If you are a Red Sox fan, you had to like the long ball on Friday. The bashes lasted into Saturday morning, when Carlos Guillen launched a 3-run homer in the 11th to push the Tigers past the Yankees 9-6.

That puts New York 6 1/2 games back. Boston's magic number is 28.

Other home runs of note included two by David Ortiz and one apiece from Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis (who looks like he is coming out of his slump) in the Red Sox sweep of Chicago.

And there were two more homers to mention:

Aaron Bates, a slugging first baseman drafted last year and now on the Portland Sea Dogs roster, smacked a 3-run home run in the first inning, helping lead Portland to 12-6 win over the Fisher Cats (putting Portland one game ahead of New Hampshire in the standings).

And in Pawtucket, Brandon Moss hit his 16th homer.

Before the Red Sox go to the Bronx Tuesday, they have to finish off the weekend in Chicago. It will not be a cakewalk with the White Sox throwing Mark Buehrle and Javier Vazquez.

The Yankees will be facing Detroit starters Jeremy Bonderman (winless in his last seven starts) and Jair Jurrjens (3rd ML start).

In Friday/Saturday morning's loss, Roger Clemens allowed 6 earned runs in 5 innings. The postive for New York: The next five pitchers gave up no runs and two hits over five innings, before Guillen went deep on Sean Henn.

Two more minor league notes:

In Pawtucket, Jacoby Ellsbury set a franchise record with hits in both games of a doubleheader, giving him a 20-game hit streak.

With Jon Lester set to start in Portland on Monday, there were still tickets available, the last I checked. The game will be on NESN (which was scheduled well before Lester's start was announced).

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