Red Sox Overcome Two A-Rod Homers to Win

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez walks off the field after lining out in the ninth inning against Boston Red Sox' Hideki Okajima in their baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Friday, April 20, 2007. The Sox won 7-6.(AP Photo/Charles Krupa) (Charles Krupa - AP)

-- Boston manager Terry Francona was thinking about going out to talk to reliever Hideki Okajima in the ninth inning before Alex Rodriguez's at-bat. Rodriguez had already homered twice to join Mike Schmidt as the fastest to reach a dozen in baseball history. Masai Takahashi, a member of the training staff who serves as translator, started writing out some things to say before Francona realized it was pointless.

"Masai was writing out 'This guy's a really good hitter,'" Francona said with a laugh. "I think he knows that. The best thing we could do was stay out of the way."

Okajima got Rodriguez to line out to second base and then struck out Kevin Thompson to preserve the Red Sox's 7-6 win Friday night over the New York Yankees.

Rodriguez, who has hit safely in all 15 games this year and homered in four straight, also leads the majors with 30 RBIs and 65 total bases.

"You run out of words and superlatives of what he's into right now," New York manager Joe Torre said.

In other AL games Friday, it was: Cleveland 4, Tampa Bay 3; Baltimore 5, Toronto 4; Chicago 5, Detroit 4; Oakland 16, Texas 4; Kansas City 11, Minnesota 7; and Los Angeles 8, Seattle 4.

Coco Crisp tied the game with a two-run triple and then scored the winning run on Alex Cora's blooper during a five-run eighth inning.

Crisp was already in the highlights after toppling into the Boston bullpen in pursuit of Rodriguez's second homer of the game, a three-run shot in the fifth that gave the Yankees a 5-2 lead.

Mariano Rivera (1-2) allowed two runs on three hits, striking out one in two-thirds of an inning.

The Yankees closer hadn't pitched since Marco Scutaro hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning against him for Oakland on Sunday.

"I'm always going to be shocked, only because of what he is and his track record," Torre said. "It hurts. We had good momentum going and it looked like we were beating a good pitcher tonight."

J.D. Drew had three hits for Boston, which trailed 5-2 before David Ortiz led off the eighth with a double and Manny Ramirez walked. Drew moved the runners up, then Mike Lowell singled to make it 6-3 and bring in Rivera.