive night by the A’s, who had two home runs from Eric Chavez and one by Scott Hatteberg.

The Yankees tied Boston for first place in the AL East.

New York’s winning streak began last Tuesday night with another comeback victory over Oakland — also keyed by Sierra.

Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with a three-run homer in the seventh and drove in four runs. He became the 70th player to reach 350 homers and the youngest in major-league history to do it.

He accomplished the feat at 28 years, 282 days. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 350th at 28 years, 308 days. Rodriguez’s shot off Mark Mulder to left-center also pushed the reigning AL MVP past 1,000 career RBIs — he now has 1,001.

Orioles 10, White Sox 3

Baltimore — Brian Roberts had three hits, stole four bases and scored four runs, and Baltimore ended a three-game losing streak by beating Esteban Loaiza and Chicago. Roberts’ four steals tied the team record. Miguel Tejada got his 1,000th career hit and drove in three runs for the Orioles, who had lost six of eight. Magglio Ordonez and Joe Crede homered for the White Sox. Chicago has homered in 15 straight games.

Devil Rays 5, Rangers 4

Arlington, Texas — Tino Martinez’s second home run of the game broke a tie in the ninth inning, and Tampa Bay homered five times in a victory over Texas. The Devil Rays tied it in the seventh after trailing 4-1. Martinez led off the ninth with his fifth homer of the season into the right-field seats off Jeff Nelson (0-2) to help end the Rangers’ five-game winning streak.