Ramirez Back With Vengeance

Manny Ramirez returned to the lineup with a bang.

One night after he was pulled for loafing after a fly ball, Ramirez hit a grand slam and three-run homer and had a career-high eight RBIs Friday night as the Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 18-4, at Toronto.

“What happened yesterday is over,” Ramirez said tersely. “That’s in the past.”

Ramirez, who was removed from Thursday night’s game by Manager Mike Hargrove for not running after a foul fly, hit a three-run homer in the third and a 438-foot slam off a SkyDome restaurant window in the fifth. The grand slam was the 10th of his career, a club record.

“Before the game I said it was in the past, and it’s in the past,” Hargrove said. “I don’t know if what happened yesterday had anything to do with what he did tonight. That’s for you guys to answer.”

Ramirez went three for four. He had an RBI single in the first, and his 157 RBIs left him five short of the club record set by Hal Trosky in 1936. He has 42 homers.

Dave Roberts also hit a grand slam in the eighth, the record-tying 12th slam for Cleveland this season. The Atlanta Braves also hit 12 in 1996.

Texas 12, Oakland 4--Juan Gonzalez had three home runs and five RBIs at Arlington, Texas, and Aaron Sele earned his 18th victory.

The Rangers increased their American League West lead to 6 1/2 games over the A’s and trimmed their magic number to three.

New York 4, Tampa Bay 3--Rookie Alfonso Soriano hit a home run in his third major league at-bat, breaking an 11th-inning tie at New York.

Soriano, who entered the game in the ninth as a pinch runner, fell behind 0-and-2 against Norm Charlton (2-3) before homering into the seats in left field for the first hit of his career.

By then, the Yankees had clinched a wild-card spot and a fifth consecutive trip to the playoffs as the A’s lost to Texas.

Baltimore 1, Boston 0--B.J. Surhoff became the third player in Oriole history with 200 hits in a season, and Mike Mussina struck out eight in six innings at Boston.

Surhoff led off the fourth with a double, joining Cal Ripken and Al Bumbry as the only Orioles to reach 200 hits. Ripken set the team record of 211 in 1983.

Surhoff, who went one for four, moved to third on Albert Belle’s fly out to right field and scored on Derrick May’s single.

Minnesota 6, Chicago 2--Rookie Joe Mays took a perfect game into the sixth and tossed two-hit ball over eight innings at Minneapolis.

Mays struck out a career-high nine batters and ended a personal six-game losing streak in winning for the first time since Aug. 8, a span of eight starts.

Mays (6-10) didn’t allow a runner until Paul Konerko led off the sixth with a four-pitch walk. Two batters later, rookie Josh Paul got his second hit in 10 major league at-bats.

Kansas City 7, Detroit 3--Rookie Mark Quinn drove in four runs and Jose Rosado pitched eight solid innings for the Royals at Detroit.