Yankees Pinching Themselves After Strawberry Slams Royals

A decade after they played together with the New York Mets, David Cone is still awed by Darryl Strawberry.

“I’ve been watching him do things like that for years. He’s amazing,” Cone said Saturday night after Strawberry hit a pinch grand slam in the ninth inning of the New York Yankees’ 12-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals at Kansas City, Mo.

Strawberry’s first grand slam in four years propelled the Yankees to their 18th victory in 20 games and hiked their major league-best winning percentage to .760. The Yankees (19-6) are off to their best start since the 1958 club was 23-5.

“You have to credit [Manager Joe Torre],” said Strawberry, who sent Scott Service’s 1-0 pitch 435 feet over the wall in center field. “He made the call. He just said if the bases were loaded he was going to use me. It’s not like I was going up there with any major plan. I was just going to try to hit the ball hard.”

Strawberry’s last grand slam came July 14, 1994, when as a member of the San Francisco Giants, he connected against Montreal’s Pedro Martinez.

Jeff King homered twice for Kansas City.

Andy Pettitte (5-2) allowed four runs and 10 hits in six innings, improving to 5-1 against Kansas City. He walked four and struck out three.

Royal starter Chris Haney (2-2) allowed six runs and eight hits in five innings, losing his fifth consecutive decision against the Yankees.

Pettitte had allowed only one homer in 17 starts before King connected in the fourth. King added a two-run homer in the fifth, his eighth of the season, after Tino Martinez had hit a three-run homer in the top half for a 6-2 lead.

Martinez, who has driven in 31 runs in his last 18 games, also doubled twice and scored twice.

Johnny Damon had four hits, including a two-run double in the eighth.

Texas 7, Boston 6--Rick Helling became the major leagues’ first six-game winner and John Wetteland also stayed perfect for the year as the Rangers won at Fenway Park.

Wetteland struck out Nomar Garciaparra, John Valentin and Mo Vaughn in the eighth and then pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save in seven opportunities.

Helling is the first pitcher in Ranger history to win his first six starts. Jim Kern, Jeff Russell and Bobby Witt each won their first seven decisions for Texas.

Helling allowed four runs on eight hits and two walks in six-plus innings. Kevin Elster hit two home runs and Ivan Rodriguez hit one as the Rangers stopped a two-game losing streak.

Boston starter Brian Rose (1-2) gave up five runs on seven hits and a walk, striking out three in six innings. Vaughn homered in the first but then struck out three times.

Rodriguez hit a solo homer in the sixth and Elster hit his second homer in the seventh to make it 6-3.

Seattle 4, Detroit 0--Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 12th homer to tie for the major league lead, and Jamie Moyer pitched a three-hitter to lead the Mariners at Seattle.

Griffey hit a solo homer in the first against Justin Thompson (1-4), tying Mark McGwire of St. Louis and Vinny Castilla of Colorado. Despite the homer, Griffey is 1 for 12 with nine strikeouts against Thompson.

Seattle, coming off a 17-3 loss in Friday’s series opener, got three RBIs from Russ Davis and won for only the second time in seven games.

Moyer (2-3) got his fourth career shutout, the first since July 6, 1993, for Baltimore against Kansas City, and the 14th complete game. He struck out seven and walked two.

Minnesota 8, Baltimore 7--Ron Coomer homered in the 11th inning at Baltimore to give the Twins their first extra-inning victory in five tries this season.

Coomer hit the first pitch from Doug Johns (0-1) over the center-field wall. It was the fifth homer of the season for Coomer, who entered in the seventh inning as a pinch hitter.

Minnesota was 0-4 in extra-inning games and 1-7 in one-run games.

The Orioles trailed 7-6 in the ninth before Harold Baines hit a one-out homer against Rick Aguilera (2-2), who blew his fourth save in nine opportunities but got the win.

Todd Walker had his third straight three-hit game for the Twins, who had lost four of five.

Cleveland 5, Tampa Bay 1--Chad Ogea allowed three hits in 7 1/3 innings, and Sandy Alomar broke out of a slump with three hits in the victory at Cleveland.

Ogea (1-1), who beat Kevin Brown and the Florida Marlins twice in the World Series, outdueled former Marlin starter Tony Saunders as the Indians won their second game in a row after losing 10 of 14 games.

Jim Thome hit a two-run homer, his fifth, against Esteban Yan in the seventh.