Bottalico Wins Despite Another Shaky Outing

He may have gotten a victory, but Ricky Bottalico is far from doing the job the Kansas Cuty Royals brought him in to do.

The right-handed closer, signed to turn around the worst relief corps in the major leagues, made his second consecutive shaky appearance Monday, giving up a two-run homer in the ninth that let Minnesota tie the game before Johnny Damon led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run to give the Royals to a 6-5 victory.

“He made a mistake with a breaking ball and that’s what happens with breaking balls that are left up and out over the plate,” said Royal Manager Tony Muser, who brought in Bottalico even though Dan Reichert pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth.

Bottalico gave up the game’s 10th double, to Corey Koskie, before Jacque Jones homered over the fence in center. In his first appearance of the season at Toronto, Bottalico got a save after giving up a home run to Tony Batista and leaving the potential tying run at third.

“That’s two games in a row I felt great going out there, and felt like I had good stuff, and I’ve given up three runs in two innings,” Bottalico said.

He rebounded from elbow surgery to convert 20 of 28 chances last year with St. Louis.

“You don’t know what to say. I feel like I have good stuff this year,” he said. “I feel healthy. But nothing’s going right right now. I’ll get it down.”

A year ago, the Royals’ bullpen had an ERA of more than 5.00 and blew more saves than it converted.

Cleveland 9, Oakland 4--Travis Fryman had four hits and four runs batted in and Chuck Finley and three relievers combined to strike out 16 batters as the Indians beat the Athletics in Oakland.

Finley, who signed with Cleveland as a free agent after spending the first 14 years of his career with the Angels, struck out 10 for the 28th time in his career. However, he couldn’t hold a 4-2 lead in the sixth and left with his second straight no-decision.

Jacob Cruz broke a 4-4 tie by doubling home two runs in the seventh inning.

Scott Kamieniecki (1-1) got the win with 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief, Paul Shuey pitched a scoreless eighth and Steve Karsay struck out two in the ninth.

Fryman had two-run singles in the first and ninth innings and Manny Ramirez tripled and singled to drive in a pair of runs for the Indians, who beat the A’s for the 11th time in 13 meetings.

After Oakland rallied to even the score, David Justice and Fryman singled off Jeff Tam (0-1) to start the seventh. Cruz lined a double down the left-field line to score them before he came home on Omar Vizquel’s RBI double off Mike Magnante.

Frank Menechino singled to start the sixth but after fanning Jason Giambi for his 10th strikeout, Finley walked John Jaha. One out later, Ramon Hernandez hit a two-run double to tie it.