Ejection, Burks Spark Indian Victory

First base coach Ted Uhlaender still doesn’t know what he said that got him ejected. Whatever it was, it sure fired up the Cleveland Indians.

The Indians rallied moments after Uhlaender got tossed for arguing, and Ellis Burks hit his fourth home run in two games Wednesday night in a 4-2 victory over the first-place Minnesota Twins at Cleveland.

Burks, who hit three solo homers in the Indians’ 10-9 loss in 12 innings Tuesday night, broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth by connecting against Joe Mays (8-5) for his 18th homer of the season--and fourth in seven at-bats.

Burks, though, credited Uhlaender, who couldn’t remember ever being tossed before in his big league career.

“I told him we needed that,” Burks said. “We needed something like that to spark us. Then I told him not to worry about it because I’m paying his fine.”

Uhlaender remained puzzled about what he did wrong.

“I’ve said a lot worse to umpires when I played and never got thrown out,” said Uhlaender, who played eight seasons for the Twins, Indians and Cincinnati Reds. “Guess he didn’t want to hear what I had to say.”

The Indians have not been behind by more than two games since May 4 and have won four of the first six meetings between the American League Central’s top teams. Minnesota and Cleveland will play 13 more times this season.

The Twins wasted two scoring opportunities and had a costly error and wild pitch in Cleveland’s four-run fifth.

“We had a couple of chances but didn’t get that big hit,” Twin Manager Tom Kelly said. “Their bullpen did a real nice job. All of them.”

Oakland 6, Seattle 4--Eric Chavez hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth to give the Athletics the victory at Oakland.

It was an unexpected blast from Chavez, who had only one hit in his previous 20 at-bats.

Jason Giambi and Terrence Long singled in the ninth against Seattle closer Kazuhiro Sasaki (0-3), who blew his fourth save chance of the season--his first since May 29.

After Miguel Tejada flied out to center, Chavez hit a 2-and-1 pitch into the left-field corner for his ninth homer.

Mark Guthrie (5-1) got the final two outs of the ninth for the A’s, who have won only two of their last seven games.

Detroit 5, New York 2--Bobby Higginson and Robert Fick homered and Juan Encarnacion had a two-run triple for the Tigers at Detroit.

On the day after a deal to add Montreal Expo closer Ugueth Urbina to New York’s struggling bullpen fell through, the Yankees were shown again why they need to acquire help.

Relievers Randy Choate, Ramiro Mendoza and Mike Stanton each gave up runs as the Tigers built a 5-1 lead.

Chicago 2, Kansas City 1--Carlos Lee’s eighth-inning home run against reliever Jason Grimsley lifted the White Sox at Chicago.

Lee led off against Grimsley (0-3) and hit a 2-and-1 pitch over the wall in right-center for his 11th homer.

That made a winner of Jon Garland (3-3), who pitched three hitless innings in relief of starter Rocky Biddle. It was Garland’s first relief victory of the season. Keith Foulke pitched the ninth for his 16th save in 17 chances.

Toronto 6, Baltimore 5--Pinch-hitter Brian Simmons drove in the tiebreaking run with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly at Baltimore and the Blue Jays ended a four-game losing streak.

Jay Gibbons homered in a fourth consecutive game for the Orioles, who were denied a three-game sweep.

Darrin Fletcher homered and Carlos Delgado had two hits and two RBIs for the Blue Jays.

Boston 8, Tampa Bay 2--Dante Bichette homered and drove in four runs at St. Petersburg, Fla., to help the Red Sox to their eighth consecutive victory over the last-place Devil Rays.

Bichette’s three-run homer against Travis Phelps highlighted a six-run eighth inning that enabled the Red Sox to pull away. He also had a run-scoring single against Ryan Rupe (4-6) in the fourth.

Rich Garces (2-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings in relief of David Cone to get the victory. The Red Sox have outscored the Devil Rays, 60-16, in eight games.