A night after Jason Varitek shoved his catcher's mitt in Alex Rodriguez's face, the Boston Red Sox used their bats to send the New York Yankees a message.

Kevin Millar homered and drove in four runs, Johnny Damon hit a three-run shot and the Red Sox beat the visiting Yankees 9-6 Sunday to take the last two of the three-game series.

"We got the feeling back last night," Kevin Millar said. "We had to get that swagger back that we had last year."

Democratic presidential nominee and Red Sox fan John Kerry threw out the ceremonial first pitch on the eve of his party's convention in Boston. He gave Millar a high-five after his fifth-inning homer.

"He was fired up," Millar said of Kerry. "I was just high-fiving the fans and his hand was the last one."

The Red Sox seem to have been fired up by a bench-clearing brawl Saturday. Rodriguez and Varitek were ejected after A-Rod was hit by a pitch by Bronson Arroyo in the third inning. After what Varitek said were some "choice words," the catcher pushed Rodriguez in the face, bringing both teams out of their dugouts.

After an 8-7 loss Friday dropped Boston a season-high 91/2 games behind the Yankees, the Red Sox ended up winning 11-10 Saturday and with Sunday's victory are 71/2 games back in the AL East.

"Maybe that's something we needed," Damon said. "We do have a little more fire in us."

In other games it was Minnesota 8, Baltimore 4; Detroit 9, Chicago 2; Seattle 6, Anaheim 2; Oakland 9, Texas 2; Cleveland 5, Kansas City 1; Toronto 5. Tampa Bay 3.

The Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Jose Contreras (8-4) got hit hard again by Boston. He gave up a two-run single to Millar in the bottom half, then allowed four more runs in the second keyed by Damon's homer off the right-field pole.

Contreras gave up eight runs in 5 1-3 innings and fell to 0-4 against the Red Sox since the Yankees outbid Boston for him in 2003.

Millar, who went 10-for-13 in the series with four homers and eight RBIs, homered in the fifth and added an RBI single in the sixth.

Hideki Matsui hit his fourth career grand slam in the seventh to cut the lead to 9-6 before Keith Foulke bounced back from giving up the winning hit Friday to get five outs for his 16th save.

Derek Lowe (9-9) made one of his best starts of a subpar season, giving up four runs - two earned - in 6 2-3 innings.

Twins 8, Orioles 4

Justin Morneau had three hits, including a long three-run homer and Mike Cuddyer also homered and had three hits for visiting Minnesota, which took a half-game lead in the AL Central.

Daniel Cabrera (8-4) fell behind 6-0 in the second and didn't make it out of the sixth. He gave up eight runs and 11 hits, both season highs, in five-plus innings.

Kyle Lohse (4-7) allowed four runs and seven hits in five innings.

Tigers 9, White Sox 2

Marcus Thames hit his first career grand slam, and visiting Detroit overcame the ejections of starter Jeremy Bonderman and manager Alan Trammell. Bonderman and Trammell were ejected in the second inning after Bonderman hit Chicago's Aaron Rowand with a pitch, minutes after Paul Konerko's homer.

Wilfredo Ledezma (1-0) allowed one run and four hits in 3 2-3 innings. Jon Garland (7-7) was the loser.

Mariners 6, Angels 2

Dave Hansen and Bucky Jacobsen homered to back Joel Pineiro (6-11), who allowed one run and struck out seven in eight innings, and Seattle took advantage of Kevin Gregg's record-tying wildness to avoid a three-game sweep.

Gregg threw four wild pitches in the eighth inning, tying the post-1900 major league regular-season record, set by Walter Johnson in 1914 and matched by Phil Niekro in 1979.

Ramon Ortiz (3-6) gave up three runs and six hits over seven innings for visiting Anaheim.

Athletics 9, Rangers 2

Eric Chavez and Mark Kotsay both homered for the second straight day at Oakland. Eric Byrnes and Erubiel Durazo also homered for the A's, who took two of three from the first-place Rangers to cut Texas' AL West lead to 21/2 games.

Rich Harden (5-5) didn't allow a hit until Gary Matthews Jr.'s two-out double in the fourth. John Wasdin (1-2) allowed seven runs and 11 hits in 4 2-3 innings.

Indians 5, Royals 1

Cleveland (50-49) moved above .500 for the first time since it was 2-1 last year as Jake Westbrook (8-5) pitched a six-hitter to complete a four-game sweep of the visiting Royals.

Grady Sizemore hit his first major league homer for Cleveland. Zack Greinke (2-8) gave up five runs and eight hits in 6 2-3 innings.

Blue Jays 5, Devil Rays 3

Carlos Delgado hit a three-run homer to become the first Blue Jays player to drive in 1,000 runs, and Toronto completed a three-game sweep of visiting Tampa Bay.

David Bush (1-1) got his first major league win.

Kerry Ligtenberg got five outs for his third save. Victor Zambrano (9-7) allowed five runs and five hits in five innings.