Ramirez slugs Red Sox to a 12-3 win over Rangers

<br>BOSTON (AP) _ Manny Ramirez had two homers and six RBIs, and Dustin Hermanson won his official debut as a Red Sox starter as Boston beat the Texas Rangers 12-3 Thursday. <br><br>He got plenty of support

Friday, August 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BOSTON (AP) _ Manny Ramirez had two homers and six RBIs, and Dustin Hermanson won his official debut as a Red Sox starter as Boston beat the Texas Rangers 12-3 Thursday.

He got plenty of support as Manny Ramirez had two homers and six RBIs to spark Boston to a 12-0 lead after four innings. But Hermanson (1-0) was sharp with four shutout innings before giving up two runs in the fifth.

``I'm not going to try to do too much to make up for lost time, but I do want to put a nice season together,'' Hermanson said. ``My season starts now.''

Just in time for the Red Sox, who trail American League West leaders Oakland and Seattle by 3 1/2 games in the wildcard race and Anaheim by 2 1/2. Boston begins a four-game series with the Angels on Friday with Martinez starting the opener.

In other AL games, it was: New York 4, Anaheim 2; Oakland 9, Cleveland 3; Seattle 4, Detroit 2; Minnesota 8, Kansas City 6; and Baltimore 3, Tampa Bay 2.

Hermanson's first start in Boston's second game of the season was wiped out by rain after two innings. He pitched a perfect first inning against Toronto then left after injuring his groin warming up for the second April 3.

Hermanson, obtained in an offseason trade with St. Louis, went on the disabled list April 8 and pitched one inning of relief July 20 against the New York Yankees. He went back on the disabled list the next day with an infection in his left elbow and was activated Thursday.

Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the first, an RBI single in the second and a three-run homer in the third for an 11-0 lead. The second homer gave him 22 homers for the season and 1,000 RBIs in his career. He walked in the seventh.

Dennys Reyes (1-1) lasted just two innings in his first start in 50 appearances this season.

Frank Castillo pitched four innings for his second career save and first since 1998.

Athletics 9, Indians 3

In Cleveland, Mark Mulder completed Oakland's first four-game sweep of Cleveland as the Athletics won their season-high ninth straight game.

Mulder (15-7) followed a brilliant performance by Cory Lidle _ a one-hitter Wednesday night _ with a pretty good one of his own, allowing three runs and five hits in 7 2-3 innings.

Mulder walked none, struck out two and got 16 outs on grounders as the A's moved into a tie for first place in the AL West with Seattle. It's the first time the A's have had a share of first place since April 10.

Jason Phillips (1-2) took the loss.

Mariners 4, Tigers 2

In Detroit, Mike Cameron singled in two runs in a three-run sixth inning as Seattle beat Detroit to split the four-game series.

Cameron was 7-for-11 in the series, including hits in six consecutive at-bats, after arriving in Detroit in an 0-for-21 slump.

Ryan Franklin (5-3) pitched six innings, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk in his sixth start in the major leagues. Japan's Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched the ninth for his 32nd save in 37 tries.

Mark Redman (7-12) lost for the third start in a row, allowing four runs on eight hits in eight innings.

Twins 8, Royals 6

In Kansas City, Missouri, Jacque Jones hit a home run to lead off a game for the third time in four days, and Cristian Guzman and Luis Rivas also homered, as Minnesota beat Kansas City.

Jones, who's hit four of his nine leadoff homers this year against the Royals, knocked the second pitch from Runelvys Hernandez (3-2) over the fence in left. It was Jones' 23rd homer of the year.

Guzman followed Jones' leadoff homer with a double that stretched his hitting streak to 20 games, the best for the Twins since Shane Mack's 22-game streak in 1992.

Guzman was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, with an RBI single in the fifth and a two-run homer off Darrell May in the seventh.

Johan Santana (7-5) retired the last 11 batters he faced, going six innings and giving up three runs on six hits.

Orioles 3, Devil Rays 2, 11 innings

In Baltimore, Jerry Hairston homered and scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning on a single by Tony Batista to carry Baltimore past Tampa Bay before the smallest crowd in the 11-year history of Camden Yards.

Jeff Conine also homered for the Orioles. There were only 21,447 fans in the makeup of an April 9 rainout.

Chris Gomez connected for the Devil Rays, who are 0-12-3 in their last 15 series. The last AL team to go 15 series without a win were the 1996 Detroit Tigers, who went 0-for-16.

Jorge Julio (5-5) got the win and Travis Harper (5-7) took the loss.