AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Twins Still Can’t Hit One Witt

Bobby Witt wishes he could pitch against the Minnesota Twins in every game.

Witt scattered nine hits Wednesday night and Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez homered as the Texas Rangers rolled to a 9-1 victory over the Twins at Arlington.

Witt barely missed his eighth career shutout as the Twins put together four singles in the ninth for their lone run.

“I would have loved to have the shutout,” said Witt, who is 14-5 lifetime against the Twins. “It’s been a while since I got that kind of run support. This is a potent offense and it makes you want to do your job. It makes it easy on me.”

Rookie Jose Parra (1-2) took the loss for the Twins, giving up nine hits, two of them homers, and eight runs in four-plus innings.

Texas hit Parra early and often as Witt coasted to his second victory in three decisions since joining the Rangers.

Witt won without a strikeout.

Cleveland 6, Toronto 5--Albert Belle’s homer triggered a three-run sixth inning at Toronto.

Belle sent Giovanni Carrara’s first pitch in the sixth over the wall in left, his 29th of the season, closing Toronto’s lead to 5-4.

After the homer, the Indians loaded the bases off Carrara (1-3) with two walks and a single.

One out later, Kenny Lofton hit a roller up the middle that Roberto Alomar stopped. But second base umpire Durwood Merrill ruled that Alomar’s relay to Tomas Perez at second was late, even though replays showed that the sliding Manny Ramirez was still roughly two feet short of the bag.

Detroit 7, Chicago 5--Lou Whitaker’s three-run pinch homer in the ninth inning lifted the Tigers at Detroit, preventing a sweep of the three-game series.

Roberto Hernandez (2-6), who started the ninth inning seeking his 22nd save, gave up an infield single to Alan Trammell. Milt Cuyler reached on a sacrifice bunt, and Trammell went to third on a throwing error by Robin Ventura, his second and one of four White Sox errors in the game.

After Bobby Higginson popped out, Whitaker took Hernandez to a full count, then drilled a shot off the facing of the second deck in right for his 12th home run.

It was the ninth blown save of the year for Hernandez.

Oakland 2, New York 1--Steve Wojciechowski, making his sixth major league start, gave up four hits in 5 1/3 innings as the Athletics completed a three-game sweep at Oakland.

Wojciechowski, known by teammates as “Wojo,” is tied with 14 others for the longest surname in major league history. His name is pronounced “Wo-ji-COW-ski.”

The Yankees carefully avoided saying his name as they praised Wojciechowski (2-2).

Brent Gates, who extended his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games with two singles, and Eric Helfand had RBI singles in the fourth for the A’s.

Wade Boggs had a pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth, his 2,500th career hit, for the New York run.

Baltimore 7, Seattle 1--Rookie left-hander Rick Krivda pitched six strong innings and Rafael Palmeiro hit his 28th home run as the Orioles beat the Mariners in Seattle.

Krivda (2-2), making his seventh major league start, gave up an RBI single to Edgar Martinez, the AL’s leading hitter, in the first inning, but otherwise dominated the Mariners. Seattle had eight hits off Krivda, who struck out a career-best nine and walked two.

Palmeiro, who has a chance to better his career-best 37 home runs for Texas in 1993, homered off rookie Bob Wolcott (1-1) in the first inning. He also homered in Baltimore’s 2-1 victory Tuesday night.