Rangers Flirt With No-Hitter
Joaquin Benoit earned a piece of baseball history, although not the way he preferred.
Jerry Hairston hit a leadoff triple in the ninth inning, ruining Benoit’s bid to complete a combined no-hitter, but the Texas Rangers handed the Baltimore Orioles their 10th consecutive loss, 7-1, Tuesday night at Baltimore.
Ranger starter Aaron Myette was ejected after throwing two pitches, and Todd Van Poppel followed with two sharp innings. Benoit then extended the no-hitter through the eighth before giving up Baltimore’s only hit.
“I really didn’t think about it. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, whatever,” the rookie said.
Benoit had to be content with setting a major league record for the longest outing resulting in a save--seven innings. The previous record was six, by Horacio Pina of the Rangers in 1972. Saves were first kept as a stat in 1969.
Benoit struck out four, walked none and hit two batters to earn his first big league save.
On a 1-and-2 count, Hairston hit a sinking liner that dropped in front of sliding right fielder Carl Everett and rolled to the wall. Chris Richard followed with a run-scoring groundout.
Myette was ejected by plate umpire Mark Hirschbeck after his first two pitches went behind Mora, an apparent retaliation for Alex Rodriguez being hit by a pitch in the top of the first.
“There’s not much to talk about. I threw two pitches, and that was it for my outing,” Myette said. “I pitch inside a lot, balls get away. I’ve never had perfect control.”
Van Poppel (3-1) finished the walk, then walked Hairston before striking out the side. He worked a perfect second inning, striking out two batters.
Said Hairston: “This is the first of three games for us against A-Rod. The last thing we want to do is get him mad.”
Herbert Perry homered in the sixth, extending the Rangers’ streak of games with a home run to 21--matching a club record set this season. Michael Young hit two triples, tying a team mark, and scored twice.
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New York 4, Boston 2--Roger Clemens struck out 10 at Yankee Stadium in his 292nd career victory, and New York strengthened its grip on the American League East.
Clemens (12-5) struck out the first four batters and made three first-inning runs stand up. He gave up four hits in 7 1/3 innings.
The Yankees ended a three-game skid and increased their lead in the division to seven games over Boston. The Red Sox dropped five games behind the Angels in the wild-card race.
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Detroit 4, Cleveland 0--Rookie Andy Van Hekken pitched a shutout in his major league debut, giving up eight hits and helping the Tigers end a nine-game home losing streak.
Van Hekken, a 23-year-old native of Holland, Mich., struck out one and walked two. He pitched in front of more than 100 relatives and friends.
The left-hander was the first AL pitcher to debut with a shutout since Oakland’s Mike Norris on April 10, 1975, and the first Tiger pitcher to do it since April 15, 1933, when Schoolboy Rowe shut out the Chicago White Sox, 3-0.
Van Hekken was 5-0 at triple-A Toledo before being called up Monday.
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Chicago 5, Toronto 4--Jose Valentin’s second homer of the game ended a a tie in the seventh inning at Toronto, and the White Sox won a season-high seventh in a row.
Valentin ended a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning with a homer against Esteban Loaiza (7-8) and gave Chicago the lead for good in the seventh against Loaiza with his 21st homer. Both were solo shots.