Baseball
AL: Radke, Twins tie for lead in Central
By Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 12, 2003
CHICAGO - Brad Radke pitched a complete game to win his most important start of the season and the Minnesota Twins beat Esteban Loaiza and the White Sox 5-2 to move into a tie for the Central lead.
Shannon Stewart and Denny Hocking each drove in two runs as the Twins salvaged a split of the key four-game series. The teams meet for a three-game set next week at the Metrodome.
Radke, a Tampa product/Largo resident, gave up nine hits, walked none and struck out five in his third complete game. It was his fourth straight victory.
"We had to come out and get a win today," Radke said. "That was a big win for us."
The Twins spoiled Loaiza's bid for his 20th victory. The All-Star pitcher lost for only the second time since the break, snapping his four-game winning streak.
Loaiza gave up five runs and seven hits over seven innings, striking out nine, and his ERA rose to 2.73.
"It didn't go my way," Loaiza said. "I made a couple of mistakes throwing middle-away, and they got some base hits."
Chicago's Frank Thomas reached 40 homers for the fifth time in his career. Radke limited the White Sox to singles after that until Jose Valentin homered in the ninth.
The Twins have the edge over the White Sox when it comes to the schedule as they try to defend their Central title. While Chicago's remaining games are against Boston, New York and Kansas City, Minnesota gets Cleveland and Detroit.
Loaiza has been the best pitcher in the majors since the All-Star break, going 8-2 with a 3.63 ERA in 11 starts. Bidding to become the White Sox's first 20-game winner since Jack McDowell in 1993, he got off to a strong start, pitching two perfect innings and getting an early lead with Thomas' homer.
But things unraveled in the third. Jacque Jones led off with a single to shallow right, taking third on A.J. Pierzynski's single. Loaiza then hit Cristian Guzman to load the bases with no outs.
Stewart followed with a two-run double. Carl Everett's throw was off-base, and Stewart took third on the error. Hocking followed with a sacrifice fly.
YANKEES 5, TIGERS 2: Roger Clemens and Jorge Posada swept away Detroit, boosting New York's East lead.
Clemens got his 307th victory, and Posada hit a go-ahead, two-run single and made a nifty tag.
Their East lead over second-place Boston shrank from 71/2 games on Aug. 20 to 11/2 Saturday, but the Yankees have won five straight and boosted the margin to four, their largest since Sept. 2.
"It's important that after you play a very emotional weekend against Boston that we kept our edge," manager Joe Torre said.
Clemens, making his next-to-last regular-season start at Yankee Stadium, wasn't sharp but he tied Mickey Welch for 18th all-time, two behind Hoss Radbourn.
Posada saved a run in the sixth when Dmitri Young tried to score on Craig Monroe's single to left. Hideki Matsui's bouncing throw was to the third-base side, but Posada grabbed it and tagged Young with a swipe.
Detroit (37-108) was swept in a series for the 19th time and has lost the most games in the major leagues since the 1998 Marlins went 54-108.
INDIANS 6, ROYALS 5: Nobody wanted to talk to Joe Randa about his big day at the plate.
Randa went 3-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs, including a clutch double that tied it at 5 in the seventh inning. But his throwing error in the eighth led to Alex Escobar's go-ahead single in visiting Cleveland's victory.
After Jody Gerut singled off reliever Jason Grimsley to open the eighth, Casey Blake grounded to Randa at third. Randa threw toward second, trying to start a double play, but the ball sailed into rightfield and Gerut went to third.
Grimsley struck out Ben Broussard before Escobar capped his second straight three-hit game with a single to left.
"It was a bad throw at a bad time, and it cost us the game," said Randa, refusing to blame sloppy conditions caused by two rain delays. "It doesn't matter how many great plays you've made up to that point, it comes down to that play."
The Royals stayed 31/2 games back in the Central.
Danys Baez, the fourth of five Indians pitchers, earned the win with a scoreless inning.
ATHLETICS 14, ANGELS 4: Eric Chavez hit two of Oakland's six homers in the Athletics' third straight victory.
Eric Byrnes and pinch-hitter Billy McMillon hit three-run homers, and Ramon Hernandez and Mark Ellis also homered as the A's wrapped up their next-to-last homestand of the regular season.
Most power hitters in Oakland history - from Reggie Jackson to Jose Canseco to Jason Giambi - have adored the Coliseum in hot weather. It's a pitching-favorable parks except on warm days, when the ball seems to rocket out.
MARINERS 8, RANGERS 2: Gil Meche pitched eight steady innings for his 15th win and Randy Winn had three hits for Seattle.
Meche spent last season in the minors following two shoulder operations. The last major-league pitcher to win more than 14 games after a two-year absence was Whitey Ford, who went 18-6 in 1953 for the Yankees.
The Mariners took two of three from Texas, which has never won a series at Safeco Field.
Meche, who allowed two runs on five hits with four strikeouts and four walks, recovered from a shaky start, and Seattle's bats supported him with 10 hits.
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