Former Yankees manager tops Red Sox 9-6

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP)—Joe Torre got another win over the Boston Red Sox. This one meant little.

His Los Angeles Dodgers rallied for seven runs in the ninth inning Thursday for a 9-6 win over Boston.

But this was just spring training, far from the intense Yankees-Red Sox games Torre saw during 12 seasons managing New York.

“By the time the end of the game comes, the people who (usually) do the damage aren’t the ones that are going to be on the field,” Torre said. “It’s still nice to win, especially with a young club that we have. I think it’s more important to win as a young club in spring training than it is on a club that’s had a lot of success.”

He led the Yankees to four World Series titles from 1996-2000, but none since. After the Yankees offered only a one-year contract last October, he left and signed with the Dodgers.

Thursday’s key players are unlikely to make opening-day roster. Dodgers pinch-hitter Luke May hit a three-run homer that tied the game 5-5 and Jason Repko, who missed last season with two torn hamstring tendons sustained in spring training, hit a grand slam.

“He’s the type of player that can really help a ballclub because he’s that guy that comes off the bench and gives you a little shot of adrenaline,” Torre said. “Probably his goal for the spring is to let people know who he is and he certainly has done that the right way because he’s just gone after it. If we have to say goodbye to him, we’re certainly not going to forget him.”

Dodgers starter Derek Lowe, a star in Boston’s 2004 World Series clincher at St. Louis, struggled against his former team.

He allowed five runs, six hits with two walks in three innings. In his other start of spring training, he pitched two scoreless innings against the New York Mets.

“Any time in spring training, you don’t really want to pitch God-awful like I did today,” he said.

Boston’s Tim Wakefield allowed one hit in three shutout innings in his second spring-training start.

“I feel good enough that I could have gone probably one more (inning),” Wakefield said. “It’s just a matter of getting my pitch count to where I want it to be.”

Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury was hitless in his first nine at-bats of spring training before a ground-rule double in the second.

Notes

Boston CF Coco Crisp, sidelined for several days with a groin injury, was scheduled for a root canal and missed Thursday’s game. … Los Angeles LF Juan Pierre got his fourth stolen base of spring training after leading off the game with a single.