Rogers Raises Rangers
Kenny Rogers pitched six more shutout innings, extending his streak to 39 before it ended, and the return of Juan Gonzalez helped the Texas Rangers to a 6-3 victory over Minnesota on Thursday at Arlington, Texas.
Rogers (6-2), chosen the American League pitcher of the month for May, broke Charlie Hough’s 1983 club record of 36 scoreless innings when he reached 37 in the fourth inning.
It was the longest stretch of consecutive scoreless innings since Orel Hershiser set the majorleague record of 59 in 1988. The streak ended with one out in the seventh on Marty Cordova’s sacrifice fly.
Rogers was well on his way to his sixth straight victory by the second inning, when Texas scored three runs on back-to-back home runs by Dean Palmer and Ivan Rodriguez, then an RBI single by Jeff Frye.
The Rangers scored three more off Twins starter Brad Radke (2-4) in the fourth, the first on a passed ball and the other two on a triple by Gonzalez, who was making his season debut after missing the first 33 games with a herniated disk in his lower back.
In beating Minnesota for the second time in five days, Rogers was sharp for six innings.
The Twins reached him in the seventh as Pedro Munoz worked a one-out walk and later scored on Cordova’s deep fly to leftcenter.
Indians 7, White Sox 4
Cleveland
With homers from Eddie Murray, Albert Belle, Jim Thome and Paul Sorrento, Cleveland completed its first four-game sweep of Chicago since 1976.
The Indians’ fifth straight victory improved the A.L.’s best record to 22-9, matching Cleveland’s best starts in 1941 and 1966.
Clearing the bases
Despite the return of Juan Gonzalez, hype over Kevin Rogers’ streak of shutout innings and the end of school, Texas sold just 23,934 tickets… . New York Yankees second baseman Pat Kelly had arthroscopic surgery on his left wrist and will miss 4-6 weeks. Kelly was injured last Friday while checking his swing against Oakland. … Cleveland outfielder Manny Ramirez was selected A.L. player of the month after hitting .394 with 11 homers and 27 RBIs. … Through 31 games, Chicago’s Frank Thomas has walked 41 times. At that pace, he would draw 190 walks in 144 games this year, breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 170 set in 1923.