Twins Hold Off Mariners, 12-11

The Minnesota Twins spotted Brad Radke an 8-0 lead Tuesday night--and it nearly wasn’t enough against the Seattle Mariners.

Doug Mientkiewicz went four for five with four runs batted in as the Twins outslugged the Mariners, 12-11, at Minneapolis in a meeting of the teams with the best records in baseball.

“You never feel like enough’s enough against them,” Mientkiewicz said. “You just have that feeling they’re not going to die.”

The Mariners scored four times in the ninth inning to draw within one. But LaTroy Hawkins struck out Mark McLemore with the tying run on second base to end the game.

“I think we won,” Twin Manager Tom Kelly said.

It was the second time in the Mariners’ last four games that they scored at least 10 runs and lost. Seattle lost, 14-10, to the New York Yankees on Friday.

The Twins scored eight runs in the third, but the Mariners came back with three in the fourth and four in the fifth. The Twins added a four-run cushion in the eighth, for a 12-7 lead, but the Mariners scored four more in the ninth.

“We didn’t show any quit,” Mariner Manager Lou Piniella said.

Oakland 4, Kansas City 1--Jason Giambi hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning at Kansas City, Mo., to lead the Athletics to their seventh consecutive victory.

The A’s, on their longest winning streak since a nine-game streak last June, have won 14 of 18 to even their record at 22-22.

Johnny Damon, making his first appearance in Kansas City since the Royals traded him to Oakland in January, singled with one out in the eighth inning against Royal starter Jeff Suppan (2-4).

Frank Menechino then singled to knock out Suppan and Giambi greeted Jason Grimsley by hitting his 10th homer to break a 1-1 tie.

Texas 5, Tampa Bay 2--Gabe Kapler hit a solo homer and Kenny Rogers pitched six shutout innings at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Kapler’s sixth homer, against Bryan Rekar (0-6), broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning. It was his third in five games and gave the Rangers at least one homer in 15 consecutive games, a team record.

Detroit 3, Cleveland 0--Jeff Weaver pitched 7 2/3 shutout innings and Dean Palmer and Robert Fick hit home runs at Cleveland.

Weaver (4-5) stymied an Indian offense that leads the American League in batting, runs and RBIs. The right-hander struck out a season-high 10, including leadoff batter Jacob Cruz three times. He gave up six hits and walked three.

Boston at New York, ppd., rain--The game was rescheduled for June 4.