Delgado Relives Texas Three-Homer Night

It’s safe to say that Carlos Delgado likes to hit at The Ballpark in Arlington.

Delgado had three home runs, including a tiebreaking solo shot against Jeff Zimmerman in the eighth inning, as the Blue Jays rallied for a 5-4 victory Friday night over the Texas Rangers.

Delgado had the second three-homer game of his career, the other coming last August at The Ballpark.

“I can’t explain the feeling,” said Delgado, who broke out of a one-for-17 slump. “The first one was amazing, the second one had the adrenaline pumping, then the third one wins the game. That’s very satisfying.”

Zimmerman came on to get the final out in the seventh before running into trouble in the eighth trying to hold a 4-3 lead. Shawn Green led off the inning with his 32nd home run before Delgado hit his third homer, a shot into the right-field seats.

“The ball must have looked like a beach ball to him tonight,” said Blue Jay closer Billy Koch, who pitched the ninth for his 23rd save. “With the type of hitters we’ve got, we’re always in the ballgame.”

Zimmerman (9-1) suffered his first major league loss. He had won his first nine decisions, setting a record for the most consecutive wins in relief to start a career.

The Rangers had their winning streak end at four games but they are still 17-4 since the All-Star break.

Lee Stevens hit his 18th homer leading off the seventh to put Texas in front, 4-3.

Chris Carpenter (8-5) gave up four runs and nine hits over seven innings in winning his fifth consecutive decision. He struck out eight and walked one.

Rafael Palmeiro homered and drove in three runs for the Rangers.

Tampa Bay 4, Cleveland 2--Tony Gwynn got his 3,000th hit but Wade Boggs stayed put in his pursuit of the milestone for the Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Boggs remained three hits shy of the plateau, going 0-for-three with a walk.

A crowd of 34,623--well above Tampa Bay’s average of 20,479, but about 9,000 shy of a sellout--watched Boggs fly to left in the first, hit a comebacker to the mound in the third and ground to first in the sixth against Cleveland starter Dave Burba.

Fans booed when reliever Steve Karsay nearly hit Boggs with a pitch and then walked him in the seventh. The 41-year-old third baseman let out a groan that could be heard throughout the park when he jumped back to avoid ball three.

The five-time AL batting champion admitted to being more nervous than usual before the game at Tropicana Field, which is about 20 miles from where he grew up and played Little League ball in Tampa.

“There were butterflies. But once the game started and I got into the flow, they sort of left,” Boggs said, adding that he doesn’t necessarily feel added pressure to reach the milestone in the remaining five days of a six-game homestand.

Aaron Ledesma drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single against Burba (8-7) in the sixth for a 3-2 Tampa Bay lead. Dave Martinez followed with a run-scoring single to give the Devil Rays a two-run cushion.

Esteban Yan (3-2) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the victory and Roberto Hernandez pitched the ninth to earn his 29th save in 32 opportunities.

Oakland 9, Chicago 1--Gil Heredia gave up one run over eight innings, retiring 18 batters in a row at one point for the Athletics at Oakland.

Ben Grieve hit a three-run homer and Jason Giambi and Matt Stairs each had two-run shots in support of Heredia (9-5), who won his career-best sixth consecutive decision.

Heredia gave up four hits, struck out five and walked none, the 23rd time in 68 starts he has not walked a batter.

Jamie Navarro (7-9) went four innings and was tagged for seven runs and eight hits.

He has given up 15 runs in his past two outings covering 7 2/3 innings.

Detroit 4, Baltimore 3--Former Dodger Dave Mlicki had a solid outing at Baltimore, as the Tigers defeated nemesis Mike Mussina and ended a nine-game losing streak.

Brad Ausmus doubled in the tiebreaking run in the seventh and Juan Encarnacion and Frank Catalanotto homered on successive pitches in the eighth against Mussina, who fell to 15-3 lifetime against Detroit.

Mlicki (6-10) took a 4-1 lead into the ninth, but he was replaced after walking Will Clark and giving up a home run to Charles Johnson.

Todd Jones then gave up a single to Delino DeShields, but got three out for his 16th save.

Minnesota 9, Kansas City 8--Ron Coomer had a two-run single as the Twins rallied for three runs in the eighth at Kansas City against a Royal bullpen that has blown 23 saves.

Minnesota scored eight runs and had 14 hits in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. The decisive rally came off relievers Matt Whisenant and Scott Service (4-4).