Olerud’s Double Beginning of End for Rangers

A lot of zeros were erased when John Olerud doubled home two runs in the sixth inning for Toronto on Thursday night in Arlington, Texas.

It broke open a scoreless game.

It ended Ken Hill’s shutout string at 19 innings.

It started the Blue Jays toward a 5-2 victory that dealt the Rangers their first loss to an AL East team at home after 11 victories.

Olerud had singled in the second inning to break Hill’s streak of consecutive batters retired at 31.

“I’m not concerned about records,” Hill said. “Records are not going to win pennants. That’s what we’re here for. I had good stuff, but I was all over the place. That one inning I got a couple of pitches up and they hit the ball hard. That was the game right there.”

Paul Quantrill (1-4) turned in his first solid start of the season and earned his first victory for the Blue Jays, holding Texas to five hits and one run in 5 1/3 innings. Quantrill, an off-season trade acquisition from the Philadelphia Phillies, had an 8.68 earned-run average in his first six starts.

“It was a big step for me,” Quantrill said. “The way I’ve been pitching, I really needed a solid outing and I feel that I pulled it off tonight.”

The Rangers’ seven-game winning streak against Toronto ended.

Joe Carter and Ed Sprague singled to lead off the sixth, and Olerud, who had one RBI in his previous 12 games, knocked in both runners with his double to the right-field corner. Toronto padded its lead to 3-0 later in the inning when Olerud scored on Hill’s wild pitch.

Baltimore 6, Chicago 4--Cal Ripken, in an 0-for-16 slump, blooped a bases-loaded single to key a five-run first inning for the Orioles, who then hung on to win in Chicago.

Mike Mussina (5-2) pitched five innings, giving up five hits for the victory on a rainy night at Comiskey Park.

Baltimore batted around in the first to knock out Wilson Alvarez (2-3) and match its run total of the previous three games.

Milwaukee 17, Boston 2--John Jaha singled home two runs, Matt Mieske brought one in with a sacrifice fly, Pat Listach singled home a run and Mike Metheny brought in two with a hit, all in the first inning against the Red Sox’s Aaron Sele (1-3) at Milwaukee.

The Brewers pounded out 17 hits and also got 10 walks in pounding Boston.

Detroit 4, New York 2--Cecil Fielder homered twice and Travis Fryman hit a two-run shot off Jimmy Key (1-4) in New York as the Tigers halted a six-game losing streak. It was their third victory in the last 21 games.

Fielder connected for solo homers in the second and sixth innings. His first ended a 10-game homerless span.