Everett Makes Red Sox Pay for Trade

Carl Everett would rather not talk about having a career night against the Boston Red Sox--even though they traded him in the off-season.

Everett hit a grand slam and a three-run homer--and nearly homered twice more--in the Rangers’ 19-7 rout of the Red Sox on Thursday night at Arlington, Texas.

“I’m really not trying to beat them more than any other team,” said Everett, who finished with a career-high seven runs batted in.

“The people who were there that didn’t want me aren’t there anymore so it’s not that big a deal. I was pretty close to some of those guys. We won, that’s all that matters.”

Everett, who has six homers in his last seven games, just missed doing it again in the third and fifth innings.

“I’m sure, playing against the Red Sox, he was locked in, but I didn’t see anything any different,” Ranger Manager Jerry Narron said. “He plays hard every night.”

Rafael Palmeiro hit his 467th career homer in the eighth inning to pass Willie Stargell and Stan Musial for 20th on the career list.

Todd Hollandsworth added a three-run homer for his first AL home run, and drove in four runs in his first game for Texas after being acquired from Colorado in a deadline deal Wednesday.

Mike Lamb and Kevin Mench also homered for Texas, and Ivan Rodriguez and Michael Young had three hits each.

The Rangers set season highs for runs and homers (six) a day after they had a season-best 21 hits in a 17-6 beating of the New York Yankees.

Cliff Floyd, acquired by the Red Sox on Tuesday in a trade with Montreal, went two for three with two walks in his first game with Boston.

Chan Ho Park (4-5) had a 16-1 lead after three innings and picked up his first victory since June 23 before leaving because of a blister on the middle finger of his right hand.

Park, who had four no-decisions and two losses during the drought, struck out nine and walked three.

The Rangers put together a six-run first inning against John Burkett (10-4).

Burkett gave up eight runs and six hits over 1 1/3 innings.

Frank Castillo didn’t fare much better, giving up 10 runs and 11 hits over 3 2/3 innings.

“Tonight was just a terrible game and an embarrassment,” said Burkett, who pitched a four-hit shutout against Baltimore in his previous start. “I couldn’t have gotten a Texas high school team out, let alone the Texas Rangers. I ended up putting Frank [Castillo] in a bad position and he wound up taking one for the team.”

Seattle 10, Cleveland 6--Ben Davis’ three-run homer capped a six-run sixth inning as the Mariners overcame a five-run deficit to beat the Indians at Seattle.

The Mariners came from behind to win for the fourth consecutive game in their first meeting with Cleveland since eliminating the Indians in Game 5 of their AL division series last season.

Jeff Nelson (2-2) got the victory with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief of Joel Pineiro. Sean DePaula (1-1) came in and walked Mike Cameron before Davis homered to give him a career-tying four RBIs and put the Mariners ahead, 7-6.

Oakland 5, Detroit 3--Eric Chavez homered twice to lead the Athletics to a victory at Oakland.

Miguel Tejada also homered to extend his hitting streak to 21 games--best in the AL this season. Ray Durham homered and Chavez drove in three runs as the A’s won for only the third time in nine games.

Micah Bowie (1-0) got the final two outs in the fifth inning for his first AL victory and his first big league win since Sept. 23, 1999, with the Chicago Cubs. Steve Sparks (5-11) was the loser.

Minnesota 6, Chicago 0--Eric Milton pitched his fourth career shutout and Michael Cuddyer hit his first career grand slam as the Twins won at Minneapolis.

Milton (13-7) held Chicago to three hits, striking out 11 and walking none in Minnesota’s first complete game shutout of the season. Dan Wright (7-9) was the loser.

Baltimore 4, Tampa Bay 3--Chris Richard homered for the second consecutive game after being activated from the disabled list and Sidney Ponson (5-5) won for the second time in 12 starts to propel the Orioles at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Toronto 3, Kansas City 2--Roy Halladay (13-4) won his eighth consecutive road decision and Jose Cruz Jr. singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning at Kansas City, Mo.