Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox and Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees were three of the most outstanding players in yesterday’s American League Playoffs game. Pedro and Manny guided Boston to a convincing 8-3 win over the Anaheim Angels. Anaheim’s Vladimir Guerrero batted two runs in, but his team went down 0-2 in the best-of-five series. For Boston, Pedro Martinez pitched seven fairly good innings, giving up three earned runs and striking out six. His Angels counterpart, the DR’s Bartolo Colon, pitched six good innings, too, giving up just three runs on seven hits. The key moment was a sacrifice fly by Manny Ramirez, which capped a four-run seventh inning for the Bosox and sealed the victory. Dominican shortstop Orlando Cabrera was responsible for three runs batted in, while the much feared David Ortiz was walked three times out of respect for his enormous power.
In the other playoff game, the New York Yankees came from behind and beat the Minnesota Twins 7-6 in twelve innings. Alex Rodriguez went four for six, scoring two runs and batting in another three. A two-base hit in the twelfth inning got things tied up for the Yankees who were trailing 5-6. The man known as A-Rod also hit a homerun in the fifth inning.