Thomas and Belle are Too Much for Texas

With two swings of the bat, Albert Belle and Frank Thomas showed why the Chicago White Sox lineup is one of the most feared in baseball.

Belle broke the major league record for home runs in July with his 16th and Thomas broke out of a slump with a grand slam and five runs batted in to lead the White Sox past the Texas Rangers, 10-2, Friday night at Arlington, Texas.

Belle’s two-run homer to center field off Tim Crabtree in the seventh inning the record held by Joe DiMaggio (1937), Hank Greenberg (1938), Joe Adcock (1956) and Juan Gonzalez (1996), who each had 15.

It was Belle’s 33rd home run of the season. He also finished the month with 32 RBIs.

Thomas ended a three for 30 slump with a line drive to left-center in the fifth inning to give the White Sox a 6-1 lead. It was his his fifth career grand slam and first since 1996. He also had a sacrifice fly during a two-run ninth.

“This is one of the few games where we have scored that many runs and it was great for us to do it in that fashion,” White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel said. “Having Frank and Albert doing the damage is really key for us. Those are the guys we need to swing the bat well and when they do swing the bat well, we are a very dangerous team.”

John Snyder (3-0) became the first White Sox starter to win his first three decisions since Jack McDowell in 1987. Snyder yielded one earned run and six hits in five innings.

Ranger starter John Burkett (6-11) appeared to be in control after giving up one hit and striking out five in the first four innings, but gave up five runs and five hits in the fifth.

New York 5, Seattle 3--The New York Yankees did not get Randy Johnson. They did, however, win another game.

With Jorge Posada hitting two homers and Scott Brosius also hitting a home run, the Yankees moved to 49 games over .500 for the first time since 1961, defeating the Mariners at Seattle.

Hideki Irabu (10-4), who was supposed to be a key player in a Johnson-to-the-Yankees trade scenario, gave up solo home runs to Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez and David Segui, but improved his record in July to 4-1. He gave up six hits, walked one and struck out six in seven-plus innings.

Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth for his 29th save.

Jeff Fassero (10-7) went the distance or the Mariners. He threw 140 pitches and gave up 12 hits.

Kansas City 9, Baltimore 6--Dean Palmer hit two of the Royals’ four home runs at Kansas City, Mo. and had four RBIs as the Orioles lost for only the fourth time in 21 games since the All-Star break.

Palmer hit a two-run homer off Scott Erickson (11-9) in the third and added another two-run shot off Doug Drabek in the sixth. Jeff King and Johnny Damon also homered and Jose Offerman singled twice to stretch his career-best hitting streak to 20 games, fourth all-time for the Royals.

Jose Rosado (6-8) held the Orioles to five hits through seven innings, while Erickson lasted just three innings in his league-leading 25th start. The Orioles, who have the majors’ best record since the All-Star break, were coming off a three-game sweep at Detroit which had brought them within eight games of Boston in the AL wild-card race.

Rosado, with victories in three of his last four starts, gave up five hits and one run, with five strikeouts and one walk.

Eric Davis stretched his hitting streak to 18 games with a solo home run in the sixth, his third homer in two games. He has 10 homers since the All-Star break, and his 30th RBI of July is two short of the Baltimore record for a calendar month.

Tampa Bay 5, Detroit 1--Fred McGriff drove in two runs with a pair of RBI singles and Julio Santana pitched eight strong innings to win for the first time in six weeks as the Devil Rays defeated the Tigers at St. Petersburg, Fla.

The victory was the seventh in eight games for the Devil Rays, who also got a solo homer from Miguel Cairo and extended the Tigers’ losing streak to four.

Santana (3-2) limited the Tigers to five hits and gave up a fifth-inning run on Paul Bako’s sacrifice fly. He struck out two and walked none to get his first victory since defeating Boston on June 20.

Roberto Hernandez got the final two outs for his 19th save.

McGriff went four for four, including RBI singles in the first and third innings off Seth Greisinger (1-6), who also gave up an RBI single to Wade Boggs and a run-scoring double to Quinton McCracken as Tampa Bay built a 4-0 lead in the third.

Minnesota 6, Toronto 4--Frank Rodriguez gave up five hits in seven innings and Paul Molitor’s tie-breaking sacrifice fly sparked a three-run seventh as the Twins defeated the Blue Jays at Minneapolis.

Molitor’s fly to center with one out scored Otis Nixon to break a 3-3 tie. Rookie David Ortiz added an RBI double to make it 5-3 and Ron Coomer had a run-scoring single off Woody Williams (9-6) during the rally.

Rodriguez survived a shaky start to win his first decision of the season. Rodriguez gave up three runs in the first four innings, but retired the last nine batters he faced before giving way to Greg Swindell.

Jose Canseco hit his 30th home run in the eighth inning for the Blue Jays.

Otis Nixon stole his 24th and 25th bases, moving him past Ozzie Smith into 19th place on the all-time list.