Yankees Take Their Time and Beat Royals

The New Yankees tossed around words such as “ugly” and “awful.”

No matter. The Yankees finally got a victory from a starter other than Orlando Hernandez.

Roger Clemens won despite struggling with his control for six innings Friday night, and the Yankees stopped the streaking Kansas City Royals, 7-5, at New York.

There were 356 pitches in the game that lasted three hours 48 minutes.

“It’s not that it was an ugly game because we weren’t paying attention,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “It was ugly game because these things happen from time to time. You hope you can just reach down and gut it out and be able to win.”

That’s what Clemens (1-1) did. He went to three-ball counts on 10 of 28 batters, including five of his first eight, and threw 104 pitches, 53 for balls.

Still, he improved to 19-7 against the Royals, giving up five runs, seven hits and four walks in six innings.

“I’m in very poor counts, and I have to get out of that,” he said, saying his fastball was so strong that it spun out of the strike zone.

There were only two 1-2-3 innings--Kansas City in the third and ninth.

Clemens gave up a two-out, two-run single in the second to Rey Sanchez, the Royals’ No. 9 batter, on an 0-and-2 pitch.

Minnesota 10, Baltimore 9--Cal Ripken moved within three hits of 3,000, but the Twins rallied for six runs in the eighth inning at Minneapolis.

Ripken went one for four with a sacrifice fly and Mike Bordick, Jeff Conine and Delino DeShields homered against Eric Milton.

The Twins, however, ended a five-game losing streak and an eight-game skid to the Orioles dating to last year when they rallied from a 9-4 deficit in the eighth. Baltimore lost its fourth in a row.

After the Twins loaded the bases against Chuck McElroy, Al Reyes gave up two-run doubles to Matthew LeCroy and Torii Hunter as Minnesota pulled to 9-8.

Buddy Groom (0-1) replaced McElroy and gave up an RBI single to Cristian Guzman that tied the score.

Then, Matt Lawton’s fly ball to left scored pinch-runner Jason Maxwell for a 10-9 lead.

Ripken’s single in the second inning gave him 2,997 hits.

The sparse crowd of 15,249 at the Metrodome booed when Ripken fouled out to first base in the fourth inning and again in the fifth, when Ripken was robbed by left fielder Jacque Jones’ leaping catch at the wall.

Ripken, who began the game in a five-for-30 slump, said he’s getting a little jittery as he approaches the milestone. He said chasing 3,000 hits is harder than chasing Lou Gehrig’s former consecutive-game streak.

“It’s a little bit more nerve-racking, I guess,” he said. “At least the games just came and added up each time. Getting a hit requires you to go out and get a hit. You have to do something. You can’t just show up.”

Texas 7, Cleveland 2--Rick Helling gave up four hits in eight innings and David Segui, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez homered as the Rangers put a damper on opening day at Cleveland.

Helling (2-0) gave up two runs and two hits in the first inning, but settled down and retired 14 of 15 batters before giving up a leadoff single to Sandy Alomar in the eighth.

The right-hander entered the game with a 7.84 earned-run average at Jacobs Field, his highest at any American League ballpark. He walked two and struck out nine.

The Indians had a winning streak end at six games.

Seattle 11, Toronto 9--Edgar Martinez hit a three-run homer as the Mariners scored six runs in the first inning to chase David Wells at Toronto.

Wells, who shut out Texas in his last start, matched the shortest outing of his career. He gave up consecutive singles before Martinez hit a 426-foot homer to give Seattle a 3-0 lead.

After a walk and a single, Dan Wilson hit another three-run homer. Wells (1-1) walked straight to the clubhouse after ending the bottom of the inning with a strikeout.

The only previous time he was knocked out that quickly came April 18, 1996, when he gave up seven runs in the first inning against Oakland.

Martinez, who had five runs batted in, added a two-run single in the second inning against Pete Munro to make the score 9-0.

Detroit 10, Tampa Bay 5--Juan Gonzalez hit the first home run in Comerica Park in Detroit and Tony Clark also homered for the Tigers.

Gonzalez’s three-run homer in the third inning was the first in four games at the Tigers’ new stadium. Of the 13 other major league ballparks that have opened since 1989, none had it take longer for its first home run.

The Tigers are 3-1 at Comerica Park.

Gonzalez, who has played in only four games because of a hamstring injury, also had two doubles. In the last two games, he is five for seven with a homer, three doubles and four RBIs.

C.J. Nitkowski (1-2) gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings. Gerald Williams hit a three-run homer for Tampa Bay.