Knoblauch Provides Edge the Royals Need

Chuck Knoblauch’s winning style is rubbing off on the Kansas City Royals.

Knoblauch, a member of three New York Yankee championship teams, doubled in the go-ahead run as Kansas City scored four times in the ninth inning and defeated the Boston Red Sox, 8-5, Thursday night at Boston.

The win evened the Royals’ record at 4-4 and ended a streak of 267 games in which they were below .500, the longest the majors.

“The thing that I learned with the Yankees that I’d like to pass onto these guys is we came with the same attitude every day,” Knoblauch said. “Let’s win today.”

The Royals had losing records the last seven seasons and weren’t expected to do much this season. Knoblauch, however, remembers 1991 when he was a rookie with Minnesota, which vastly exceeded expectations by winning the World Series.

The Royals stayed confident Thursday despite trailing 4-1 after two innings and 5-4 after a triple by former Kansas City player Johnny Damon in the eighth scored Rey Sanchez, who went three for four.

Kansas City won its fourth consecutive series at Fenway Park, winning the last two games each time after dropping the opener.

“Instead of going in and hoping we can do things, now I think [players] are starting to believe that we can go into somebody’s house and win,” said Jason Grimsley (1-0), another former Yankee.

The ninth-inning double capped an outstanding series for Knoblauch. He hit a grand slam in the opening game, Boston’s 8-4 victory Tuesday. On Wednesday, he matched his career high with three stolen bases in a 6-2 victory.

“This loss was more frustrating than last night because we took back the lead,” Boston catcher Jason Varitek said.

Cleveland 8, Minnesota 4--Omar Vizquel hit a three-run homer and the Indians won their eighth in a row in completing a four-game sweep against the Twins at Cleveland.

Former Twin Matt Lawton made two sensational catches in right field for the Indians, who are 9-1 and off to their best start since opening 10-0 in 1966. Cleveland completed its first four-game sweep of the Twins since 1994.

Bartolo Colon (3-0) gave up four runs and seven hits in 51/3 innings.

Baltimore 15, Tampa Bay 6--Geronimo Gil and Mike Bordick homered in a 12-run sixth inning at Baltimore as the Orioles ended a losing streak at six.

Held to six runs during the losing streak, Baltimore ended the drought in record fashion. The Orioles set team marks for runs (12) and hits (11) in an inning.

Toronto 11, New York 3--Roger Clemens struggled on short rest as a fill-in for Orlando Hernandez, giving up six runs in five innings as the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Hernandez missed his start with a sore neck. Clemens (1-2), originally scheduled to start today in Boston, offered to pitch on three days’ rest.

Texas 7, Oakland 0--Doug Davis pitched a two-hitter for his first career shutout and rookie Kevin Mench hit his first homer and had four RBIs to lead the Rangers at Arlington, Texas.

Davis (2-0), making his 45th career start, struck out six and walked one. He allowed only one runner past first base in his third complete game.