BASEBALL - ORIOLES WIN , YANKEES LOSE .  BALTIMORE 1996-08-27  Cal Ripken 's bases-loaded walk scored Brady Anderson with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th as the Baltimore Orioles regained control of the top spot in the wild-card race with a wild 12-11 victory over the Oakland Athletics .  Trailing by a run entering the 11th , the Orioles rallied against Oakland reliever Mark Acre ( 0-2 ) with a walk and a triple by Brady Anderson to tie the game .  Then Oakland manager Art Howe decided to intentionally walk Rafael Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla to load the bases but Acre was nowhere near the plate to Ripken .  The decisive pitch nearly hit Ripken and gave the Orioles a one-half game lead over the Chicago White Sox in the wild-card race .  In Seattle , Jay Buhner 's eighth-inning single snapped a tie as the Seattle Mariners edged the New York Yankees 2-1 in the opener of a three-game series .  New York starter Jimmy Key left the game in the first inning after Seattle shortstop Alex Rodriguez lined a shot off his left elbow .  The Yankees have lost 12 of their last 19 games and their lead in the AL East over Baltimore fell to five games .  At California , Tim Wakefield pitched a six-hitter for his third complete game of the season and Mo Vaughn and Troy O'Leary hit solo home runs in the second inning as the surging [START_ENT] Boston Red Sox [END_ENT] won their third straight 4-1 over the California Angels .  Boston has won seven of eight and is 20-6 since August 2nd .  The Red Sox are two games over .500 for the first time this season .  In Chicago , Cal Eldred pitched 5-1/3 scoreless innings and John Jaha scored one run and doubled in another as the Milwaukee Brewers held off the slumping Chicago White Sox , 3-2 .  Eldred ( 6-5 ) walked one and struck out three .  Angel Miranda retired one batter and Bob Wickman retired the next four but loaded the bases in the eighth .  In Detroit , Jim Thome 's solo homer in the ninth inning snapped a tie and Charles Nagy pitched a three-hitter for his first win in over a month , leading the Cleveland Indians to their 11th straight victory over the Detroit Tigers , 2-1 .  With the score tied 1-1 in the ninth , Thome hit a 2-2 pitch from starter Felipe Lira ( 6-11 ) over the left-field fence for his 29th homer .  In Toronto , Juan Guzman allowed three runs over seven innings to make homers by Joe Carter and Carlos Delgado stand up as the surging Toronto Blue Jays held off the Minnesota Twins , 5-3 .  Toronto returned home from a 10-game road trip and won for the eighth time in nine games as Guzman ( 11-8 ) allowed nine hits and struck out eight without a walk .
Boston Red Sox