Witt Looks Like Old Self in Win on 34th Birthday

Texas has been hitting all season. Now the Rangers are getting some pitching, too.

Rusty Greer, Kevin Elster and Ivan Rodriguez homered to support seven strong innings from pitcher Bobby Witt, and the Rangers defeated the Boston Red Sox, 8-2, Monday night at Arlington, Texas, for their fourth consecutive victory.

Pitching on his 34th birthday, Witt overcame a two-run first and gave up only five hits. In his previous start against the New York Yankees, he gave up seven runs and four hits in 1 1/3 innings.

“I was trying to be too fine with my pitches and that’s not the way I should pitch,” said Witt, who started the night with an 8.33 earned-run average. “I need to be aggressive and that’s what I tried to do tonight.”

Witt (4-1) and John Burkett had been struggling in the Ranger rotation. Burkett took a perfect game into the seventh inning Sunday against Cleveland in a 5-3 victory, and Witt followed with his encouraging performance.

“If we keep getting starting pitching like that, we’re going to be OK,” Greer said. “We had been scoring runs and playing good defense. But the pitchers needed outings like they’ve had the last couple of nights.”

Juan Gonzalez drove in two runs with a groundout, giving him a major league-leading 48 runs batted in. Rodriguez got his 1,000th career hit as Texas ended Boston’s three-game winning streak.

Rodriguez was playing in his 914th game, making him the second-fastest Ranger to 1,000 hits behind Buddy Bell, who reached the milestone in 869 games.

“It’s a good feeling,” Rodriguez said. “Not too many people have done that. I didn’t think about that too much. I was just seeing the ball good tonight.”

Baltimore 4, Minnesota 0--Scott Erickson ended a monthlong losing streak by pitching a five-hitter against his former team, and Rafael Palmeiro and Roberto Alomar homered as the Orioles won at Minnesota.

Erickson, who came into the game leading the majors with 71 hits allowed, gave up only Matt Lawton’s double in the fifth inning before giving up three singles in a row with one out in the seventh. But Erickson (4-3) got Javier Valentin to ground into an inning-ending double play.

“That was Scotty at his best,” Baltimore Manager Ray Miller said. “Very, very dominant.”

Oriole pitching coach Mike Flanagan noticed two days ago that Erickson’s stride had shortened in recent weeks. They worked on it in the bullpen. Then Erickson (4-3) used the longer stride to dominate the Twins much the way he did against the rest of the AL when he helped Minnesota win the 1991 World Series.

“It was just going back to basics,” said Erickson, who used his trademark sinker to record 16 of the 27 outs on ground balls. Erickson struck out five and walked none to win for the first time since April 12. It was his 12th career shutout.

Tampa Bay 4, Cleveland 2--Rolando Arrojo pitched eight strong innings for his third victory in a row and led the Devil Rays over the Indians at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Arrojo, a former Cuban national team star coming off three-hit shutouts of Minnesota and Kansas City, gave up five hits, struck out five and walked one. Roberto Hernandez pitched the ninth for his fourth save in seven chances.

Arrojo (5-2) fell short of his bid to become the first rookie since Orel Hershiser in 1984 to throw three consecutive shutouts. Cleveland scored in the first on Jim Thome’s run-scoring single.

Kansas City at New York--The game was postponed because of rain. No makeup date has been set.