White Sox Prevail on a Walk

For the second time in three nights, Jose Canseco’s power was meaningless for Tampa Bay. And for the first time in more than three weeks, Frank Thomas was held without a hit. But that didn’t mean much, either.

Norm Charlton walked in the winning run with two outs Wednesday night, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays handed the White Sox their other two runs as Chicago won at home, 3-2, in 11 innings.

“Real close doesn’t help,” Charlton said. “I had a bad game. I screwed it up. If I don’t, we’re still up playing. It’s unacceptable.”

Thomas was thrown out at home on Carlos Lee’s single in the 11th, but Magglio Ordonez got to third. Charlton walked Paul Konerko to load the bases, then walked Greg Norton on five pitches.

As for Thomas, he finished the night 0 for 4, ending his hitting streak at a career-high 21 games.

Canseco got the Devil Rays started with his 26th homer in the fourth for a 1-0 lead, but Tampa Bay’s defense couldn’t make it hold up. In the fifth inning, Bubba Trammell stumbled as he chased what ended up being a single for Chris Singleton, then threw the ball away to let the White Sox tie the game. In the seventh, Kevin Stocker’s error led to Chicago’s second run.

Cleveland 9, Oakland 8--Kenny Lofton hit a two-out, tying single off pitcher Billy Taylor’s glove, stole second and scored on Omar Vizquel’s single as the Indians rallied to defeat the Athletics at Cleveland.

The Indians scored four runs in the eighth to make it 8-7, then recorded their 24th come-from-behind victory of the season.

Texas 3, New York 0--Rick Helling pitched seven shutout innings and Lee Stevens hit a two-run homer to end the Rangers’ seven-game losing streak at Yankee Stadium.

Texas also ended an overall four-game losing streak--its longest since last July 24-28--in defeating New York for the second time in eight meetings this season, including five in Yankee Stadium.

Seattle 7, Detroit 1--Jamie Moyer won his seventh consecutive decision to match a career high, pitching the Mariners past the Tigers at Detroit.

Moyer (8-4) struck out nine in eight innings. He walked none and gave up seven hits. Ken Griffey Jr. hit two doubles and Dan Wilson homered for the Mariners.

Boston 5, Minnesota 1--Mike Stanley had two run-scoring doubles--giving him 200 doubles for his career--and rookie Brian Rose gave up one run in six innings to improve to 4-0 as the Red Sox defeated the Twins at Boston.

In Tuesday night’s 4-2 Boston victory, Stanley ended an 0-for-27 slump with a sixth-inning single, his first hit since June 2. He followed with a seventh-inning double for his 1,000th career hit.

Baltimore 2, Kansas City 1--Sidney Ponson scattered nine hits and Jeff Reboulet drove in the tiebreaking run with a seventh-inning bunt as the Orioles won their seventh consecutive game with a victory over the Royals at Baltimore.

Ponson (7-4) blanked the Royals over the final eight innings for his AL-best third complete game. The right-hander struck out four and walked two to help the Orioles finish a three-game sweep.