BOSTON — David Ortiz trotted toward first base as his slow roller headed for Jose Contreras' glove, a seemingly easy play to end a bases-loaded threat.
Contreras, hurrying to keep the ball from going foul, missed it, and the lumbering Ortiz chugged by him.
That third-inning error led to six runs and the Boston Red Sox extended their offensive surge with a 12-8 win over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night.
"He didn't give up and stand at home, which would have made it look terrible," Mike Lowell said of Ortiz. "I'm sure he kicked it in a little gear. It's kind of like me. There's not too many gears there."
But there's plenty of power.
Lowell's three-run homer, his 16th of the year, capped the six-run rally that made it 7-4. That inning also featured two walks, a hit batsman and a wild pitch but only two hits.
"We didn't lose the game, we gave it away," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.
The Red Sox did plenty of hitting after the wild inning as they scored at least 11 runs for the third time in four games and have 65 in their last seven.
RAYS 12, BLUE JAYS 7: At Toronto, Carlos Pena and Ben Zobrist each homered and the Tampa Bay Rays handed Toronto's Roy Halladay his worst loss in more than two years, beating the slumping Blue Jays. Halladay allowed eight runs — seven earned — runs in losing for the third time in five starts against the Rays this season.
TIGERS 10, ANGELS 7: At Anaheim, Calif., Miguel Cabrera homered and drove in five of Detroit's runs and Carlos Guillen added a three-run shot in a matchup of first place teams. Justin Verlander (14-7) allowed four runs and 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings, struck out seven and walked two. The right-hander was working with a 10-run cushion in the sixth when he gave up four runs and four consecutive two-out hits for the AL Central leaders, who ended a two-game skid.
TWINS 2, ORIOLES 1: At Minneapolis, Scott Baker allowed a run and four hits over seven innings Monday night, leading the Minnesota Twins to their fourth straight win. Jason Kubel drove in the go-ahead run and Alexi Casilla tripled and scored on a wild pitch from Baltimore rookie Chris Tillman in the sixth inning.
INDIANS 10, ROYALS 6: At Kansas City, Mo., Travis Hafner and Luis Valbuena each hit three-run homers, powering Cleveland past the hapless Kansas City Royals. Hafner drove in four runs, tacking on an RBI double to sink the Royals even deeper into the AL Central basement. The Royals took a 5-4 lead in the seventh on Yuniesky Betancourt's sacrifice fly off Jeremy Sowers.
MARINERS 3, ATHLETICS 1: At Seattle, Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 625th homer, a two-run drive off Vin Mazzaro, and the Seattle Mariners opened a key 10-game homestand with a 3-1 win over Oakland. Jose Lopez hit a solo homer in the third, his career-high 18th, then was plunked on the hip by a fastball from Mazzaro to open the fifth. With the count 1-1, Mazzaro tried to sneak a fastball past the aging slugger.
National League
PHILLES 6, METS 2: At New York, Ryan Howard's power. Cliff Lee's pitching. The Philadelphia Phillies appear to have all the pieces in place for another World Series run.Howard homered twice and drove in five runs, Lee won his eighth straight start and Philadelphia beat the New York Mets.
Lee (5-0) did not allow an earned run in seven innings, lowering his ERA with the Phillies to 0.68 in five outings since he was acquired in a July 29 trade with Cleveland. His record is 12-9 overall. New York's rotation took a hit after the game: Johan Santana was scratched from Tuesday night's scheduled start in Florida because of discomfort in his pitching elbow.
BREWERS 7, NATIONALS 1: At Washington, Ryan Braun hit a two-run home run to jump-start a six-run sixth inning, and Milwaukee took three of four from the Nationals after being swept by Pittsburgh. The Brewers sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth. Jody Gerut had a two-run single in the inning and also homered in the eighth.
ROCKIES 6, GIANTS 4 (14): At Denver, Ryan Spilborghs hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 14th inning, giving the Colorado Rockies a come-from-behind victory. The Giants had taken a 4-1 lead in the top of the 14th on Eugenio Velez's two-run triple and Juan Uribe's groundout. Spilborghs' homer was the first walk-off grand slam in franchise history. It ended the second-longest Rockies game ever — nearly five hours.