AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Sharp Martinez Keeps Aging Well for Indians

Dennis Martinez kept his record perfect, yielding only an infield single over six innings Wednesday night as the Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 2-0, at Cleveland in a game twice delayed by rain.

The Rangers, losers of four of their last five, finished with two infield hits--Rusty Greer in the first and Otis Nixon in the ninth--and sent 29 batters to the plate, two over the minimum.

The 40-year-old Martinez (8-0) walked none, struck out two and retired 18 of the 19 batters he faced before the game’s second rain delay ended his night. He lowered his earned run average to 2.37.

Jim Poole pitched two perfect innings, striking out five of the six he faced, and Jose Mesa got three outs for his 21st save in as many chances.

The 8-0 start is the best in Martinez’s career, and he has won his last nine decisions dating to last season, the longest current winning streak in baseball.

The Indians, owners of baseball’s best record at 44-19, won for the eighth time in 10 games and maintained their 11-game lead over Kansas City in the AL Central.

The game was interrupted by a thunderstorm for 2 hours 6 minutes in the middle of the third inning, and showers added another 49-minute delay after the sixth. The Jacobs Field lights were knocked out briefly during the first delay.

Chicago 11, New York 5--John Kruk hit a first-inning grand slam after rookie Brian Boehringer walked the first four batters and Robin Ventura added a three-run homer in the fourth as the White Sox salvaged one win in the three-game series at Chicago.

Boehringer (0-2), recalled from the minors before the game, walked Lance Johnson, Tim Raines, Frank Thomas and Ventura, forcing in a run.

He then went to 3-2 on Kruk before the designated hitter drove a pitch over the fence in right-center for his second homer of the season and fourth grand slam. Kruk was two for four and has 25 hits in his last 55 at-bats.

Kansas City 3, Boston 2--Edgar Caceres’ sacrifice fly after three walks in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Royals the win before one of the smallest crowds ever at Kauffman Stadium as fans ignored a special promotion.

Frankie Rodriguez (0-2) walked the first two batters of the ninth. Derek Lilliquist relieved before Tom Goodwin advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Vince Coleman was intentionally walked before Caceres hit a fly ball to medium left to score Brent Mayne.

Fans were offered reduced prices and the opportunity to sit anywhere they liked, but only 7,511 showed. It was the smallest crowd since a make-up game against Milwaukee drew 2,527 in 1985.

Minnesota 8, Baltimore 2--Mike Trombley pitched six solid innings to earn his first victory in more than a year as the Twins won their second series of the season with the victory at Baltimore.

Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Leius and Pat Meares each had two RBIs for Minnesota, which won the last two games of the three-game set. The Twins’ only other series victory came last month, when they took two of three from Oakland.

Milwaukee 8, Oakland 2--Darryl Hamilton tripled twice and doubled, and B.J. Surhoff homered for the second consecutive game as the Brewers battered all-star pitcher Steve Ontiveros at Oakland.

Ontiveros allowed six runs and nine hits over 6 1/3 innings as his ERA rose from 2.65 to 3.10. He had won his previous three decisions and had allowed only four earned runs in his previous 26 innings.

Detroit 8, Seattle 6--The Tigers overcame two home runs and five RBIs from Tino Martinez of the Mariners to sweep the three-game series at Detroit.

Martinez went five for five.