TORONTO, 19 July 2006 — Vernon Wells belted a grand slam homer to highlight a nine-run fourth inning that lifted the Toronto Blue Jays to a 10-1 victory over the Texas Rangers at the Rogers Center on Monday.
Toronto sent 13 batters to the plate in the fourth, the nine runs in the inning matching a season high for the Jays, who improved to 3-1 since the All-Star break to keep the pressure on the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in the AL East.
Lyle Overbay added a two-run homer for the Blue Jays in the fourth-inning explosion but it was Wells who delivered the crushing blow, taking an offering from Texas starter John Koronka and driving it over the left field wall.
The grand slam was his second of the season and fourth of his career.
Reed Johnson also homered, was twice hit by a pitches and scored two runs, while Aaron Hill had three hits and also scored twice.
“We hadn’t had one of those big outbursts in a while,” Toronto manager John Gibbons told reporters.
“We were swinging real good tonight.” After back-to-back extra-inning wins, Ted Lilly (9-8) took the pressure off the weary Toronto bullpen with a quality start, yielding just one run on seven hits with two strikeouts and a pair of walks in eight innings of work.
“We need to start making games a little bit shorter,” Wells said, after the Jays needed 14th innings and 11 innings to put away the Seattle Mariners on Saturday and Sunday. “They’re wins, so that’s all that matters. We can play 18 (innings) and win, and we’ll be happy.
“Tired, but happy.”
In Boston, Manny Ramirez’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly scored Willie Harris with the go-ahead run as the Red Sox rallied past the Kansas City Royals 5-4.
Trailing 4-0, the Red Sox scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh, keyed by a game tying three-run homer from Doug Mirabelli.
Ramirez then cashed in the game-winning run with a fly ball to left to bring across pinch runner Harris after Mark Loretta had opened the inning with a leadoff single.
It was just the second win in five games since the All-Star break for Boston, but it allowed the struggling Red Sox to maintain a slender half game lead over the Yankees at the top of the AL East.
Mike Timlin (5-0) took credit for the win, tossing one inning of scoreless relief before giving way to Jonathon Papelbon, who worked a perfect ninth to nail down the victory and his league leading 27th save.
In New York, Jason Giambi homered and Chien-Ming Wang threw seven sharp innings to lead the Yankees past the Seattle Mariners 4-2.
The Yankees gave Wang all the run support he would need by scoring three times in the bottom of the second to take a 3-1 lead.
Giambi added to the New York lead in the fifth with his 28th home run of season and Mariano Rivera took over in the ninth, collecting the final three outs for his 22nd save of the season.
The victory was the fourth straight for the Yankees and eighth in nine games.
Wang (10-4) surrendered just two runs on seven hits and survived some sloppy defense, including a career-high three throwing errors from third baseman Alex Rodriguez before he was pulled in favor of Nick Green.
