Gilkey Has a Good First Day

Judging from his first day of work in the American League, Bernard Gilkey is probably going to enjoy his new home.

Gilkey, signed earlier in the day as a free agent after 10 years in the National League, hit a home run, double and single and tied a career-high with four runs batted in Tuesday night as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Minnesota Twins, 14-4, at Minneapolis.

“I just wanted to get out there and get off to a good start,” Gilkey said. “So far, so good.”

Gilkey was batting .110 in 38 games before he was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 24.

Gilkey singled in the second inning, doubled in the third and homered in the fourth. Needing a triple for the cycle, Gilkey grounded out in the seventh. He left the game in the eighth.

He said the knowledge that he would play the entire game helped him relax and start to resemble the player who batted .317 with 30 homers, 117 RBIs and 108 runs scored in 1996 with the New York Mets.

“Tonight, I knew I was going up to the plate four times. I had been accustomed to playing every day,” he said. “With the limited at-bats, it got tough.”

Cleveland 9, Toronto 4--Kenny Lofton’s clutch two-run double came after Toronto made three costly errors in the seventh inning, and rookie Russell Branyan homered twice at Cleveland.

Lofton, Roberto Alomar and Omar Vizquel all hit two-run doubles in the seventh inning as Cleveland finally got some timely hitting.

Baltimore 7, New York 6--David Cone gave up four home runs for the first time in his career and Scott Erickson scattered six hits in 7 2/3 innings at New York.

Cone (1-7), winless in 11 starts since beating Toronto on April 28, gave up home runs to Mike Bordick, Harold Baines and Brady Anderson within the first 10 batters, raising his season total to 17.

Texas 10, Oakland 7--Rafael Palmeiro hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the sixth inning to lift the Rangers at Arlington, Texas.

The A’s have lost six of seven overall and four in a row to the Rangers.

It was the 383rd home run of Palmeiro’s career, moving him ahead of Jim Rice and Frank Howard into 38th place on the all-time list.

Kansas City 10, Chicago 7--Jermaine Dye marked his All-Star selection with a home run and the Royals stopped Chicago’s team-record road winning streak at 12.

Chicago’s road winning string was the longest in the majors since the 1984 Detroit Tigers opened with 17 straight.

Detroit 11, Tampa Bay 0--Dean Palmer had two homers and four RBIs, and Dave Mlicki won for the first time since May 20 at St. Petersburg, Fla.