BOSTON – Todd Walker tied the score with a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning and David Ortiz won the game with a solo shot in the 10th as the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-5 Tuesday night.

Despite the heroics, the Red Sox were eliminated from the AL East race when the New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox 7-0.

Boston still leads the wild-card race, bringing a 2-game lead over Seattle into the night; the Mariners played a late game at Anaheim.

Byung-Hyun Kim (8-5) earned the win with a scoreless ninth. Kurt Ainsworth (0-1) threw just four pitches, and Ortiz sent the fourth into the new seats above the Green Monster as the crowd erupted.

The Red Sox – one strike from losing an inning earlier – swarmed around home plate to pounce on Ortiz as he crossed. The fans cheered until he came out for a curtain call.

Luis Matos hit a three-run homer in the second, and Baltimore scored two more in the ninth to extend its lead to 5-2.

But with closer Jorge Julio on and one out in the ninth, pinch-hitter Jason Varitek singled and took second on a passed ball. Johnny Damon bounced out to second base, then Nomar Garciaparra walked and took second uncontested.

Walker hit Julio’s 3-2 pitch into the Baltimore bullpen to tie it.

On Aug. 10, Julio’s previous appearance in Boston, he walked the bases loaded before striking out Garciaparra on a pitch in the dirt to preserve Baltimore’s victory.

Manny Ramirez was 1-for-2 with two intentional walks. He singled to lead off the eighth before John Parrish got Ortiz to line out to deep center. Julio then came on to protect the 3-2 lead.

Brown stole second and third, but Kevin Millar struck out and Bill Mueller, the AL’s leading hitter, lined one to deep center that turned Matos around before he made the catch. Mueller stopped between first and second base, threw his hands on his head and then bent at the knees in dismay.

Baltimore added two in the ninth when Brian Roberts doubled and scored on Jay Gibbons’ single. Larry Bigbie, who had been intentionally walked, scored to make it 5-2 when right fielder Gabe Kapler couldn’t field the ball cleanly.

Matos homered for the second consecutive game. It came in his first at-bat, and one day after he was ejected for arguing a called second strike with the plate umpire.

There was no need to argue about this one.

His homer bounced off the top of the Green Monster, hitting a ridge in front of the new seats and coming back onto the field. After a few moments, third base umpire Doug Eddings – who ejected Matos on Monday night – pointed to indicate that the ball had cleared the red line atop the Wall.

Gibbons and Tony Batista singled to reach base before the homer.

Boston made it 1-0 in the first when Garciaparra reached on Batista’s error at third base, took third on Walker’s double and scored when Ortiz’s potential double-play ball was muffed by Roberts at shortstop for an error.

Doug Mirabelli scored on Walker’s sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 3-2.

Notes: Thunderstorms flooded parts of the field, the dugouts and the runways to the clubhouses before the game. But the rain cleared and the waters receded for the game to start on time. … Roberts started at shortstop for the first time. … Matos homered for the second consecutive game. … Batista entered the night with two hits in his previous 30 at-bats over eight games. … The attendance of 33,723 brought the season total to 2,655,029. Advance sales already bring the team to 2.7 million for the season. Boston is the only team in the major leagues to have home attendance increase in each of the last six seasons. … Damon needs one stolen base to have 30 in consecutive seasons. The only other Red Sox players to steal 30 bases in back-to-back years were Tris Speaker (1909-10, 12-14) and Harry Hooper (1910-11). … Garciaparra is batting just .175 in September (14-for-80), dropping his average to .305 from .323. … Mueller was 0-for-4. He is batting .380 (19-for-46) in his last 15 games. … Each team had two errors for the second consecutive game. … Tim Wakefield allowed three runs and seven hits, striking out four.

AP-ES-09-23-03 2239EDT