Canseco Hits 27th as Rekar, Devil Rays Win

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays expect Jose Canseco to carry them. Bryan Rekar was merely a pleasant surprise.

Canseco hit his major league-leading 27th homer and Rekar had his longest outing of the season as Tampa Bay defeated the Minnesota Twins, 4-3, Saturday night at Minneapolis.

Wade Boggs added his 1,000th career run batted in for Tampa Bay, which won for only the fifth time in 25 games.

“We needed it and everybody knows it,” Tampa Bay Manager Larry Rothschild said. “Rekar came up big tonight.”

Before the game, Tampa Bay placed right-hander Mickey Callaway on the 15-day disabled list with tightness in his left hamstring. The Devil Rays have put a major league-high 17 players on the disabled list, including seven pitchers.

Canseco, on the other hand, feels as strong as ever. He has homered in 13 consecutive series to tie Roger Maris for the second-longest streak in the American League. Maris homered in 13 in a row in 1961 and Mark McGwire homered in 20 consecutive series for Oakland in 1996.

“I’m healthy,” Canseco said when asked why he is hitting so well--.309 this season as opposed to .237 for Toronto last season. “It’s also a little bit of luck. A lot of my line drives are falling in.”

Rekar (5-2) did not allow a runner past second base until the eighth when he gave up Marty Cordova’s RBI single and Corey Koskie’s two-run homer to bring Minnesota within 4-3. Rekar gave up nine hits, while striking out five and walking none over 7 2/3 innings.

Canseco hit a solo shot in the first inning on a 3-1 fastball from Brad Radke (5-6). The 374-foot line drive to right gave him eight more homers than any Devil Ray hit last year. He has homered in 16 of his last 32 starts.

Baltimore 11, Chicago 9--Mike Bordick hit a two-run home run in the 11th inning as the Orioles survived a shaky performance by their bullpen to defeat the White Sox in a wild one at Chicago.

The Orioles got go-ahead homers from Harold Baines in the eighth inning and Will Clark in the 10th, but they weren’t enough as the White Sox kept finding ways to come back.

But Chicago couldn’t find a way to overcome Bordick’s shot, his fifth of the year.

Keith Foulke (0-1) hit Brady Anderson, and then Bordick put a 2-0 pitch over the wall in left field for the game-winner.

Arthur Rhodes (2-2) gave up two runs on three hits in two innings for the win. Scott Kamieniecki pitched the 11th for his first save since 1993.

After blowing a 6-1 lead, the Orioles seemed to have the game in control after Baines’ homer made it 7-6. It was the 12th homer of the year for the former White Sox player.

But as was the case earlier in the night, the Orioles couldn’t make the lead stand. Rhodes walked pinch-hitter Craig Wilson, who advanced to third on pinch-hitter Brook Fordyce’s single and scored on Ray Durham’s sacrifice to center to tie the game at 7-7.

Albert Belle led off the 10th with a walk against Bob Howry and one out later Clark hit his sixth homer to make it 9-7.

But the White Sox still had a little something left. Magglio Ordonez walked and advanced to third on Chris Singleton’s single. Pinch-hitter Jeff Liefer worked Rhodes to the full count--with a broken bat thrown in for good measure--before sending a sharp liner to left-center for a two-run double.

Oakland 13, Detroit 1--John Jaha homered twice and rookie Tim Hudson pitched seven strong innings for his second consecutive victory as the Athletics defeated the Tigers at Detroit.

Matt Stairs and Jason Giambi also homered for the A’s, who ended a four-game losing streak with only their third win in their last 16 road games.

Stairs was three for five with four RBIs and Tony Phillips was three for three with a walk and three runs scored as Oakland, limited to only three hits in an 8-3 loss Friday to the Tigers, got to five pitchers for 16 hits.

Luis Polonia was four for five with two bunt singles for Detroit, which has lost four of five.

Hudson (2-0), who beat the Dodgers in his second career start last Sunday, gave up nine hits but only one run with a walk and five strikeouts. He stranded nine runners, including five in scoring position.

Boston 7, Texas 4--Nomar Garciaparra hit a solo home run and an RBI double, and Jin Ho Cho got his first major league victory as the Red Sox defeated the Rangers at Boston.

Jose Offerman broke out of his worst slump of the season, going three for five and driving in a run, and Mike Stanley added a solo home run as the Red Sox won for only the fifth time in their last 14 games.

Todd Zeile had a three-run homer and Ivan Rodriguez had a solo shot for Texas, which lost for only the ninth time in 38 games.

Cho (1-0), a 23-year-old Korean right-hander signed by Boston on March 30, 1998, gave up five hits and four runs in six-plus innings.

Tim Wakefield, the fourth Red Sox pitcher, worked the final two innings for his fourth save.

The Red Sox took the lead for good three runs in the second. Offerman, in a 1-for-18 slump, and Brian Daubach each had RBI singles before Garciaparra’s run-scoring double pushed Boston in front, 4-3.