Macfarlane Homers Twice, Indians Fall to Royals

Mike Macfarlane homered twice in a game for the second time in five days, and the Kansas City Royals handed Charles Nagy his first loss since April 27 by defeating the Cleveland Indians, 4-2, Monday night at Cleveland.

Macfarlane hit his eighth and ninth homers of the season, both solo shots, off Nagy (11-2). The Royal catcher has seven homers in 14 games.

Chris Haney (6-6) retired the last 14 batters he faced and finished with a seven-hitter for his third complete game of the season. He did not have a walk, and his only strikeout came when he fanned Eddie Murray to end the game.

Nagy, 8-0 with three no-decisions since an 11-6 loss to Toronto on April 27, yielded four runs on eight hits, three of them homers, in seven innings. Joe Randa’s fifth-inning homer broke a 2-2 tie. After Macfarlane’s first homer, Cleveland tied the score, 1-1, on Albert Belle’s 26th homer on Haney’s first pitch in the bottom of the second. Belle’s homer broke a 15-game drought after he hit his 25th on June 12.

New York 2, Boston 0--Mike Aldrete’s opposite-field homer started a two-run seventh inning that carried Jimmy Key to a victory at Yankee Stadium.

Aldrete’s homer, his fourth of the season but first since being acquired by the Yankees from the Angels on June 12, was hit into the lower deck in left field leading off the seventh.

Andy Fox walked, stole second and continued to third on a throwing error charged to Red Sox catcher Mike Stanley, and Fox scored on Joe Girardi’s safety squeeze.

Key (4-6) gave up only six hits in seven innings for his third victory in four decisions.

Roger Clemens (3-7) held the Yankees hitless until Ruben Sierra singled leading off the fifth, and the right-hander finished by giving up four hits and seven walks and striking out only one in seven innings.

Minnesota 10, Chicago 7--Rick Aguilera gave up six hits in seven innings and four Minnesota players drove in two runs each at Chicago.

Aguilera (2-2), a starter again after six successful years as a closer, struck out six and did not walk a batter. In his last four starts, he has given up only five earned runs in 29 1/3 innings.

Chuck Knoblauch had an RBI double and an RBI triple; Paul Molitor hit a pair of RBI singles; Matt Walbeck had a sacrifice fly and a run-scoring single; and Matt Lawton added a two-run single for the Twins.

Frank Thomas led off the Chicago fourth with his 23rd home run, giving him a league-leading 81 RBIs in 81 games. He added another RBI with a single in the Chicago’s six-run ninth, giving him 1,000th career hits.

Milwaukee 2, Detroit 0--Knuckleballer Steve Sparks and three relievers combined for Milwaukee’s first shutout of the season. Sparks (4-6), recalled from Triple-A New Orleans earlier Monday, scattered six hits with two strikeouts and no walks in seven innings for the Brewers, who evened their road record at 20-20.

Graeme Lloyd and Ramon Garcia pitched the eighth and Mike Fetters got the last three outs for his 14th save.

But while the Brewers got their first shutout, they also didn’t homer for the first time in 20 games. The 19-game streak was a team record.

Baltimore 7, Toronto 4--Brady Anderson hit his major league-leading 28th homer and Roberto Alomar had two hits and scored two runs at Toronto.

Rocky Coppinger (3-0) gave up two runs on four hits in six-plus innings, including solo homers to Sandy Martinez in the fifth and John Olerud in the seventh.

Oakland 6, Seattle 4--The Athletics got a two-run double from Jason Giambi in a three-run third inning at Seattle and went on to their eighth victory in nine road games.

The A’s used four pitchers against the Mariners in the AL West teams’ first meeting of the season.