Boston run riot as Cleveland collapse

BOSTON RED SOX shattered Major League post-season records for runs and hits as they crushed Cleveland Indians to tie their American League Division play-off series on Sunday night. Their 23-7 victory brought them back to 2-2 in the best-of-five series.

BOSTON RED SOX shattered Major League post-season records for runs and hits as they crushed Cleveland Indians to tie their American League Division play-off series on Sunday night. Their 23-7 victory brought them back to 2-2 in the best-of-five series.

The Red Sox beat the post-season mark of 18 runs set by the New York Yankees in the 1936 World Series against the New York Giants, while their 24 hits eclipsed Atlanta's 22 in the 1996 National League Championship play-off against St Louis. The Indians' Wil Cordero homered in the ninth for the 30th run of the game, breaking the mark set when Toronto beat Philadelphia 15-14 in the 1993 World Series.

Boston scored at least two runs in each of the first five innings and led 15-2 after four. John Valentin homered twice and equalled a post-season record of seven RBI.

"We made history tonight, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't win tomorrow." said Valentin, referring to the series decider, which was due to take place last night.

"Everything we threw up there, they hit," said the Cleveland manager, Mike Hargrove, while one of the team's big hitters, Jim Thome, added: "To put it mildly, they kicked our butts. How this got away this bad is beyond me."

Hargrove started the pitcher Bartolo Colon with only three days' rest for the first time in his career - the usual rotation is one game followed by four or five days off - and the team suffered for it. His Boston counterpart, Kent Mercker, was not around long enough to enjoy himself, however. After allowing two runs, three hits and three walks, he was taken off in the second inning.