Monday's Sports in Brief

By The Associated Press

Here's a look at Monday's sports in brief around the country.

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox brushed aside the 100-win Angels in four games, dismissing their best-in-baseball regular season as last month’s news.

When it turns to October, no one dominates like Boston.

Moments after the Angels botched a suicide squeeze, Jason Bay slid headfirst into home plate to score on Jed Lowrie’s two-out single in the ninth inning. The defending World Series champions beat Los Angeles 3-2 Monday night in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series and advanced to play for the AL pennant for the fourth time in six seasons.

The wild-card Red Sox, who also won it all in 2004, will have a chance at a third title in five years if they can get past the Rays in the best-of-seven AL championship series that starts Friday night at Tampa Bay. Boston is 31-16 in October since the turn of the century, and both World Series runs began with a playoff sweep of the Angels.

Tampa Bay beat out Boston by two games in the AL East this season. The teams also beat each other up during a bench-clearing brawl at Fenway Park in June — the Rays and Red Sox have often scrapped over the years.

CHICAGO (AP) — B.J. Upton and these Tampa Bay Rays are headed home — to get ready for the American League championship series.

Worst in the majors last year, the Rays will play for a spot in the World Series after finishing off the Chicago White Sox 6-2 Monday in Game 4 of the AL playoffs.

Ray-markable!

Upton homered twice, Andy Sonnanstine pitched a solid 5 2-3 innings and manager Joe Maddon’s surprising Rays won 3-1 in the best-of-five series — their first trip to the postseason. Next up, the Boston Red Sox or the Los Angeles Angels starting Friday.

“We feel like we belong and it’s showing right now,” Upton said.

After staving off elimination several times and winning a tiebreaker for the AL Central title, the White Sox were finally knocked out.

NFL

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Saints committed so many blunders, not even Reggie Bush’s record-tying two punt returns for touchdowns could make up for them in a 30-27 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night.

Gus Frerotte passed for 222 yards and a game-tying touchdown to Bernard Berrian with 7:10 to play, and Ryan Longwell’s 30-yard field goal with 13 seconds left gave the Vikings the comeback win.

Longwell’s game-winning kick was set up by a pass interference call on a long throw to Berrian, who was run into before the ball came down despite being double-covered. That was only the latest gaffe by New Orleans.

Martin Gramatica, who had a field goal blocked and returned 59 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter, missed a 46-yarder that could have given the Saints (2-3) a lead with two minutes to go.

Soon after, Minnesota (2-3) was celebrating Longwell’s winning kick.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — An unapologetic Plaxico Burress rejoined the New York Giants on Monday, noting he didn’t lose any sleep after the Super Bowl champions suspended him for a game.

Burress missed a team meeting two weeks ago without bothering to telephone the Giants.

The receiver who caught the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl attributed his absence on Sept. 22 to a family emergency, which he described as having to take his son to school.

“It was just a situation I had to deal with that morning, and I made the right decision,” Burress said during a conference call that lasted about 20 minutes. “I don’t have any regrets about the decision I made at all.”

Burress said family would still come first next time, but that he would make sure he made a telephone call to let the Giants know about the problem.