Yankees Out-Blast, Outlast Rangers, 15-13

At first it seemed like the Yankees would cruise to their 21st win in 23 games. Then Texas turned it into New York’s wildest win of the season.

Jorge Posada hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning, and Derek Jeter drove in five runs as the Yankees beat the Rangers, 15-13, at Arlington, Texas, Wednesday night after blowing a 9-0 third-inning lead.

New York out-hit Texas, 18-14, in extending its latest winning streak to seven games. Bernie Williams keyed the eighth inning with his second triple of the night, and Posada followed with the go-ahead hit against Danny Patterson (0-1). Jeter added a ninth-inning homer.

Texas, which lost its third in a row after a five-game winning streak, got a three-run homer from Juan Gonzalez, who raised his major league-leading RBI total to 39; a two-run homer from Mike Simms and four RBIs by Ivan Rodriguez. But it wasn’t enough.

Mike Stanton (2-0), the sixth of seven Yankee pitchers, pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings, and Mariano Rivera got four outs for his fifth save in six chances.

New York had 11 extra-base hits, including four homers and four triples, one short of the team record.

First-inning homers by Chuck Knoblauch and Paul O’Neill--his third in three games--put the Yankees ahead, and New York made it, 9-0, in the second. Bobby Witt got only four outs, giving up seven runs, four hits and four walks.

Jeter had a three-run triple, O’Neill chased Witt with an RBI single, Tino Martinez had a run-scoring double against Tim Crabtree and Tim Raines hit a two-run homer.

But David Wells was chased in the seven-run third when Knoblauch’s error on Gonzalez’s grounder led to six unearned runs.

Cleveland 14, Baltimore 5--Jim Thome homered and drove in five runs as the Indians scored seven runs against sputtering Oriole starter Scott Erickson at Cleveland.

The Orioles, who have the highest payroll in baseball history at $69 million, lost for the 14th time in 20 games and fell to 16-16. They dropped to 7-19 at Jacobs Field, including two losses in the AL Championship Series last fall.

“I’m supposed to take a $74 million payroll or whatever it is and win with it,” Oriole Manager Ray Miller said. “Obviously, this team has got to do better than it has.”

Erickson (3-3) gave up three homers. He also gave up seven runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. Kenny Lofton and Brian Giles also homered against Erickson, with all the shots estimated at more than 400 feet. The right-hander is 0-5 with an 8.92 earned-run average in seven starts at Jacobs Field.

“I’m not real happy. We got our butts kicked,” Miller said. “This just was not a good game. I’m not real happy with the pitching.”

The Orioles, who started the season, 10-2, began the night nine games behind the AL East-leading Yankees in the loss column.

“I’ve been thinking about having a team meeting,” Miller said. “I’ve been putting it off, but maybe now it’s the time.”

The Indians tied a season high with 14 runs and had a season-best 17 hits one night after beating Baltimore, 6-5, on Omar Vizquel’s ninth-inning single against Armando Benitez.

Thome had an RBI double in the first inning, a 411-foot, three-run homer in the fourth and an RBI double in the fifth to raise his average to .388. His second run-scoring double came during a three-run inning against Norm Charlton. Giles, who hit a 434-foot homer off Erickson in the third, drove in two runs with a broken-bat, bloop single to right making it, 11-2.

Dave Burba (3-3) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings, even though he said his heart was racing and he couldn’t catch his breath the whole game. Manager Mike Hargrove and trainer Jimmy Warfield went to the mound to check on Burba in the fourth, but the right-hander said he was OK.

“I don’t know if the cup of coffee I had before the game was stronger than strong or what,” Burba said. “It kind of scared me because my heart was racing and I couldn’t catch my breath. I didn’t feel comfortable out there. I’m surprised I didn’t hit a couple of guys, it was that scary.”

Burba, who gave up solo homers to Eric Davis and Jeffrey Hammonds, could have used some of that run support in his previous six starts, when the Indians scored only 20 times for an average of 3.3 runs per game. Hargrove said he didn’t think Burba’s shortness of breath was anything serious.

Minnesota 8, Boston 7--Ron Coomer went three for five with a homer and LaTroy Hawkins earned his first win of the year as the Twins held on at Boston.

Rick Aguilera relieved to start the ninth inning with an 8-4 lead. Reggie Jefferson and Troy O’Leary hit consecutive doubles. Two outs later, Aguilera hit pinch-hitter Jim Leyritz with a pitch, then gave up a two-run double to pinch-hitter Midre Cummings.

With the tying run on second base, Nomar Garciaparra hit a game-ending grounder to second.

Boston had won 18 of its previous 22 games, and the Twins had lost six of eight. But Minnesota took an early lead against Robinson Checo (0-2) and then added to it against the Boston bullpen.

Hawkins (1-3) gave up three runs, five hits and a walk in five innings, striking out one.

Tampa Bay 5, Kansas City 0--Rolando Arrojo pitched a three-hitter for his second consecutive shutout to help the Devil Rays end a four-game losing streak with a win at Kansas City.

Arrojo, a 29-year-old rookie (4-2) who shut out Minnesota on three hits in his previous start, gave up an opposite-field double to Jose Offerman in the fourth inning and lead-off singles to Hal Morris in the seventh and Larry Sutton in the eighth.

Arrojo, who defected from Cuba in 1996, walked two and struck out six. Over his last 18 innings, he has allowed only two runners past first base and retired 23 right-handers in a row.

“He had the best stuff I’ve seen--maybe ever,” said Kansas City third baseman Dean Palmer. “He was giving us to many different looks: over the top, dropping way down, throwing sliders and sinkers down here [at the knees], throwing that slider down. It’s tough to hit.”

Seattle 10, Chicago 9--The Mariners got back to .500 as Joey Cora tripled in the eighth inning and scored the go-ahead run on David Segui’s foul-pop sacrifice fly at Seattle.

Seattle (16-16), which won its fourth in a row, wasted leads of 5-2 and 6-4, then came back from a 9-6 deficit in the seventh on Dan Wilson’s three-run homer against Keith Foulke.