John Burkett notches his 11th win of the season while shutting down Cleveland.
By The Associated Press

CLEVELAND – John Burkett pitched into the eighth inning, Nomar Garciaparra homered and the Boston Red Sox extended their AL wild-card lead Friday night with a 2-0 win over the Cleveland Indians.

Burkett (11-8) allowed just three hits in seven-plus innings and was helped by three double plays as Boston moved 27 games over .500 for the first time since 1995.

Boston’s bullpen pitched in, too.

Todd Jones relieved Burkett with two runners on and none out in the eighth and retired three in a row. Byung-Hyun Kim got two outs in the ninth, then hit two batters on consecutive pitches.

Alan Embree came in and retired Ben Broussard for his first save since July 2, 2002, when he got two in a doubleheader against Toronto.

The Indians were shut out for just the fourth time this season, an AL low. Despite sitting three regulars, the Red Sox opened their lead in the wild-card race to three games over Seattle, which hosted Oakland in a late game. Johnny Damon (abdominal pull), Bill Mueller (back spasms) and Trot Nixon (strained calf) were all rested by Red Sox manager Grady Little. Garciaparra homered in the second inning off rookie Jason Stanford (0-3) and continued to tattoo Indians pitchers.

Relying mostly on his off-speed stuff, the 38-year-old Burkett walked one, struck out three and was never in real danger.

Garciaparra only needed a night against the Indians to break out of a recent hitting slump that dropped his average to .307 – the lowest it had been since May 28.

After striking out in the first, he hit his 26th homer in the third to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.

Gabe Kapler led off with a double, moved up on a groundout and scored on Walker’s sacrifice fly. Garciaparra then hit Stanford’s next pitch over the wall in left for his 99th RBI.

The All-Star shortstop is batting .380 (92-for-242) with 11 homers and 49 RBIs in his career against Cleveland. In addition to his regular-season prowess, Garciaparra batted .333 against the Indians in the 1998 playoffs and .417 vs. them a year later.

Notes: Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia sent two bats over to the Boston clubhouse to be signed by Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez for his son, Carsten Charles III, who was born earlier this week. Garciaparra wrote: “To ‘Lil C, Your dad is great! All my best.” … The Red Sox (90-63) have reached the 90-win plateau 22 times in their 103-year history. They’ve done it four times in the past six seasons. … As a way of reminding the Red Sox of their history of heartbreak, the Indians played a video replay of Bill Buckner’s infamous error in the 1986 World Series following the sixth inning. … Stanford allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings.

AP-ES-09-19-03 2144EDT