American League Roundup : Kansas City’s Gordon Is a Loser Again, 10-4

Tom Gordon, once the solid favorite for rookie of the year honors, has hit the wall.

The Kansas City Royals’ pitcher was knocked out in the third inning of Thursday night’s game at Kansas City and took the loss in a 10-4 victory for the Texas Rangers. It was Gordon’s fourth defeat in his last five starts, as the Royals dropped 3 1/2 games behind the idle Oakland Athletics in the American League West.

Fred Manrique and Juan Gonzalez each drove in two runs for the Rangers, who had 16 hits.

Texas pitcher Mike Jeffcoat (8-5) gave up three runs and seven hits in eight innings.

Gordon (16-8) struck out Manrique to start the game, then walked two batters and surrendered consecutive run-scoring singles to Ruben Sierra, Julio Franco and Pete Incaviglia.

Manrique, Palmeiro and Baines hit successive singles with two out in the second for a 4-0 lead.

Franco singled to open the third, and Luis Aquino relieved Gordon. With one out, Mike Stanley singled Franco to third and Gonzalez singled for a 5-0 lead. After a wild pitch, Manrique delivered a two-run single and Palmeiro’s RBI double made it 8-0.

Incaviglia and Stanley walked in the fourth and Incaviglia scored on a double by Gonzalez. In the sixth, Incaviglia singled with two out and scored on Stanley’s double.

Jeffcoat lost his shutout in the bottom of the sixth when Kevin Seitzer walked and pinch-runner Rey Palacios scored on Kurt Stillwell’s double.

Minnesota 2, Toronto 0--Jeff Reardon became the first reliever with five consecutive 30-save seasons as the Twins won at Minneapolis.

Mark Guthrie allowed five hits in 7 1/3 innings, capping a series in which the Blue Jays faced three Twins rookies but lost a half-game from their lead in the East. Reardon followed with 1 2/3 hitless innings.

Guthrie (2-1) followed impressive performances by David West and Kevin Tapani. The three allowed the Blue Jays 17 hits and three runs.

Toronto, which lost three in a row for the first time since June 30-July 2, lead second-place Baltimore by 1 1/2 games.

Cleveland 4, Detroit 0--Rod Nichols struck out a career-high 10 in 7 2/3 innings at Cleveland.

The Indians and Tigers, the two lowest-scoring teams in the American League, lived up to their reputation in the three-game series by scoring a total of nine runs.