AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Domes Day for Rangers and Red Sox

Less than six weeks after Boston scored 22 runs in a drubbing of Kansas City, the Red Sox learned how it feels.

The Texas Rangers, who also got pounded under the cover of a dome, could commiserate.

It feels pretty bad, actually.

“Nobody got hurt, so that’s one good thing,” Manager Butch Hobson said Friday at the Metrodome in Minneapolis after the Minnesota Twins got 22 hits, including a club-record eight in a row in an 11-run fifth inning, and beat the Red Sox, 21-2.

“They were hitting everything we threw up there,” Hobson said.

Texas Manager Kevin Kennedy had to feel pretty much the same after his Rangers were blasted, 19-2, by the Seattle Mariners, who got 20 hits at the Kingdome.

In Minneapolis, there were plenty of heroes for the Twins. As usual, Kirby Puckett was among them.

“I feel like every time I go up to the plate I’m going to get a hit,” said Puckett, who had three of them and a career-high seven RBIs to help the Twins win their sixth in a row. “I feel if I get a good pitch I’m going to get a hit. But I’m just the same old Kirby.”

Not quite. The same old Kirby was 0 for 16 against Boston reliever Todd Frohwirth. Puckett, who has seven hits in his last eight at-bats, hit a three-run homer against Frohwirth to spark the Twins’ barrage in the fifth inning.

“I can’t believe I finally got a hit off him,” said Puckett, whose seven RBIs were the most for the Twins since Randy Bush had eight against Texas in 1989.

Minnesota also set club records for RBIs (21) and largest winning margin (19 runs) and tied a record by sending 16 men to the plate in the fifth.

Carlos Pulido (2-3) made a last-minute start in place of Scott Erickson.

The Twins raked five Boston pitchers, and the most effective Boston pitcher was the sixth, reserve outfielder Andy Tomberlin, who held Minnesota to no runs and one hit in the seventh and eighth innings.

In Seattle, Edgar Martinez hit one of the Mariners’ five homers and had a career-high five RBI as they set a team record for runs.

Martinez capped Seattle’s record outburst with a two-run homer in the seventh inning. He also had an RBI single in the first and a two-run double in the fourth.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his major-league leading 18th homer, a two-run shot in the first inning, to start the rout. The homer was Griffey’s 11th this month and the 150th of his career. Griffey has homered in six of the last nine games.

Tino Martinez added a two-run shot for Seattle, Reggie Jefferson had a three-run homer and Torey Lovullo hit one with the bases empty.

Toronto 2, Cleveland 0--Pat Hentgen’s pitching and Joe Carter’s hitting enabled the host Blue Jays to end Cleveland’s eight-game winning streak and improve their record to 20-20.

Carter, who leads the majors in runs batted in with 51, drove in the two runs with his 13th home run after a two-out double by Paul Molitor in the first inning.

Hentgen (6-3) gave up just four hits, struck out eight and walked one in pitching his second shutout this month. He had to be sharp because the Indians’ Charles Nagy (3-3) was brilliant after the first inning. He went the distance, striking out nine.

New York 5, Baltimore 1--On a night when many American League hitters were on a rampage, Jim Abbott turned in another sparkling pitching performance at New York.

Abbott (5-2) held the Orioles to six hits in seven plus innings and enabled the Yankees to extend their lead in the East to 1 1/2 games over Boston.

Randy Velarde was the star as the Yankees scored all their runs in the fourth inning. Velarde hit his first home run of the season, a three-run blast.

The Yankees’ Paul O’Neill walked twice and singled twice to raise his major league-leading average to an amazing .465.

Detroit 10, Milwaukee 4--Tony Phillips and Lou Whitaker put on a hitting clinic at Detroit to send the Brewers down to their ninth defeat in a row.

The top two guys in the batting order delivered a one-two punch. Between them they had eight hits in nine at-bats, scored six runs and drove in five runs.

Phillips, the lead-off hitter, made the only out. But he had a double and his fifth home run, scored four runs and drove in two.

Whitaker hit his eighth home run and was four for four.

John Doherty (5-3) got the victory.

Chicago 13, Oakland 6--Darrin Jackson had four hits, including his sixth home run, and drove in five runs to lead the White Sox rout of the Athletics. The White Sox scored eight runs in the second to make it easy for Alex Fernandez (4-5), who gave up two hits in seven innings.