AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Gil Puts Bat, Glove in Place for Rangers

Texas shortstop Benji Gil is back in the big leagues because he has learned the relationship between a bat and a glove.

It’s that they aren’t related. You can’t take your problems with the bat onto the field, but for a while, he wasn’t so sure.

Gil drove in three runs Friday night after striking out in his first two at-bats and made a spectacular diving play in the seventh inning of the Rangers’ 7-3 victory in Toronto.

“I was in triple-A last year because I couldn’t separate the offense from the defense,” said Gil, who had a two-run double in the sixth inning and added an RBI single in the seventh. “Now I can do that and separate one at-bat from another--that’s one way to play well every day.”

The defensive play came with two outs and runners on first and third bases when Gil dove for John Olerud’s sharp grounder up the middle and threw him out at first.

There can be no higher praise than that offered by Bob Tewksbury, the Rangers’ winning pitcher.

“I played with the best defensive shortstop in baseball, and Ozzie never made a play better than that,” said Tewksbury (5-2), who shared the field with Ozzie Smith while a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I don’t think Benji even saw the ball. He caught it blindly--that’s just instinct. It was a big play because they were getting back in the game.”

The score was 6-3 at the time.

Minnesota 10, Seattle 1--Kirby Puckett hit a grand slam and Pat Meares had a two-run homer off Randy Johnson as the Twins won at Seattle.

Brad Radke (3-6) gave up only four hits in seven innings and the Twins won their second game in a row for only the second time this season. Johnson (6-1) lost for the first time since July 27, 1994.

It was the Mariners’ fifth loss in a row, a season high.

The Twins, who have baseball’s worst record at 14-33 and trail Cleveland by 20 games in the AL Central, treated Johnson like a batting practice pitcher. Johnson, the major-league strikeout leader the past three seasons, had eight strikeouts, but not much else. In six innings, he gave up eight earned runs on nine hits and four walks.

Kansas City 3, Oakland 1--The Royals overcame 8 2/3 shutout innings and 15 strikeouts by Todd Stottlemyre and beat the Athletics in Oakland when two runs scored on a throwing error in the 13th inning.

Stottlemyre was one out away from a shutout when Tom Goodwin hit his first major league homer to tie the game at 1-1.

With runners on second and third with one out in the 13th, Mark McGwire fielded a sharp grounder by Brent Mayne and threw the ball over the head of catcher Terry Steinbach, allowing two runs to score.

Detroit 5, Baltimore 3--Lou Whitaker and Cecil Fielder hit first-inning home runs off Ben McDonald (2-4), who said he was wild because he was too rested, having had six days off.

The Tigers sent 10 batters to the plate in the first against McDonald to take a 4-0 lead. Whitaker homered off the facing of the upper deck in right field, his third home run of the season. After a walk to Travis Fryman, Fielder hit his 15th home run of the year.

After two walks and a single, McDonald walked Ron Tingley to force in the fourth run.

New York 4, Cleveland 2--Bernie Williams’ third hit, a bases-loaded single in the ninth inning, drove in the tie-breaking run as the Yankees won in Cleveland and cooled off the Indians.

Milwaukee 4, Boston 3--Greg Vaughn broke a 3-for-29 slump with a tie-breaking single in the sixth inning as the Brewers won in Boston against Erik Hanson (6-1).

Hanson retired 12 of 13 batters between the second and sixth innings, but singles by Kevin Seitzer and John Jaha, who had three hits, set the stage for Vaughn’s line single to center that drove in the go-ahead run.