Alicea’s Single Downs Toronto

American League

The first-place Boston Red Sox have stressed being aggressive all season. They won with that very approach Monday night in Boston.

Mike Greenwell was hit by a pitch and stole second with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Then he raced home on Luis Alicea’s single and the Red Sox beat Toronto 4-3, sending the Blue Jays to their season-high seventh straight loss.

“I felt pretty confident we were going to steal on that pitch,” Boston manager Kevin Kennedy said of the 0-1 pitch from Tony Castillo (0-2).

Greenwell got an outstanding jump as Alicea lined a single to left. Candy Maldonado charged the ball and fired it high over the head of catcher Lance Parrish as Boston salvaged a victory after squandering a 3-0 lead in the top of the ninth.

Maldonado moved from right to left field and Joe Carter from left to center in the bottom of the ninth. After Greenwell reached base, Carter caught two consecutive fly balls.

Then Alicea, batting ninth and hitting .237 before the game, came through as the Red Sox increased their A.L. East lead to five games over Detroit, which lost to the New York Yankees. His single was Boston’s only hit off Castillo in 2 innings.

Athletics 4, Rangers 3

Arlington, Texas

Benji Gil’s throwing error with two outs in the ninth allowed the winning run to score as Oakland rallied for four runs in the inning and beat Texas.

Indians 2, Royals 0

Kansas City

Chad Ogea won his fourth straight start and helped Cleveland end its four-game losing streak, but he took a seventhinning line drive in the stomach while defeating Kansas City.

Ogea lay on the ground for several minutes, then slowly got up and walked off. He was not seriously hurt, a team spokesman said.

Orioles 2, Brewers 0

Milwaukee

Jamie Moyer took a nohitter into the sixth and allowed only two hits in 7 innings as Baltimore sent Milwaukee to its fourth straight loss.

White Sox 6, Twins 5

Minneapolis

Frank Thomas hit a pair of two-run homers to give rookie Brian Keyser his first major league win as Chicago beat Minnesota, extending its winning streak to four games.

Yankees 7, Tigers 3

New York

Rookie Andy Pettitte pitched seven scoreless innings and New York extended their longest winning streak of the season to five games with the victory over Detroit.

Strawberry homers

Darryl Strawberry, facing live pitching for the first time since signing with the New York Yankees, hit a 400-foot home run.

The homer, one of two Strawberry hit in a simulated game at the team’s minor-league complex in Tampa, Fla., landed on the roof of a shed beyond the right field fence.

Facing teammate Scott Kamieniecki, Strawberry started out 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.

In his sixth at-bat, Strawberry hit a hanging curve ball. He finished 4-for-11 against Kamieniecki, who is in Tampa to rehabilitate the elbow he injured in May.

Clearing the bases

Edgar Martinez of the Seattle Mariners was honored as the league’s player of the week. He was 12-for-24 last week with five doubles, one homer and seven RBIs… . Cleveland’s Carlos Baerga leads the majors with 28 multi-hit games.