No Help Wanted by Nagy

Obviously Mike Hargrove wasn’t a pitcher, and you have to wonder if, even as a manager, he really understands the craft.

“In this day and age, complete games are a meaningless stat,” Hargrove, Cleveland’s boss, said.

Don’t tell that to Charles Nagy or, for that matter, to any manager with a beleaguered bullpen. Meaningless stat?

“Not to me. Getting a complete game means a lot to me,” said Nagy (6-1), who gave up seven hits and struck out seven Tuesday night in pitching the Indians to a 5-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Cleveland. It was his third victory in a row and first complete game since Sept. 13.

“A guy goes out to the mound with the intention of getting every batter out. That’s the mentality you have to have,” Nagy said. “Getting all of the outs in a game is very satisfying. As a starting pitcher, you know you have done your job and you feel great.”

Nagy joined Jack McDowell as the only Cleveland pitchers with a complete game this season.

Nagy, who is 24-7 since August 1994, got home run support from Manny Ramirez, Eddie Murray and Jim Thome, all off Tiger starter Greg Gohr (2-5).

Cleveland won for the 22nd time in its last 29 games. Detroit lost for the 21st time in its last 25.

Hargrove appreciated Nagy’s work, even if his logic remained faulty.

“Don’t get me wrong about Charlie’s performance,” he said. “I’m just tickled to see him go all the way. It gives the bullpen a little rest. I’m just saying that with the way bullpens are configured nowadays, complete games are not the most important thing.”

Texas 10, Kansas City 0--Mickey Tettleton homered twice into the right-field upper deck and Dean Palmer drove in four runs in Arlington, Texas, for the Rangers, who have won nine of their last 11 games.

Ken Hill (5-3) pitched a four-hitter for his second shutout, striking out five Royals, who had six runners reach base in the first three innings, but went on to lose their fourth game in a row.

Palmer had three of the Rangers’ 15 hits in breaking a 4-for-34 slump.

Baltimore 9, Oakland 1--B.J. Surhoff broke up a pitchers’ duel with a sixth-inning grand slam and Mike Mussina (6-2) gave up one run over eight innings for the Orioles in a victory in Oakland.

Rafael Palmeiro added a three-run triple and Bobby Bonilla had an RBI single as Baltimore, which has won seven of 11, added four runs in the seventh inning.

Surhoff had been in an 0-for-13 slump before hitting his 10th homer of the season.

Toronto 4, Minnesota 2--Erik Hanson scattered six hits over seven innings for the Blue Jays, who won in Minneapolis.

Charlie O’Brien, Otis Nixon, Juan Samuel and Robert Perez drove in runs for Toronto, and Hanson, who was 1-4 in his last five starts, didn’t allow two baserunners in an inning until the Twins got three singles in the sixth.

Rich Robertson (0-6) gave up four runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings for the Twins, who lost for the eighth time in 11 games after posting a 13-12 record in April, their best record in that month since 1987.

One of the hits was Nixon’s pop fly that neither first baseman Paul Molitor nor second baseman Jeff Reboulet saw, and that fell safely for an infield double that drove in a run.