AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : With Cooper Hitting, Red Sox Are Winning

Scott Cooper calls April 12 his starting point, and he’s on a ride he hopes won’t end.

Cooper homered and doubled to drive in all of Boston’s runs in a 4-1 victory over the Athletics on Thursday at Oakland.

The loss was the Athletics’ 10th in a row, the longest streak of futility in Oakland in 16 years.

Cooper, who has six homers after hitting nine all last season, has been on a tear since hitting for the cycle April 12 at Kansas City, going 17 for 42 (.405). He has helped carry Boston to a club-record 15 victories in April.

“The night I hit for the cycle was the night I turned things around,” Cooper said. “I just was really able to relax and opened my stance up a little bit. It opened up the whole plate to me. I was able to turn on the inside pitch and reach the outside pitch.”

Boston also got a strong outing from Danny Darwin (4-1), who gave up seven hits, struck out seven and walked none in 6 2/3 innings.

Chicago 5, Cleveland 3--Wilson Alvarez won his 12th consecutive decision and Robin Ventura drove in four runs with two singles for the White Sox at Cleveland.

Chicago won its 13th game, matching the franchise-best April total set last year.

All four runs driven in by Ventura were unearned because of two Cleveland errors.

Alvarez (5-0) is 12-0 in 13 starts since losing to Oakland last Aug. 11.

Rookie Manny Ramirez drove in all three Cleveland runs with a two-run home run in the fourth inning, his sixth of the year and third in as many days, and a single in the sixth.

Kansas City 13, Detroit 4--Consecutive errors by Chad Kreuter and Travis Fryman led to four unearned runs in the fourth inning as the Royals won at Kansas City.

Tim Belcher (0-4) gave up 10 runs--five earned--and 10 hits in four innings. In 21 2/3 innings, he has allowed 19 walks and 38 hits and has an earned-run average of 9.55.

Kevin Appier (2-2) gave up Cecil Fielder’s 426-foot home run in the third inning but raised his record against the Tigers to 8-1.

Texas 1, Toronto 0--Kevin Brown scattered 10 hits over eight innings and induced four groundball double plays as the Rangers made a first-inning run hold up at Arlington, Tex.

Brown (1-4) handed the Blue Jays their first shutout since June 30, a 103-game span. Tom Henke, despite giving up an inning-opening double to Carlos Delgado in the ninth, pitched out of the jam for his first save.

Brown had entered the game with a 10.86 ERA, having given up 58 hits, including seven homers, in 29 innings.

Milwaukee 12, Minnesota 2--John Jaha hit two home runs and Turner Ward homered and drove in three runs to lead the Brewers at Minneapolis.

Milwaukee, which was no-hit by the Twins’ Scott Erickson on Wednesday, ended a 20-inning scoreless drought with a run off Carlos Pulido (0-3) in the third inning on Ward’s RBI double.

Seattle 6, New York 0--Mariner rookies Roger Salkeld and Tim Davis combined on a three-hitter at Seattle and Tino Martinez had three RBIs.

Salkeld (1-0) gave up two hits in 6 2/3 innings for his first major league victory. Davis, who entered the game in the seventh, finished with 2 1/3 innings of one-hit relief.