Baseball

AL: Chisox take over in Central

By Times Wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 22, 2003

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CHICAGO - Back in first place, the White Sox are holding off on celebrations.

"It's still a very close race. We've still got a long way to go," Frank Thomas said after he homered in a 7-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday night. "The best way to look at it is we're still fighting for first place."

Joe Crede also homered to back Bartolo Colon as Chicago won its fourth straight and moved one game ahead of Kansas City in the Central. The White Sox, a half-game ahead of Minnesota, had not led the division since Aug. 8 and had been in first place for three days.

"It's always a great place to be, in first place," Crede said. "You never want to be the team that's going out and trying to chase the team in first place; you want to be the team that everybody's chasing."

Colon won for the first time in three starts, giving up three runs and six hits in seven innings. He took a one-hitter into the sixth before Alex Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro hit consecutive homers.

Palmeiro reached 30 homers for the ninth straight season and has 520 overall. Rodriguez, who leads the league with 37, has homered in five straight games, tying the club record set by Carl Everett from April 14-20.

"For the first time in (a while) I feel healthy, and the results are there now," said Rodriguez, who missed part of spring training with a neck injury.

Kelly Wunsch pitched a scoreless eighth and Tom Gordon entered with two on and one out in the ninth, finishing for his eighth save in 13 chances.

TWINS 4, ROYALS 3: Shannon Stewart hit a tying three-run homer in the sixth and the go-ahead single in the seventh to help host Minnesota knock Kansas City out of first and move ahead of the Royals for the first time since June 30.

The Royals have lost four straight and seven of nine.

Kansas City starter Paul Abbott took a no-hit bid and a 3-0 lead into the sixth but faded fast and gave up the tying home run to Stewart.

Stewart then drove in A.J. Pierzynski with a single in the seventh off former Devil Rays reliever Al Levine to give the Twins the lead.

RED SOX 14, A'S 5: Missing Pedro Martinez, host Boston used its big bats to beat Oakland.

Manny Ramirez homered and drove in three and David Ortiz hit a three-run shot as the Red Sox avoided a three-game sweep and pulled within a game of the Athletics in the wild-card race.

Martinez was scratched from his scheduled start because of a severe sore throat and fever that sent him to the hospital for tests. He was given medication and was home resting by late afternoon.

BLUE JAYS 7, MARINERS 3: Mark Hendrickson took a two-hit shutout into the eighth for Toronto as West-leading Seattle opened a seven-game road trip by losing two of three at SkyDome. The Mariners start a four-game series at Boston tonight.

ANGELS 10, TIGERS 7: Scott Spiezio hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh as Anaheim sent host Detroit to its ninth straight loss, making the Tigers the first team with three losing streaks of nine or more since the 1998 Marlins, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

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