BOSTON - Those Red Sox managers just never learn. With an eerie similarity to last year's postseason debacle, Pedro Martinez took a lead into the eighth inning before tiring and the Yankees rallied to win 6-4, which opened a 51/2-game advantage in the East.
Grady Little was the Red Sox manager last fall when he left Martinez in during the eighth inning of Game 7 in the AL championship series; the Yankees overcame a 5-2 deficit to tie it and earned a World Series berth when Aaron Boone homered in the 11th.
"It had a lot of similarities to the playoff game last year," Yankees starter Mike Mussina said. "History tends to repeat itself - but usually not that quickly."
Little was let go after the season and replaced by Terry Francona. But Francona, much as his predecessor did, sent Martinez back out for the eighth despite needing 101 pitches to get through the first seven innings; the Boston fans let Francona hear about it, much as they did for his predecessor.
Hideki Matsui homered on pitch No. 103 to make it 4-4, and Bernie Williams followed with a ground-rule double. Martinez struck out Jorge Posada, who hit the game-tying double off the Red Sox ace in the ALCS, but Ruben Sierra singled home the go-ahead run and - finally - chased Martinez.
"If I run out there after two pitches ... it would make it look like I wasn't making a very good decision before the inning," Francona said. "We put a lot of thought into what we're doing. I was disappointed it was a tie game instead of having a one-run lead, but two pitches into the inning he's still, in my opinion, he's okay."
Matsui added an RBI double in the ninth - his third hit of the game. Mariano Rivera recorded his 51st save.
ATHLETICS 6, ANGELS 3: Rich Harden pitched seven strong innings and Eric Byrnes hit a two-run homer for visiting Oakland, which took a three-game lead in the West. Anaheim remained tied for second with Texas. And both are six games back of Boston in the wild-card race. Byrnes went 3-for-4, and Erubiel Durazo also had three hits for Oakland, which won for just the fourth time in 10.
MARINERS 8, RANGERS 7: Ichiro Suzuki had two more hits to move within eight of George Sisler's major league record for visiting Seattle. The Rangers' winning streak ended at five. Suzuki, 2-for-4, singled in the third and sixth and had a sacrifice fly in the fourth. His 249 hits moved him past Ty Cobb and into seventh place on the all-time list. Sisler had 257 hits in 1920.
TWINS 8, INDIANS 2: Johan Santana became the second 20-game winner in the major leagues and visiting Minnesota ended a three-game skid which followed the clinching of its third consecutive Central title. Santana (20-6) set a Minnesota record for strikeouts in a season (259).
ORIOLES 7, TIGERS 5: Miguel Tejada hit a three-run homer in the ninth for host Baltimore. Tejada, who went 4-for-5 with four RBIs, hit a 1-0 pitch from former Ray Esteban Yan over the center-field wall.
ROYALS 8, WHITE SOX 6: John Buck homered twice for visiting Kansas City. He broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth with a 431-foot solo shot off reliever Felix Diaz.
