American League baseball notes

Red Sox get road

win against Angels

Curt Schilling pitched 6 2-3 effective innings, Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar homered during a seven-run burst, and the Red Sox beat the Angels 8-3 Tuesday in Game 1.

Pedro Martinez will pitch against Anaheim's Bartolo Colon in Game 2 tonight before the best-of-five series moves to Boston.

Two years ago, the Angels lost the openers to the Yankees, Twins and Giants before bouncing back to win all three series en route to the championship.

The Red Sox's big fourth inning gave them an 8-0 lead. The seven runs were the most ever scored by the Red Sox in an inning in the postseason and the most ever allowed by the Angels. Five of the runs were unearned because of a throwing error by third baseman Chone Figgins.

An eight-run lead was more than enough for Schilling, who entered with a 5-1 record and a 1.66 ERA in 11 previous postseason appearances.

He wasn't at his best, allowing nine hits and three runs, two earned, while walking two and striking out four. But that was good enough.

Boston went ahead for good off Jarrod Washburn in the first on a two-out double by Ramirez and a broken-bat single by David Ortiz.

Twins 2, Yankees 0

Johan Santana and the Minnesota Twins' dazzling defense had the New York Yankees seeing double.

Santana and the Twins escaped trouble with the help of a record-setting five double plays, Jacque Jones homered in his first start since the death of his father, and the Twins beat the Yankees 2-0 Tuesday night to win their eighth straight opener in a postseason series.

Minnesota's Soul Patrol outfield twice denied the Yankees with jumping catches -- left fielder Shannon Stewart saved one run and possibly two on Ruben Sierra's shot in the second, and center fielder Torii Hunter pulled in an eighth-inning drive by Alex Rodriguez at the top of the wall.

Hunter also threw out Jorge Posada at the plate in the second to complete the second double play by the Twins, who set a record for twin killings in a nine-inning postseason game.

Brad Radke now starts for the AL Central champions on tonight, trying to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series, which shifts to the noisy Metrodome in Minneapolis starting Friday.

Santana, unbeaten in 16 starts since the All-Star break, allowed eight hits in seven innings, the most off him since May 23.

Juan Rincon pitched the eighth and Joe Nathan finished for the save with the Twins' only 1-2-3 inning of the game.

-- From wire reports