G107: Spiders 9, Red Sox 6

Spiders   - 001 103 031 - 9 13  0
Red Sox   - 012 002 001 - 6 13  1

Asdrubal Cabrera's two-run home run off John Lackey (6.2-8-5-0-5, 106) in the sixth erased a 3-2 Red Sox lead and put Cleveland up 4-3. Travis Hafner followed with another home run, this one into the Red Sox bullpen.

Daniel Bard's scoreless streak of 26.1 innings ended in the eighth when he allowed three runs, two coming on another dong from Cabrera. This one snapped a 5-5 tie - and required review from the umpires. ESPN's graphic before the blast noted that opponents had been 0-for-their-last-34 against Bard with a man on base.

Trailing 8-5, the Red Sox went in order in the eighth. Down by four in the ninth, they scored a two-out run on Mike Aviles's single and Jacoby Ellsbury's double.

In the second inning, the Red Sox scored on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's double, and singled from Josh Reddick and Marco Scutaro. When Ellsbury hit a hard grounder back to Cleveland pitcher Josh Tomlin, Reddick was trapped off third and tagged out in a rundown.

Adrian Gonzalez singled to open the third and scored on Kevin Youkilis's triple. When the relay throw to third was wild, Yook tried to score - and was thrown out. After David Ortiz grounded out, Carl Crawford homered. ... And Salty hit a two-run bomb in the fifth.

Marco Scutaro left the game in the fourth with dizziness.

The Yankees beat the White Sox 3-2 and are only 1 GB the Red Sox in the East.

Josh Tomlin / John Lackey

The Red Sox begin August with four games in Cleveland. They will not face Ubaldo Jiminez, however, as he is pitching on Friday.

Not only was Boston's 20-6 July record (.769) the best of any MLB team, it was the best July record the team has ever had, topping the 1993 club (20-7, .741). Boston's 66 wins are the most in the team's first 106 games since 1978, when they won 67.

Dustin Pedroia led MLB in July with 46 hits. It's the most July hits for a Red Sox player (for whatever that's worth) since 1939. For the month, Pedroia also led all players in total bases (81; Jacoby Ellsbury was #2 with 77), tied for first in runs scored (27) and extra-base hits (18), and had the #2 best batting average (.411). Pedroia led the AL in average (.411), OBP (.465) and slugging (.723). He and Ellsbury tied for the most July home runs in the AL (8).

Peter Abraham notes that every team in the AL Central has allowed more runs than they have scored. The top three teams: Tigers (-6), Cleveland (-12), and White Sox (-7). Meanwhile, four of the five AL East teams have positive run differentials: Red Sox (+143), Yankees (+150), Rays (+30), and Blue Jays (+17).

This date in ...

1945: Irv Hall of the Athletics is credited with a single when his line drive ends up in Senator pitcher Dutch Leonard's pants.

1979: After beating the White Sox 9-1, members of the Yankees create a minor scandal by autographing the bare ass of a 20-year-old woman who boards the team bus outside Comiskey Park.

2007: Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips steals both second and third on the same pitch thanks to the extreme shift used by the Nationals against Adam Dunn.

AL East (Red Sox 2.0 GA): Yankees/White Sox at 8 PM.