Royals’ Losing Streak Reaches 17

Kansas City’s losing streak reached 17 games Tuesday night when the Royals lost, 4-3, to the Seattle Mariners on Yuniesky Betancourt’s go-ahead infield single in the eighth inning at Seattle.

The Royals are four defeats from tying the AL record of 21 in a row set by the Baltimore Orioles at the start of the 1988 season.

Joel Pineiro (5-7) won his second straight decision, pitching eight innings and giving up three runs and six hits. Eddie Guardado worked the ninth for his 29th save in 31 chances.

The Royals’ club-record losing streak is the longest in the major leagues since Baltimore’s slump in ’88. The 1961 Philadelphia Phillies dropped 23 straight from July 29 to Aug. 20, according to the Elias Sports Bureau -- the longest skid in the big leagues since 1900.

Baltimore 4, Oakland 3 -- Brian Roberts scored the go-ahead run in the seventh on a controversial error and the Orioles won a wild one for the second straight day at Oakland to hand the A’s three straight losses for the first time since early June.

This time, Baltimore scored three unearned runs in the seventh against Jay Witasick (1-1). With two outs, Melvin Mora hit a grounder to third and Eric Chavez dove to make the stop. He threw a one-hopper to first baseman Dan Johnson, who had to come off the base to field the ball but appeared to get his heel back in time.

But first base umpire Chris Guccione signaled that Johnson’s foot was off the bag. Replays from several angles showed he touched the base.

Bruce Chen (10-6) won his third straight start after going winless in his previous five outings.

Minnesota 9, Chicago 4 -- Shannon Stewart hit a go-ahead RBI single in a five-run 16th inning at Chicago and the Twins won in 5 hours 9 minutes to send the White Sox to their first four-game losing streak of the season.

Minnesota finished with 20 hits in the second-longest game in the majors this season. Toronto beat the Angels, 2-1, in 18 innings on July 28 in the longest game of the year.

J.C. Romero (3-3) pitched two innings for the win. Joe Nathan, the fifth Twins’ reliever, pitched the bottom of the 16th.

Boston 10, Detroit 7 -- David Ortiz and Jason Varitek each homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Red Sox scored seven times in the 10th inning to win at Detroit.

Varitek homered from both sides of the plate, the first time he has accomplished the feat.

Chad Bradford (2-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the win.

Tampa Bay 4, New York 3 -- Eduardo Perez tied the score in the bottom of the ninth with his second home run and Jonny Gomes walked with the bases loaded with two outs in the 11th to help the Devil Rays prevail at St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Devil Rays rallied from a 3-0 deficit against Randy Johnson and Mariano Rivera to force extra innings, then loaded the bases in the 11th with Carl Crawford’s double off Alan Embree (1-5) and two walks, including Scott Proctor’s intentional pass to Aubrey Huff.

Chad Orvella (2-2) threw two scoreless innings for the win.

Johnson, who skipped a start last Thursday because of a bad back, struck out seven and walked two, leaving with a 3-2 lead that Rivera could not protect.

Cleveland 8, Texas 2 -- Ronnie Belliard hit a three-run double to end a seventh-inning tie at Cleveland and Jhonny Peralta homered twice for the Indians, who handed the Rangers their eighth straight loss.

C.C. Sabathia (9-9) won his third straight start for the Indians. Kenny Rogers (11-6) lost his second straight start since serving a 13-game suspension for shoving two cameramen.

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Losing streaks

Longest losing streaks in American League history:

*--* Team Year Streak Home Away Baltimore 1988 21 8 13 Boston 1906 20 19 1 Philadelphia 1916 20 1 19 Philadelphia 1943 20 3 17 Detroit 1975 19 9 10 Philadelphia 1920 18 0 18 Washington 1948 18 8 10 Washington 1959 18 3 15 Boston 1926 17 14 3 Kansas City 2005 17 8 9

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