Boone Barely Misses Cycle in Mariners’ 16-1 Victory

Bret Boone homered, tripled and doubled and the Seattle Mariners scored 13 runs in the first three innings in a 16-1 rout of the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night at Seattle.

At 91-36, the runaway American League West leaders matched the club record for victories set last season.

David Bell had five hits, John Olerud hit two two-run homers and Edgar Martinez drove in five runs in Seattle’s highest-scoring and most-lopsided victory of the season.

Ichiro Suzuki had three of Seattle’s season-high 20 hits.

Olerud, Boone and Bell homered in the first inning off Jose Lima (4-5) as Seattle took a 6-0 lead. Lima lasted two-thirds of an inning, the shortest start of his career.

Boone doubled in the second and hit a two-run triple during a seven-run third. Needing a single for the cycle, Boone fouled out in the fifth and grounded out in the seventh.

Martinez hit a two-run double in the first and a three-run double in the third. Olerud homered again in the seventh for his 14th multi-homer career game and first this season.

Paul Abbott (13-3) was not sharp, but pitched out of two bases-loaded jams. He blanked the Tigers for five innings, giving up four hits and five walks.

He has won 11 of his last 12 decisions.

Texas 8, New York 1--Darren Oliver and the Rangers took advantage of New York’s sloppy play at Arlington, Texas, and clinched the season series against the Yankees.

Oliver (10-8) outpitched Mike Mussina (12-11) and Texas defeated the AL East leaders for the fourth time in six meetings. The teams meet for the final time today.

Since winning the season series in 1996 and beating the Yankees in Game 1 of the playoffs that fall, the Rangers had been 13-42 against New York until this season.

Texas went ahead to stay with three runs in the fourth inning, when Mussina walked two and threw two wild pitches.

Mussina struck out Randy Velarde to start the Texas fourth, but then walked Alex Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro and threw his first wild pitch.

Bill Haselman, filling in for all-star catcher Ivan Rodriguez, then got a run-scoring single on a dribbler down the third-base line that Mussina thought would go foul.

After another wild pitch allowed Palmeiro to score, Mike Lamb hit a run-scoring single.

Oliver, who has struggled since the end of June, gave up one run and four hits in six innings. He is 3-6 in his last 11 starts.

Minnesota 6, Toronto 3--In his best start for the Twins, Rick Reed gave up one run in seven innings at Minneapolis.

Brian Buchanan and Torii Hunter each homered for the Twins, who had lost three in a row and 11 of 12. Minnesota is a major league-worst 11-29 since the All-Star break.

Reed (2-2), acquired from the New York Mets on July 30 for Matt Lawton, gave up four hits, struck out four and walked none.

Reed improved to 3-0 against Toronto this season (1-0 with New York) with a 2.25 earned-run average--statistics that had the right-hander knocking on wood around his new locker.

“I don’t want to jinx anything, but that’s what I’ve been doing all year,” Reed said.

Jose Cruz, Jr. hit his 25th homer for Toronto and Esteban Loaiza (9-10) lost for the first time since July 2.

Chicago 13, Kansas City 12--Ray Durham hit two solo home runs and a double as the White Sox rallied for eight runs in the sixth inning at Kansas City.

Carlos Lee and Aaron Rowand each had three of Chicago’s 18 hits.

Carlos Beltran had a two-run triple in the Royals’ seven-run first, then hit his first career grand slam in the seventh. He also singled and walked twice.

Beltran’s six runs batted in were one short of the team record. He batted with one out and a runner on first in the ninth, but struck out.

The Royals sent 13 batters to the plate in the first and the White Sox sent 13 to the plate in the sixth.

Kansas City led, 7-2, after one inning, with Luis Alicea and Neifi Perez becoming the first Royals in more than a year to get two hits in an inning.

Doug Henry (2-1) relieved Royal rookie Chris George with an 8-5 lead starting the sixth and gave up five hits and seven runs. He retired one batter.

Tampa Bay 11, Baltimore 10--Jason Tyner hit a run-scoring single with two out in the ninth inning and the Devil Rays overcame a late five-run deficit at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Jared Sandberg singled with two out against Willis Roberts (7-9) and went to third on Chris Gomez’s single. Tyner then greeted B.J. Ryan with his fourth hit, all in the final four innings.

Trailing, 10-5, the Devil Rays tied the score in the eighth on a two-run double by Brent Abernathy, who finished with three runs batted in.

Esteban Yan (4-5) struck out the side in ninth for Tampa Bay, which tied a franchise-record set July 22-31, 1998, with its sixth consecutive home victory.

Tampa Bay is 2-69 when trailing after seven innings.

Cleveland 5, Oakland 4--Jim Thome hit his 43rd home run in the 11th inning and David Riske worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam at Oakland.

After Rich Rodriguez gave up a single to Jason Giambi, Riske came in and allowed a single to Jermaine Dye and walk to Terrence After Miguel Tejada grounded into a double play--pitcher to catcher to first--Eric Chavez was intentionally walked. Riske then struck out Ramon Hernandez looking to end the game.