Rays/MLB

AL roundup

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 22, 2006

CUBS 9 INDIANS 2: CLEVELAND - Carlos Zambrano won again after a Chicago loss and the Cubs, handed extra outs by Cleveland's infield during a bizarre eight-run third inning, rolled to a rain-shortened win.

Booming thunderstorms halted play in the top of the eighth, and the umpiring crew waited 1 hour, 18 minutes before calling the game.

Staked to a 9-1 lead after three, Zambrano coasted for six innings while improving to 5-0 with a 1.56 ERA in his past eight starts after a Chicago defeat.

Neifi Perez and Aramis Ramirez had two RBIs for the Cubs, who tagged C.C. Sabathia for a career-high nine runs and eight hits in 31/3 innings.

He was undone by two defensive lapses in the third that allowed the Cubs to score eight and send 12 batters to the plate, breaking open a 1-1 game.

First baseman Ben Broussard and second baseman Ronnie Belliard failed to turn easy grounders into outs, one for throwing to the wrong base, the other for not throwing at all.

"Inexcusable," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said.

NOTABLE: Sabathia has more career wins (74) than any other pitcher 25 or younger. Zambrano (54) is second.

RED SOX 9 NATIONALS 3: BOSTON - Jon Lester struck out 10 in six innings in his third major-league game, David Ortiz hit a grand slam and Boston won its sixth straight.

The Nationals/Montreal Expos franchise is 0-9 at Fenway Park.

Lester, Boston's top pitching prospect when he joined the team June 10, finished his night by striking out Matthew LeCroy on a 92 mph fastball. Lester pumped his fist before walking off the field to a standing ovation.

Lester had the most strikeouts by a Red Sox pitcher this season - Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield each had nine - and the most by a Boston rookie since Casey Fossum, now a Devil Ray, had 10 against Cleveland on Sept. 18, 2002.

Ortiz hit his 21st homer of the season and fifth career grand slam to give Boston a 4-0 lead in the second.

The Red Sox outscored the Nationals 26-9 and out-hit them 46-22 in the series.

"It's hard to justify it when you get beat that bad every game," Nationals catcher Brian Schneider said. Lester "threw strikes. I know he gave us a lot of pitches to hit, we just didn't hit them. I don't know if he pitched that good or we were that bad."

NOTABLE: Boston played its 10th straight errorless game, its longest streak since Sept. 26 to Oct. 5, 1986.

ROYALS 6 PIRATES 4: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Mark Teahen's tiebreaking two-run home run off Salomon Torres in the eighth inning lifted the Royals.

Teahen, whose error at third base earlier in the game led to an unearned run, hit the first pitch from Torres over the fence in right for his fourth home run. Emil Brown started the inning with a single.

The Royals, who still have the worst record in the majors, have won four of their past five. The Pirates lost their seventh in a row.

Pittsburgh starter Ian Snell cruised through the first five innings before Joey Gathright, making his first start in center one day after coming over in a trade from the Devil Rays, singled to ignite a four-run inning.

One out later, Mark Grudzielanek's single scored the speedy Gathright from second. After Doug Mientkiewicz walked, Brown had a run-scoring double and Matt Stairs chased Snell with an opposite-field run-scoring single that made it 4-3.

NOTABLE: The Royals hadn't committed an error in nine straight games until making two.

WHITE SOX 13 CARDINALS 5: CHICAGO - Paul Konerko, Jim Thome, Joe Crede and Juan Uribe homered, and the White Sox put on another double-digit offensive display.

Chicago scored four in the first and five in the second to take control early and finished with 16 hits, four by Thome.

St. Louis starter Jason Marquis, who had won six straight decisions, was pounded for 13 runs in five innings. It was Marquis' first loss since May 8.

So Taguchi and Jim Edmonds homered off Chicago starter Mark Buehrle, and former White Sox reserve Timo Perez connected off Matt Thornton in the eighth.

Scott Podsednik started a string of four hits with a double. Tadahito Iguchi had a run-scoring single, Thome doubled and Konerko put the White Sox ahead to stay with his 18th homer, a three-run shot to left.

NOTABLE: Centerfielder Edmonds left the game with a slight concussion after crashing into the wall trying to rob Crede of a homer.

PADRES 3 RANGERS 2: ARLINGTON, Texas - Pinch-runner Ben Johnson raced home from third with the go-ahead run in the ninth inning as San Diego took advantage of an error by Texas third baseman Hank Blalock.

The score was tied at 2, and the Padres had runners on first and second on singles by former Ranger Adrian Gonzalez and Khalil Greene against ex-Padre Akinori Otsuka.

With Vinny Castilla batting, Otsuka threw a wild pitch that bounced off catcher Gerald Laird, who retrieved the ball up the third-base line and fired to third trying to get Johnson, who was running for Gonzalez. But Blalock couldn't come up with the throw and was charged with an error.

Kevin Millwood turned in another strong start for the Rangers, allowing two runs and six hits over eight innings. Millwood, who has won his past five decisions, struck out three and walked two.

NOTABLE: The Padres pulled off a double steal in the sixth inning.

[Last modified June 22, 2006, 01:10:57]