Indians Beat Twins With No. 34 on Minds

It was a matter of guesswork for Brian Giles, whose two-run home run tied the game in the ninth inning before Jim Thome’s two-run single beat the Twins, 7-5, for Cleveland at Minneapolis on a sad Friday night.

“I’m a guess hitter and have been able to guess right when I get ahead,” said Giles, who had been called up from triple-A Buffalo earlier in the day and was pinch-hitting. “I got ahead in the count, 2-0, and waited for a pitch to drive.”

He got that from Dave Stevens (1-1), who then walked Alvaro Espinoza and Omar Vizquel before Mike Trombley relieved and gave up an infield single to Mark Carreon. Thome followed with a two-run single to center.

Jose Mesa (1-3) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win.

Albert Belle hit his 29th homer for Cleveland, which made five errors.

All of the Indians and Twins wore No. 34 on their caps in honor of Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett, who had retired earlier in the day because he could no longer see well enough to play.

Puckett left the Metrodome before the game, and fans grew misty-eyed at a videoboard tribute to him in the seventh inning.

At game’s end, players talked more of Puckett than of the previous nine innings.

“I feel bad for Kirby because he was such a great player,” said Cleveland’s Dennis Martinez, who broke Puckett’s jaw with a pitch late last year. Puckett’s eye problem was unrelated to the broken jaw and he invited Martinez to the news conference.

“Kirby invited me and I wanted to show him how much I cared about him,” said Martinez, who hugged Puckett after the news conference ended.

Chicago 7, Kansas City 6--Tony Phillips reached base five times and Kevin Tapani ended a personal four-game losing streak with a victory at Kansas City that allowed the White Sox to keep pace with Cleveland in the AL West.

Tapani (9-5), who hadn’t beaten the Royals in more than two years, struck out six and gave up five hits through 6 1/3 innings. His Kansas City counterpart, Tim Belcher (7-5) gave up five runs in seven innings and has only one win in his last eight starts.

Texas 8, Oakland 4--Damon Buford’s second RBI double of the game knocked in the go-ahead run as the Rangers scored five runs in the 10th inning to defeat the Athletics at Oakland.

Geronimo Berroa’s second homer of the game, a solo shot with two outs in the Oakland ninth, had tied the game, 3-3, and sent it into extra innings.

The winner was Jeff Russell (2-1), who blew the save by giving up Berroa’s homer in the ninth.

Boston 11, Detroit 3--Mo Vaughn hit the eighth grand slam off Tiger pitching this season and Reggie Jefferson had four RBIs at Detroit for the Red Sox, who won their third game in a row and again showed support for pitcher Tom Gordon (7-4).

Milwaukee 12, Toronto 5--Ben McDonald (10-3) won for the sixth time in a row and Pat Listach drove in four runs for the Brewers, who won in Milwaukee.