AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Red Sox See Beauty in Their Ugly 7-6 Victory

The Boston Red Sox cannot afford to be picky.

Winning, regardless of how it is achieved, is all that matters to the Red Sox in their drive to overtake Toronto and Detroit in the AL East.

Thursday at Boston, the Red Sox took advantage of five errors--including two in the final innings--to beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6, in 10 innings.

Jody Reed hit a one-out single that scored Luis Rivera with the winning run. Rivera reached when first baseman Mike Aldrete fumbled his one-out bunt. Rivera advanced to second when Wade Boggs dribbled a single through the infield to left.

“That was the ugliest rally I’ve ever seen,” Reed said.

The victory gave the Red Sox their first home sweep of Cleveland since 1988. It also pulled them to within 3 1/2 games of first-place Toronto, which lost to Milwaukee.

“When you’re going good, it’s amazing how many breaks you get and the weird things that can happen in the last two innings to help you win a game,” said Boston Manager Joe Morgan, whose team has won four consecutive games and 12 of its last 14.

Reliever Greg Harris (10-11), got the win, giving up two hits and struck out five in 2 2/3 innings.

Rookie pitcher Mike Gardiner gave up four hits and struck out eight in seven innings. He blew a 5-3 lead by giving up Carlos Baerga’s three-run home run, his second home run of the game, with one out in the eighth.

Steve Olin (2-6), the third Cleveland pitcher, was victimized by a two-out error by third baseman Jeff Manto in the ninth that allowed Reed to score the tying run.

Minnesota 5, Seattle 4--Randy Bush tied the score with a three-run, ninth-inning home run and Scott Leius won it with a two-out homer in the 10th as the Twins swept a three-game series from the Mariners at Minneapolis.

Seattle’s Mike Schooler (0-1), who had 63 saves in 74 chances the last two years and converted all five save opportunities since coming off the disabled list this season, took a 4-1 lead into the ninth inning.

Schooler struck out pinch-hitter Dan Gladden, walked Al Newman and gave up a single to Chuck Knoblauch before Bush hit a ball over the right-field fence for his fifth homer.

In the 10th, Leius hit Schooler’s 0-and-1 pitch over the left-field wall for his fourth homer and first since July 25.

Rick Aguilera (4-4) pitched two scoreless innings for the Twins, who have won six of seven games to take a six-game lead in the AL West.

The Twins’ Jack Morris, trying for his 16th victory, gave up eight hits and five walks in 6 1/3 innings.

Mariner starter Rich DeLucia also went 6 1/3 innings and gave up six hits.

Milwaukee 8, Toronto 7--Jim Gantner and Bill Spiers hit consecutive run-scoring singles in the seventh inning off Bob MacDonald that broke a 6-6 tie at Toronto, giving the Brewers their eighth win in 10 games.

B.J. Surhoff got four hits and singled home the tying run in the seventh for the Brewers.

Toronto’s lead in the AL East was cut to one game over idle Detroit.

Mike Ignasiak pitched 2 1/3 innings for the victory. Doug Henry pitched two innings for his fifth save.

Devon White, Greg Myers and John Olerud homered for the Blue Jays.

Paul Molitor homered for the Brewers.

Texas 4, Kansas City 2--Pitcher Tom Gordon’s three-base throwing error in the eighth inning at Kansas City, enabled the Rangers to score the tiebreaking run.

Julio Franco opened the eighth with a single and Rafael Palmeiro followed with a bouncer in front of the mound.

Gordon (9-11) threw past first base, permitting Franco to score. Ruben Sierra drove in another run with a double.

Kenny Rogers (9-8) pitched three hitless innings in relief of starter Jose Guzman for the victory.