Great Scott! Red Sox scuffling
BALTIMORE - Luke Scott homered and had three of Baltimore's 11 hits off Josh Beckett, and the Orioles received a fine pitching performance from Jeremy Guthrie in a 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.
Scott was mired in a 7-for-55 skid before going 3-for-3 against Beckett, who came in 4-0 with a 2.05 ERA in four career starts at Camden Yards. Scott's three-run homer in the third inning put Baltimore ahead 5-3, and the advantage stood up.
Guthrie (2-3) allowed three runs, two earned, and eight hits in six-plus innings.
The right-hander had a season-high seven strikeouts and walked one.
After Guthrie yielded successive singles to start the seventh, Jamie Walker walked David Ortiz to load the bases. Jim Johnson then got Manny Ramirez to bounce into a 1-2-3 double play to conclude a 10-pitch at-bat, and Mike Lowell followed with a fly ball to left.
Alex Cora hit an RBI single in the eighth before George Sherrill got five straight outs for his 14th save. Ortiz was ejected in the ninth after arguing with umpire Laz Diaz, who called him out on a check swing with the count full.
It was the fourth loss in five games for the Red Sox, who stranded 10 and went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Indians 4 A's 0
At Cleveland, Paul Byrd and two Cleveland relievers combined for the Indians' fourth shutout in seven games with a 4-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
Byrd (2-3) allowed five hits over 7 1-3 innings, striking out seven without a walk.
The right-hander extended the Indians' scoreless streak to 34 innings by their starting staff.
The last run allowed by a Cleveland starter came Friday night in the fifth inning against Toronto by C.C. Sabathia - the only run yielded by an Indians starter in the last 39 innings.
Travis Hafner singled home a first-inning run off Justin Duchscherer (3-2) and Ryan Garko hit a three-run homer off Andrew Brown in the eighth.
Rafael Perez retired the only Oakland batter he faced and Masahide Kobayashi worked the final 1 2-3 innings for his first save. The 33-year-old right-hander, signed as a free agent in November, had 227 saves over the last eight seasons in Japan.
Byrd's performance came after Cliff Lee pitched nine scoreless innings Monday night in the second game of a doubleheader following Fausto Carmona's five-hitter in the opener.
Before a rainout Sunday, lefty starter Aaron Laffey pitched seven innings in a 12-0 win Saturday.
Cleveland second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, who turned the 14th unassisted triple play in history against Toronto Monday, again brought the crowd to its feet with a spectacular play. The 22-year-old ran into center field to snare a looping ball off the bat of Bobby Crosby to start the eighth.
Mets 6 Nationals 3
At New York, Ryan Church homered, doubled and drove in four runs against his former team and John Maine pitched six sharp innings to lead the New York Mets over the Washington Nationals 6-3 on Tuesday night.
A night after Mets starter Nelson Figueroa called the Nationals "softball girls" for cheering in the dugout during his loss, Maine (5-2) hit Felipe Lopez with his first pitch of the game.
The ball grazed Lopez's right leg but the leadoff hitter angrily threw his bat in front of the plate and briefly glared at Maine as he walked down first base.
There were no other moments of potential trouble, even when David Wright had to dive to the dirt to avoid being hit by a pitch, as the Mets amassed more than 10 hits for the second straight night but got timely hits this time to beat the Nationals and improve to 3-2 on their seven-game homestand against last-place teams.
Maine was mostly dominant for his second straight start, allowing just two runs - one earned - and two hits and retiring 11 of the last 12 batters he faced after giving up Ryan Zimmerman's two-run homer in the third.
In his last outing, Maine took a shutout into the ninth inning against the Dodgers.
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