Rangers’ Pavlik Joins Hill in One-Hit Parade Into Record Book

It’s a quirky little record, perhaps as much because it was tied in a baseball season of football-type scores in a hitter-friendly place where home runs are often simply fly balls with a little extra energy.

When the Rangers’ Roger Pavlik held the Tigers to one hit in Texas’ 3-1 victory Saturday in Detroit, he gave teammate Ken Hill part of a record that they can share with Walter Johnson.

Hill had one-hit the Tigers on Friday night, and the successive one-hitters tie an American League mark established by Johnson and Doc Ayers of the Washington Senators Aug. 10-11, 1917.

Ayers got credit for the victory in the second one-hitter, a game that was started by Jim Shaw.

It was also done in 1907.

Part of the credit for Saturday’s one-hitter should go to the Tigers.

“It looked like we were trying to hit everything on the roof,” Manager Buddy Bell said. “Cecil [Fielder] is entitled to that, but not the rest of the guys. I don’t think you can try too hard, but you can think too much or too little. I’m not sure which one we were guilty of today.”

Hill had retired the last 26 Tigers he faced on Friday, and Pavlik set down 14 in a row before Mark Lewis hit a two-out homer in the fifth inning Saturday.

Pavlik (4-0) then retired the final 13 batters he faced.

“It doesn’t matter what stadium you’re in when you get those kinds of performances,” Texas Manager Johnny Oates said. “Good pitching is good pitching wherever you are.”

Pavlik (4-0) struck out seven.

“Almost as nice is--read my lips--no walks,” Oates said. “Back-to-back games with no walks.”

Kevin Elster homered for Texas, which matched the 1976 and 1989 Rangers for the best 30-game start in club history (19-11).

The successive one-hitter feat has been done six times in the National League, most recently June 18-19, 1972, when Houston’s Jerry Reuss and Larry Dierker threw one-hitters against the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets.

Baltimore 10, Milwaukee 5--Brady Anderson led off the home half of the first inning at Baltimore with a home run for the sixth time this season, but for the first time the Orioles won the game.

Anderson’s major league-leading 15th homer sparked a four-run first inning that gave the Orioles the lead for good. Roberto Alomar added a grand slam for Baltimore.

It was Anderson’s fourth homer in his last three games.

Seattle 5, Cleveland 1--Edgar Martinez hit two home runs, giving him 100 for his career, for the Mariners, who won in Seattle and stopped the Indians’ five-game winning streak.

Darren Bragg, called up from the minors earlier in the day, led off the first inning with a home run as the Mariners ended a three-game losing streak.

Martinez hit a solo homer in the first inning and a two-run shot in the sixth, both off Albie Lopez (1-1). He has eight multi-homer games in the majors.

Oakland 5, Kansas City 2--Jason Giambi homered and the Athletics, despite an injury to third baseman Scott Brosius, won at Kansas City to end a four-game losing streak.

Brosius, batting .351 with eight home runs and 21 RBIs, will be out five to six weeks after suffering a broken bone in his right arm when he was hit by a pitch from Mark Gubicza in the fourth inning.

Gubicza (2-4) set the Royals’ lifetime record for strikeouts, fanning four to raise his total to 1,325 and move past Dennis Leonard.

But in six innings, Gubicza also had a season-high five walks, two hit batters, a wild pitch, a throwing error and gave up five hits.

Boston 8-8, Toronto 7-4--Frank Viola, trying to make a comeback, gave up four runs in the first inning of the regularly scheduled game, but the Red Sox almost blew the lead before getting a three-run homer in the eighth inning from Bill Haselman, his first of the year.

Viola, injured two years and a day earlier on the same Fenway Park mound, shut down the Red Sox for the next four innings, leaving after Mo Vaughn’s RBI single in the fifth that gave Boston a 5-3 lead.

In the eighth inning, Haselman ordinarily might have been bunting with runners on first and second bases with a 5-4 lead, but Manager Kevin Kennedy sized up his relief-pitching situation and allowed him to hit away.

The Red Sox used 13 pitchers in the two games, the second a three-inning completion of Friday’s rain-shortened affair.

Boston needed four pitchers to get the last nine outs in the suspended game and six to get the last 11 outs of the regularly scheduled game.

Chicago 11, New York 5--Frank Thomas drove in the tying run during a four-run eighth inning and Harold Baines hit a grand slam in the ninth inning for the White Sox in a victory in New York.

Baines had five RBIs and Chicago ended a four-game losing streak.

Bernie Williams hit a solo homer and Mariano Duncan had two RBIs for the Yankees, whose winning streak ended at five games.

Trailing, 4-3, in the eighth inning, Chicago’s Tony Phillips singled and Ray Durham walked before Thomas singled to center off Jeff Nelson (1-1) to tie the game.

Nelson was replaced by Steve Howe and Baines, pinch hitting for Danny Tartabull, then hit a slow grounder to first baseman Tino Martinez. Martinez threw wide to the plate as Ray Durham scored.

The runners advanced to second and third on the play, and after an intentional walk by Jim Mecir, Dave Martinez hit a pinch-single to score Thomas to make it 6-4.

Darren Lewis’ bunt scored Baines, whose grand slam an inning later eased the way for relief pitcher Matt Karchner (4-0).