Papelbon earns 200th career save, Red Sox top Yankees

David Ortiz hit a two-run homer and Jonathan Papelbon labored through the ninth inning to earn his 200th save, leading the visiting Boston Red Sox over the New York Yankees, 6-4, last night.

Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with a home run and Adrian Gonzalez hit an RBI triple as the Red Sox roughed up Freddy Garcia (4-5) early to move within two percentage points of the first-place Yankees in the AL East.

New York first baseman Mark Teixeira left the game in pain after getting hit on the kneecap by a first-inning pitch from Jon Lester.

Derek Jeter had two hits to move within 12 of 3,000. He entered the 10-game homestand with 2,986.

Working on 7 days' rest, Lester (8-2) gave up three runs and eight hits - seven singles - in six innings.

Papelbon, pitching while he appeals a three-game ban for making contact with an umpire Saturday, gave up an RBI single to Jorge Posada but struck out Alex Rodriguez with a runner on second for his 12th save. He reached 200 saves in 359 appearances, fewest in baseball history. Mariano Rivera is next at 382 games.

Red Sox reliever Bobby Jenks left in the seventh after throwing only four pitches because of tightness in his back. Matt Albers came on and finished a walk to Posada before retiring three in a row. Daniel Bard was perfect in the eighth.

In other games:

* At Cleveland, Carlos Carrasco (5-3) took a shutout into the ninth inning and the Indians pushed across an unearned run to defeat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0.

Carlos Santana doubled to start the Indians' fourth, reaching third when the ball got past leftfielder Delmon Young for an error. Santana scored on a groundout to short by Shelley Duncan.

* At Baltimore, J.J. Hardy, Luke Scott and Adam Jones hit solo homers, Chris Jakubauskas pitched five shutout innings and the Orioles beat Oakland, 4-0, to stretch the Athletics' losing streak to a season-high eight games. Jones had three hits for the Orioles.

* At Chicago, Paul Konerko and Carlos Quentin homered, and Phil Humber held Seattle's offense in check as the White Sox beat the Mariners and Felix Hernandez, 5-1.

Konerko blasted the first pitch he saw from Hernandez 383 feet over the leftfield bullpen to give Chicago a 1-0 lead in the second inning. It was his 14th of the year and second in as many days since missing a pair of games because of minor wrist surgery.

* At Arlington, Texas, Austin Jackson had three of Detroit's season-high 20 hits and Rick Porcello (6-3) won for the sixth time in his last seven outings to help the Tigers rout the Rangers, 8-1. Every Tiger in the lineup had at least one hit, including Casper Wells, Alex Avila, and Victor Martinez, who had three hits apiece.

* At Kansas City, Adam Lind and J.P. Arencibia each hit a two-run homer to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to an 8-5 victory over the Royals.

* The Indians released infielder Wes Hodges to make room at Triple A Columbus for former Yankees first baseman Nick Johnson, who signed a minor league contract with the club in February, but had offseason surgery on his right wrist and is just coming back from the injury. *