Rangers Get Pitching for a Change

Juan Gonzalez hit two home runs and Ivan Rodriguez homered once for Texas.

So what?

The key to the Rangers’ 12-3 win Monday night at St. Petersburg, Fla., was pitcher Mark Clark.

Clark stopped some of the Ranger pitching woes by turning in a decent game for his first win in three weeks.

In Texas’ eight previous games, the starting rotation was 0-6 with a 13.90 earned-run average and gave up 10 home runs. Baltimore scored 10 first-inning runs on the way to a 15-6 victory over the Rangers on Sunday night.

“We needed it tonight,” Manager Johnny Oates said of Clark, who didn’t give up a run until Dave Martinez homered in the fifth.

“Four shutout innings. It seems like that’s when we play our best ball, when we get three or four shutout innings early or keep the score down until we get our offense going.”

Gonzalez, with his two home runs, has four in his last three games. Rodriguez hit a two-run homer off Julio Santana in the ninth inning to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.

Gonzalez hit a two-run homer off Rolando Arrojo (2-5) in the third inning and a three-run shot off Bryan Rekar in the sixth to finish with five RBIs.

The home runs were the 11th and 12th for Gonzalez, who hit two in a game for the third time this season. The sixth-inning blast was especially costly for Tampa Bay because center fielder Quinton McCracken injured his right knee trying to climb the wall to get to the ball.

“Pitching is like hitting a lot of times. It goes good, you can’t figure out why; and at times you struggle and you can’t figure that out either,” Oates said. “We’re due a good streak with our pitching.”

It wasn’t as though Clark (3-3) made a Cy Young Award bid. He gave up three runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings, but that was enough to make him the first Texas starter to win since Rick Helling beat Baltimore on May 15.

“I’ve had some tough breaks here and there, and I haven’t been pitching real well,” Clark said. “I didn’t change anything. Each start I’ve been having better things happen for me.”

Chicago 10, Cleveland 3--Rookie Chris Singleton and Brook Fordyce drove in four runs apiece in the White Sox’s win at Cleveland.

Outscored, 39-16, in being swept in three games by the Indians last week at home, Chicago won for only the second time in eight games and handed Dwight Gooden (2-1) his first loss since July 26 of last season.

Jim Thome homered for the Indians, who stranded 10 runners in the first four innings and hit into three double plays.

Minnesota 10, Seattle 5--Ron Coomer homered twice and rookie Dan Perkins got his first major league win for the Twins, who won at home and have a four-game winning streak.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 17th homer--a two-run shot in the ninth inning off Bob Wells--for the Mariners. Griffey, who also had an RBI double to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, is tied for Jose Canseco for the most homers in the majors.

Chad Allen--one of Minnesota’s 11 rookies--had a three-run homer for the Twins.

Toronto 12, Detroit 6--Carlos Delgado drove in three runs with a homer and double and David Wells ended his three-game losing streak with a win at Detroit.

Delgado and Patrick Lennon hit solo homers in the second inning before the Blue Jays blew it open with a 10-run seventh. It was only their ninth road win of the season.

Wells (5-4) gave up five runs and eight hits in six-plus innings to win for the first time since May 3 against Seattle.

Brian Moehler (4-4), in his third start since serving a 10-game suspension for having sandpaper on his thumb, gave up six runs in six-plus innings.

Boston at New York--The game was rained out and will be made up Thursday.