Ordonez, Thomas Put Big Hurt on Rangers

The Chicago White Sox had their big-inning offense on display again Tuesday night.

Magglio Ordonez hit a three-run homer and Frank Thomas had a two-run single in an eight-run sixth inning, leading the White Sox over the Texas Rangers, 11-6, at Arlington, Texas.

“We really turned it on in the sixth,” said Thomas, who drove in three runs. “We’re all able to hit on this team, one through nine. We don’t get too excited about it because we’ve been hitting like this all year, but we definitely hit in spurts.”

The White Sox scored 10 runs or more for the seventh time this season after reaching double-digits in 11 games last season. Chicago has had four runs or more in an inning 21 times in 2002 and 10 hits or more 20 times.

Rafael Palmeiro, a three-time Gold Glove at first base, made his second error of the game on Kenny Lofton’s grounder, which drove in Mark Johnson from third with the go-ahead run.

Boston 9, Oakland 7--Trot Nixon had three hits, including a solo home run, and four runs batted in at Oakland to help the Red Sox win their seventh in a row.

Rolando Arrojo (2-0) went 22/3 relief innings and gave up one hit. Ugueth Urbina gave up Eric Chavez’s run-scoring single and Terrence Long’s sacrifice fly in the ninth before earning his 12th save.

Toronto 4, Seattle 1--Roy Halladay scattered four hits over 72/3 innings to lead the Blue Jays at Seattle.

Halladay (2-1) had a shutout until the eighth inning, when Mike Cameron tripled to drive in Ichiro Suzuki. Halladay struck out five and walked one.

New York 5, Tampa Bay 2--Alfonso Soriano drove in two runs at St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Yankees sent the Devil Rays to their 12th consecutive loss--the longest slide in the major leagues since 1997.

Tampa Bay set a team record for consecutive defeats and the Yankees ended a three-game skid behind Mike Mussina (4-2) and Mariano Rivera, who earned the 224th save of his career to tie the team record set by Dave Righetti.

Mussina gave up four hits, struck out five and walked one in seven innings.

Baltimore 4, Cleveland 3--Jerry Hairston had three hits and scored the winning run on a grounder by Jeff Conine in the bottom of the 10th.

Conine hit a grounder to shortstop Omar Vizquel, who forced Gary Matthews Jr. at second, but the relay by Ricky Gutierrez was too late to get Conine.

Kansas City 4, Minnesota 1--Paul Byrd pitched seven shutout innings at Minneapolis to lead Kansas City to its first victory under interim Manager John Mizerock.