AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Tewksbury Comes Back Strong for Rangers

Bob Tewksbury, in his first start since a rib injury sidelined him July 23, held the Royals to seven hits through six innings Saturday night as the Texas Rangers romped, 10-3, at Kansas City.

Every Texas starter had at least one hit. Mickey Tettleton, who homered, Craig Worthington and Benji Gil each had two RBIs.

The Rangers ended a two-game losing streak and pulled to within 7 1/2 games of the Angels in the AL West.

Tewksbury (8-4) had been on the disabled list because of a stress fracture in his left rib cage and was activated Friday night. Handed an 8-1 lead after three innings, he gave up three runs, struck out one and issued only one walk.

“I wanted to finish, but I did get a little tired,” he said. “I guess my stamina isn’t quite there yet.”

Cleveland 6, Detroit 2--Charles Nagy struck out a career-high 12 batters and Eddie Murray stole home as the Indians won their third game in a row at Cleveland.

Detroit has lost 11 of 12 games at Jacobs Field since it opened last year.

Murray stole home in the fifth inning at the front end of a double steal that also involved another unlikely thief, Paul Sorrento. Sorrento broke for second and drew a throw, then held up momentarily while Murray beat the return throw to the plate. It was Murray’s fifth steal of the year, Sorrento’s first.

Nagy (11-5) struck out at least one batter in each of the first seven innings, including three while runners were on third base with less than two outs.

Milwaukee 7, Minnesota 6--Pinch-hitter Dave Nilsson singled home the winning run with two outs in the 10th inning as the Brewers extended their winning streak to four games at Milwaukee.

The Brewers, who blew a 6-2 lead in the ninth, remained 1 1/2 games behind Texas for the wild-card lead.

John Jaha singled to center to open the Milwaukee 10th and advanced on a wild pitch by reliever Dave Stevens (3-3).

Jaha went to third on a groundout by Jeff Cirillo and held there when Matt Mieske bounced back to Stevens for the second out. Nilsson, batting for catcher Joe Oliver, lined a single to center.

Oakland 11, Boston 4--Stan Javier had three RBIs at Oakland, and the Athletics used a six-run third inning to hand the Red Sox their first back-to-back losses in a month.

Craig Paquette and Eric Helfand each had two RBIs for the A’s, who have won eight of 11. Scott Brosius added a solo homer, his 17th and his fourth in three games.

Javier and Rickey Henderson each had three hits and every Oakland starter had at least one hit.

Todd Stottlemyre (12-5) gave up four runs and nine hits in seven innings, striking out nine to increase his season total to 156.

Seattle 7, New York 0--Randy Johnson pitched a three-hitter at Seattle for his third shutout of the season and the Mariners sent the Yankees to their eighth loss in a row.

Johnson (13-2) held the Yankees on three singles and tied the Dodgers’ Hideo Nomo for most shutouts. Johnson struck out seven, extending his major league-leading total to 229 in his third three-hitter of the season.

Former Yankees Jay Buhner and Mike Blowers homered on consecutive pitches in the fourth inning.

Toronto 3, Chicago 2--Shawn Green homered to tie the game and Paul Molitor hit a broken-bat single to win it in the ninth inning as the Blue Jays rallied past Roberto Hernandez and the White Sox at Toronto.

With the Blue Jays trailing, 2-1, with one out, Green hit his 10th homer, off Hernandez (2-7), who blew his 10th save in 32 chances.

Sandy Martinez then lined a single off the body of Hernandez and went to second when Hernandez threw wildly to first.

Tomas Perez struck out and Devon White walked before Molitor, who went four for four, hit a blooper over the head of shortstop Ozzie Guillen to score Martinez.

The blown save was the second in three days for Hernandez.