Boston Red Sox defeat Minnesota Twins, 11-7

MINNEAPOLIS -- To a roll call that already included Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, you can now add Venezuela to the list of Spanish-speaking places that have done their part to produce runs for the Red Sox this year.

Needless to say, you won't get much sympathy in these parts for one Larry Krueger, the San Francisco sports-talk show host who caused an uproar after last week berating the Giants for their ''Caribbean brain-dead hitters hacking at slop ...

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Iron Range, the charming lakes (there are actually 11,842, not 10,000 as the slogan suggests), the ''Minnesota nice" quality to the locals. Terry Francona seemed to have missed all of that during the weekend, his view concealed by a Teflon-coated cloud and his experience tainted by his unsettling experience underneath it.

''You know what?" Francona said yesterday afternoon, in the wake of an 11-7 win that gave the Red Sox one victory in this three-gam...