Konerko Crushes Twins in 10th, 6-3

Paul Konerko is so locked in that you’d think he’d remember every fat pitch he sees.

Yet he was at a loss to describe the one from Mike Trombley that landed over the left-field fence in the 10th inning Wednesday night, lifting the Chicago White Sox to a 6-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Minneapolis.

“I felt terrible at 1-and-2. He can make a person look bad. I just didn’t want to strike out,” the former Dodger said. “I still don’t know what I hit. It was some type of an off-speed pitch. He can make hitters look stupid.”

Trombley, who has given up a homer in each of his last five appearances, recalled the pitch exactly.

“A hanging split,” he said. “It was a terrible split. I threw good stuff tonight but made one bad pitch at a bad time. I expect him to hit those mistakes.”

Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said each of Trombley’s 11 other pitches were perfect.

“But he hung that one.”

And Konerko’s not the guy Trombley wanted at the plate for his one mistake, either.

Konerko had a career-high four hits, going four for five. He is seven for 10 in his last two games and is hitting .440 (22 for 50) with five homers in July.

Toronto 4, Cleveland 3--Carlos Delgado hit a go-ahead home run against Mike Jackson in the ninth inning and the Blue Jays survived a bases-loaded scare in the bottom half at Cleveland.

The slumping Indians wasted a strong pitching performance from Dave Burba, then missed an opportunity to at least tie the score when Manny Ramirez grounded into a game-ending double play against Billy Koch with the bases loaded.

Delgado broke a 3-3 tie when he drove a 2-0 pitch from Jackson (3-3) the opposite way to left for his 25th homer--and eighth in 17 games this month.

John Frascatore (5-0), Toronto’s third pitcher, threw one scoreless inning, and Koch got his 16th save.

Willie Greene hit a two-run homer and Shawn Green added a solo shot for the Blue Jays, who won their American League-high 13th game this month. Since dropping nine games under .500 on June 12, the Blue Jays are 25-9.

Detroit 10, Kansas City 5--Tony Clark and Deivi Cruz each homered and had four runs batted in at Detroit.

Clark’s three-run homer keyed a four-run seventh and Cruz had a two-run shot in a three-run eighth. Cruz batted second in the order, the first time in his 372 major league games that he batted higher than seventh in the order.

Mike Sweeney had two homers for the Royals.

Clark’s homer, his fifth in seven games since the All-Star break, made a winner of Justin Thompson (9-8), who has won his last four decisions. Thompson gave up four runs and seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts. Nelson Cruz pitched the ninth.

New York 4, Tampa Bay 3--Derek Jeter hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the seventh inning at New York as the Yankees won for 15th time in 16 games against the Devil Rays.

“Basically, I was trying to be patient,” said Jeter, who struck out in his first three at-bats against Devil Ray starter Bobby Witt (5-6). “He made me look terrible the first three times up.”

Orlando Hernandez (11-6) gave up two runs and five hits in eight innings, struck out seven and walked one. He is 4-0 against Tampa Bay with a 1.24 earned-run average.

Mariano Rivera gave up an RBI double to John Flaherty in the ninth, then finished for his 25th save in 29 chances, retiring Terrell Lowery on a game-ending liner to center with a runner on second.

Oakland 13, Seattle 3--Eric Chavez hit a grand slam and John Jaha and Ramon Hernandez also homered for the Athletics at Seattle.

Gil Heredia (7-5) gave up three runs and seven hits in eight innings for Oakland, which is 6-1 since the all-star break and has won 13 of 18.

Heredia is the first Oakland pitcher in more than a year to win four consecutive starts.