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BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Orioles seem to bring out the best in Mookie Betts.Betts homered twice and drove in five runs, a performance that almost single-handedly carried the Boston Red Sox to a 5-3 victory Tuesday night.Bostons cleanup hitter launched a three-run drive in the fifth inning and added a tiebreaking two-run shot in the seventh. Betts is batting .426 with 12 homers and 18 RBI in 11 games against the Orioles this season.Exactly one-quarter of his 28 home runs this season have come in Baltimore, where the left-field foul line is a mere 333 feet from the plate.He feels comfortable in this ballpark and obviously sees the ball well, Boston manager John Farrell said.Maybe thats the reason for his success. Maybe not.Im going to continue to say I dont know why, Betts said. Im just trying to put good swings on it and enjoy it.Betts had three homers and eight RBI in a 16-2 win over Arizona on Sunday, so its not as if hes only picking on the Orioles.Im sure there are some numbers to dictate that its more us, manager Buck Showalter said, but hes been having that type of year against most everybody.The victory lifted Boston into a tie with Baltimore in the AL East, one game behind division-leading Toronto.We all are well aware of what is at stake, where we are in the standings and who is around us, Farrell said.The Red Sox were in first place on July 21, then lost 13 of 20 before their current streak of five wins in row.Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez had a no-hitter before leaving in the fifth inning with left hamstring tightness. The Red Sox hope they caught it early enough to keep the lefty in the rotation without missing a turn.Matt Barnes kept the Orioles hitless until Steve Pearce reached on a dribbler that got past the mound with one out in the seventh.Baltimore ended up batting around and tying the game at 3. After Matt Wieters hit a two-run single, Brad Ziegler (1-3) walked Adam Jones with the bases loaded before striking out Jonathan Schoop.The deadlock didnt last long. David Ortiz led off the eighth with a single against Brad Brach (7-2) and Betts lined an 0-1 pitch into the front row of seats beyond the left-field wall.Craig Kimbrel, the sixth Boston pitcher, worked a perfect ninth for his 21st save.Rodriguez and Yovani Gallardo were locked in a scoreless duel until the fifth. After Andrew Benintendi hit a leadoff double and Xander Bogaerts drew a one-out walk, Gallardo struck out Ortiz with a 2-2 fastball. Betts hit the next pitch over the left-field wall.Gallardo lasted five innings, surviving a line shot off his right forearm in the fifth.It got me pretty good, he said. Its a little stiff, but Ill be all right.PAPELBON RUMORFarrell confirmed that the team has had discussions with reliever Jonathan Papelbon, who was recently released by Washington.TRAINERS ROOMOrioles: Showalter expects reliever Darren ODay (rotator cuff strain) to spend the minimum time on the DL and return on Aug. 27. ... LHP T.J. McFarland (inflamed left knee) gave up four hits and three runs in 1/3 inning for Class A Frederick in his first rehab game.UP NEXTRed Sox: LHP David Price (10-8. 4.29 ERA) starts in the finale of the series Wednesday night. Price has gone at least eight innings in eight of his 25 starts.Orioles: After the game, Showalter announced that RHP Dylan Bundy (6-3, 2.93) would start Wednesday in place of RHP Chris Tillman, whos experiencing shoulder discomfort and was moved back to Saturday vs. Houston. Richie James Jersey . -- The plastic that was taped across the lockers in Oaklands clubhouse came down and the champagne that was on ice went back into the cooler. Custom Nick Bosa Jersey . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. http://www.custom49ersjersey.com/custom-terry-kirby-jersey-large-1868d.html . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Kyle Juszczyk Jersey . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. Jim Plunkett Jersey . Siddikur, whose previous win on the circuit came in Brunei three years ago, finished his bogey-free round with a birdie on the 18th for a total of 17-under 199. Indias Shiv Chowrasia, who has finished runner-up in this tournament twice, was in second place after a 66. RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Paralympic Games have hit the big time.Theres serious money for a few through performance and sponsorships, and wily ways to get an edge. There are also heated debates about the intricate classification system, levels of impairment and whether athletes are placed in the wrong classes.If the classification is too high, an athlete may not be able to compete fairly; too low and the athlete could gain an unfair advantage.And then, of course, theres doping.When something is competitive, there are revenues that are linked with that, Peter Van de Vliet, the medical and scientific director of the International Paralympic Committee, told The Associated Press. We have athletes with professional managers. We have athletes who make their living out of the sport. Going home with a medal can make a whole lot of difference in certain countries, in certain cultures.About 4,350 athletes are in Rios Paralympics, each with unique differences that have to be classified. Lines have to be drawn to group similar impairments, or impairments that yield similar results.Thats when the disputes begin.Tanni Grey-Thompson, an 11-time British Paralympic gold medalist, has been critical of incorrect classification with athletes trying to get an advantage by misrepresenting an impairment, which she has said amounts to cheating.An example is American swimmer Victoria Arlen, who won a gold medal and three silvers in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. But the IPC disqualified her a year later, ruling her paralysis from the waist down was not permanent.Earlier year this she began to walk again without assistance.There are other ways of getting an edge:BOOSTING: This is a method for inducing autonomic dysreflexia , which boosts blood pressure and blood flow -- and hence performance. It is often used by athletes with upper spinal cord injuries. The IPC has outlawed the practice and monitors systolic blood pressure over 160.DOPING: Four athletes tested positive during the London Paralympics four years ago. The IPC said about two dozen more were detected in the days leading up to the games and were banned. The practice occurs mostly in powerlifting. The IPC is now storing samples for re-testing, following the lead of the IOC, and will do 1,500 blood and urine tests in Rio.INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY: In the most famous case, the 2000 Spanish basketball team was forced to return a gold medal when it was discovered that team members did not have intellectual disabilities.There are 10 impairment groups -- physical, visual and intellectual. But the 22 Paralympic sports adjust the groups to suit their sport, swelling the classifications to hundreds. Athletes complain theyre not always fair.Take the case of American Allison Jones, an eight-time Paralympic medalist in cycling and skiing. She was born without a right femur (leg), but competes in cycling against women with two legs, but who have neuromuscular diseases.Its hard for a lot of my family and friends to watch me compete against girls with two legs, she said. They dont get it. They dont see why thats fair. But the other girls have to have such neuromuscular issues -- lower body, upper body -- that puts them in my classification.She agrees there must be classes, but can dispute the logic or science behind it.ddddddddddddAt the end of the day youre stuck with whatever they classify you, she said. So at that point you either step up, or bow out.The Paralympics are more than a benign version of the Olympics. In fact, a few performances are better than the Olympics.The top four finishers in the mens 1,500 on Sunday -- in the T13 class for visually impaired -- all had better times than the Olympic champion in Rio, American Matthew Centrowitz. Abdellatif Baka of Algeria won in 3 minutes, 48.28 seconds. Centrowitz ran 3:50.00 in an admittedly slow, tactical race.German amputee long-jumper Marcus Rehm, who jumps with a carbon fiber blade, holds the Paralympic world record of 8.40 meters. This is better than the winning Olympic jump of American Jeff Henderson, at 8.38.Van de Vliet, the IPC medical director, said the largest classification disputes involve athletes with loss of function -- spinal cord injuries, spina bifida and cerebral palsy -- rather than physical impairment like missing limbs of physical deformities.No matter where a classification line is drawn, athletes nearest the top border are likely to benefit most. Teams are even known to recruit athletes in that range, and often younger athletes.If you walk in and youre missing your leg, youre missing your leg, Van de Vliet said. People tend to question this way less than one who comes in and has a problem with coordination impairment, like cerebral palsy.Television is starting to drive the coverage and revenue.British broadcaster Channel 4 is telecasting non-stop daily live coverage. Dan Brooke, the head of marketing, declined to say how much the network paid for the rights, but called it a successful commercial operation. We make money out of it.Brooke expected ratings to fall in Rio compared to the 2012 London Games, but he got a surprise.Weve been amazed to find the audiences for young people are up very slightly vs. London, he said.Gareth A. Davies, who covers the sport for Britains Daily Telegraph and Channel 4, said big money is changing the landscape with countries like China, Britain and Ukraine pouring more resources into training.Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias has 11 sponsorships, and that could increase as he adds to the 10 gold medals he won in the last two Paralympics. Bladerunner Marlou van Rhijn has become a marketing giant in the Netherlands, the way Oscar Pistorius was in South Africa.The big sports manufacturers want to associate themselves with these stories, Davies told AP. They are about the triumph of the human spirit. So there is marketability here. Not for all of them, but for a clutch of them.Davies said the classification system is basically fair.Youll never get away from these competitive athletes trying to get an advantage to be at the top of their classification, or get into the classification below themselves, he said. There are advantages that able-bodied athletes have, too, in certain events, and there are advantages that disabled people have in certain events.---Stephen Wade on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/stephen-wade ' ' '