White Sox Are at Home on the Road

Bernie Williams had seven runs-batted-in.

That wasn’t enough.

Magglio Ordonez’s homer and four RBIs led Chicago to a 10-9 win Saturday at New York, where the Yankees’ Williams had a two-run homer, three-run double and two-run double, all with two outs.

The White Sox have the longest road winning streak in the major leagues this season, 10 games, and their longest since taking 11 in a row in 1990.

“Again, it’s really early in the season,” Chicago Manger Jerry Manuel said of his team’s 7 1/2-game lead in the American League Central. “But it is good to be in this position.

“This team is so young that they hang together on the road. It is almost like a minor league team because they don’t have homes or families yet. So when they’re on the road they have a lot of camaraderie.”

Williams’ 13th homer came in the eighth inning and made it 10-9.

“I felt pretty good out there, having some good swings,” Williams said. “We were down early in the game. We came back after the [57-minute] rain delay. We seem to have some momentum, but came up too short. It’s disappointing from a team standpoint, but don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a day like this any day. I’m hitting in key situations with two outs and men in scoring position.”

Although it didn’t have an effect on the score, Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch’s throwing woes continued.

After fielding a slow grounder by Greg Nortonin the fourth inning, Knoblauchthrew over first baseman Tino Martinez and hit a woman in the stands. Knoblauch immediately turned away in disgust as the ball left his hand. The woman, who appeared to be hit in the body, was OK. Knoblauch was not given an error on the play.

Toronto 11, Boston 10--David Wells tied Arizona’s Randy Johnson for the major league lead with his 11th victory, but almost blew a 10-run lead in doing it at Boston.

Wells (11-2) gave up seven runs--five earned--and 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings.

“I got too comfortable,” Wells said of his performance after the Blue Jays took an 11-1 lead in the fifth. “I was going out there and letting them hit it instead of making my pitches. I just got careless.”

Billy Koch, who pitched the final two innings for his 14th save, had to stop a ninth-inning threat.

After Gonzalez made a diving play on Jeff Frye to open the ninth, Nomar Garciaparra’s pop fly to right was misplayed into a double by Raul Mondesi and second baseman Craig Grebeck.

Koch then got Carl Everett to foul out, and struck out pinch-hitter Brian Daubach.

Texas 5, Tampa Bay 0--Matt Perisho (2-0)--making his first start of the season and 12th of his career--pitched six scoreless innings and American League batting leader Ivan Rodriguez drove in two runs at St. Petersburg, Fla., for the Rangers, whoended a losing streak at nine games.

Pitching on an hour’s sleep, part of the regimen that keeps him from being a starter on a regular basis, Perisho limited the Devil Rays to singles by Bobby Smith and John Flaherty and walked three and struck out six in his first start since the final game of the 1999 season.

Tim Crabtree and John Wetteland finished the three-hit shutout.

Detroit 8, Cleveland 6--Juan Gonzalez, booed heavily earlier in the game, hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Tigers a win at Detroit and send Cleveland to its sixth consecutive defeat.

Gonzalez began the day batting .266 with only 24 RBIs, a low total for one of baseball’s top sluggers. Playing his firstseason with the Tigers after being traded from Texas for several of Detroit’s top prospects, he has already been mentioned in trade rumors.

Bobby Higginson drew a one-out walk in the ninth off Steve Karsay (0-4). Gonzalez, who had an RBI single earlier, drove a 1-and-1 pitch into the left-field seats for his 12th home runand second of the series.

Seattle 12, Minnesota 3--Jamie Moyer pitched 6 2/3 strong inningsfor the Mariners at Minneapolis.

John Olerud, Jay Buhner and David Bell had two RBIs each for Seattle. Mike Cameron and Edgar Martinez had three hits apiece for the Mariners, who had 17.

Moyer (5-2) kept the ball down and gave up only three hits in the first six innings. No runner reached second base against him until David Ortizhad an RBI triple and Butch Huskey hit a two-run homer in the seventh.

Oakland 10, Kansas City 4--Kevin Appier beat his old team and Ben Grieve, Miguel Tejada and Sal Fasano homered to power the Athletics at Kansas City.

It was the A’s fourth consecutive victory.

Appier (7-3) was the ace of the Kansas City staff through most of the ‘90s. Heimproved to 6-0 on the road while facing his former team for the first time since being traded last July.

Appier gave up four runs and seven hits in seven innings.

Grieve, who had a tiebreaking three-run homer Friday night, hit a two-run shot in the first off Jay Witasick (1-6). He has homered in four of the last five games.