American League
Manny Ramirez led his Red Sox teammates out of the dugout Tuesday, waving a small American flag on his first full day of US citizenship.
With the flag rippling in the wind, he ran to left field as fans cheered, then went to the seats along the foul line and handed it to a fan.
"I'm very proud to be an American citizen," he said with a big smile before Boston's game against Cleveland.
Ramirez, 31, moved from his native Dominican Republic to New York when he was 13. His parents and sisters are citizens.
"I was the last one to do it and they were always telling me, `Hey, you've got to do this,'" he said. "So I just went ahead and did it."
Ramirez had played in all 31 of his team's games before missing Monday's 8-4 loss to Cleveland to attend a two-hour ceremony in Miami during which he became a citizen. General manager Theo Epstein said it was an excused absence.
"I wasn't nervous," Ramirez said. "There were probably like 2,000 people there [from] all over the world, Costa Rica, Colombia ... Jamaica, so everything went fine."
His first at bat as a US citizen wasn't as pleasant. He struck out against C.C. Sabathia leading off the second. After the top of the inning, "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood was played over the sound system. As Ramirez walked into the batter's box, "America" by Neil Diamond was played.
Ramirez said he took the required citizenship test about six months ago and learned the date of the ceremony during spring training.
"It's going to be good that I took a day off," he said. The Red Sox are in a stretch of games in 16 straight days.
Ramirez, who has dual citizenship in the Dominican Republic and the US, is registered to vote in Florida.
Red Sox 5, Indians 3
Pinch-hitter David McCarty had a two-run triple that broke an eighth-inning tie, and Pedro Martinez struck out 11 to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians 5-3 Tuesday night.
Alan Embree (1-0) won despite giving up Victor Martinez's solo homer in the eighth -- the only hit he allowed. Keith Foulke pitched the ninth for his seventh save.
Victor Martinez doubled in two runs in the first, but Boston tied the score on solo homers by Gabe Kapler in the third and David Ortiz in the fourth. Martinez gave Cleveland a 3-2 lead in the eighth, but Boston scored three runs in the bottom half against Jose Jimenez.
White Sox 15, Orioles 0
In Chicago, Mark Buehrle got his first victory since April 10, and Magglio Ordonez had five RBIs for the White Sox.
Ordonez went 4-for-5. Frank Thomas hit a three-run homer and Jose Valentin homered and drove in three runs for the White Sox, who snapped a season-worst three-game losing streak.
Buehrle (2-1) allowed four hits in seven innings and struck out six. Sidney Ponson (2-3) gave up 11 hits and seven runs in six innings.
Athletics 5, Tigers 4, 15 innings
In Detroit, Damian Miller hit a tiebreaking, two-out single in the 15th inning to give Oakland its fourth victory in its last five games.
Eric Chavez walked and Jermaine Dye hit singles off Danny Patterson (0-2), and Scott Hatteberg was intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs to set up the game-winning hit. Dye and Bobby Crosby hit leadoff, solo homers in the second and third innings to give Oakland a 2-1 lead.
Justin Duchscherer (1-1) allowed only in five innings, and Jim Mecir pitched the 15th for his second save.
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