AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Texas’ Worthington Is an Instant Success

Craig Worthington had little time for introductions Thursday night. Faster than he could catch a flight, he found himself starting for a team that is fighting for a playoff spot.

Then he made an even quicker impression on his new teammates, the Texas Rangers, by hitting a 10th-inning homer to beat White Sox, 2-1, at Chicago.

“You’re playing in Indy one day, you get a call and they say you are traded, you get called up and you’re in a pennant race and then you win a game. It’s all I could ask for,” Worthington said.

Worthington was traded to the Rangers from Cincinnati on Wednesday and then called up from Triple-A Indianapolis before Thursday’s game and given the start at third base.

“This really breaks the ice. I wanted to go out and not mess anything up because they are in a pennant race,” Worthington said.

The victory enabled the Rangers to stay ahead in the race for the American League’s wild card race.

Worthington drove a 396-foot homer to straightaway center off reliever Matt Karchner (1-1).

Karchner came on to pitch the 10th in relief of White Sox starter Dave Righetti, who gave up only five hits in nine innings, his longest stint since Aug. 15, 1983. Righetti, 36, dueled Texas’ Roger Pavlik, who gave up four hits in 8 1/3 innings.

Milwaukee 7, Cleveland 3-- Backed by three home runs, rookie Jamie McAndrew pitched eight-plus strong innings for his first major league win as the Brewers beat the Indians at Cleveland.

Dave Nilsson, Jose Valentin and John Jaha homered for the Brewers, who kept themselves in the thick of the AL wild card race but remained 16 games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland. The Indians’ magic number for clinching the division over Milwaukee held at 27.

McAndrew (1-2) gave up two runs on seven hits, struck out four and walked one.

The right-hander, whose father, Jim, pitched for the New York Mets and San Diego Padres, missed all of 1994 because of rotator cuff surgery and started this season in the Brewers’ farm system before being called up July 15.

Kansas City 3, Baltimore 2-- Pinch-hitter Gary Gaetti led off the 10th inning with a home run, as the Royals handed the Orioles their 14th loss in 18 games at Baltimore.

Former Oriole Gregg Olson (1-0), who pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, earned his first major league victory since June 22, 1992, against the Yankees.

Toronto 3, Detroit 0--Al Leiter gave up only three hits in eight innings as the Blue Jays beat the Tigers at Detroit to move out of last place in the AL East.

Toronto moved a half-game ahead of Detroit into fourth place. Except for a one-day tie with the Tigers on Aug. 11, it’s the first time the two-time World Series champion Blue Jays have been out of last place.

Oakland 3, Seattle 2--Consecutive throwing errors by Seattle third baseman Mike Blowers enabled two runs to score in the bottom of the ninth at Oakland.

With one out, Blowers backhanded a smash by Craig Paquette, but threw it past first baseman Tino Martinez. The next batter, Stan Javier, hit a ball to Blowers’ left, and he again threw it past Martinez, enabling Paquette to score and Javier to reach third.

With two out, Scott Brosius lined a single off Norm Charlton (2-6) to drive in the winning run.