AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Palmer and Leary Too Much for Indians

Dean Palmer continued his clutch power hitting with two home runs and five runs batted in, and Tim Leary gave Texas another solid outing as the Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-4, Thursday at Arlington, Tex.

Palmer’s two-run homer in the fourth inning tied the score, 2-2, and his three-run, 438-foot homer in the fifth put the Rangers ahead to stay, 6-3. Eight of his last nine homers have tied a game or given Texas the lead.

Over the last 13 games, Palmer has hit nine homers, driven in 19 runs and raised his average from .229 to .268. He had a two-homer game for the third time this season.

Leary, despite pitching out of trouble much of the game, earned the victory in his first start of the season. He began the season at Ottawa, Montreal’s triple-A team, and was signed by the Rangers on June 29. In his first appearance for Texas last Saturday, he gave up one hit and struck out five in 4 2/3 innings of relief.

Leary, pitching for his seventh major league team, gave up eight hits, four runs and two walks in 5 2/3 innings. He is the 12th starter the Rangers have used this season.

Cleveland’s leadoff hitter reached in each of the first three innings, and Paul Sorrento’s two-run single in the second put the Indians ahead, 2-0.

But Indian starter Charles Nagy also was struggling, and he gave up Palmer’s first homer and a run-scoring double to Manuel Lee in the fourth inning that gave Texas a 3-2 lead.

Cleveland tied the score, 3-3, in the fifth on Omar Vizquel’s single, but Palmer’s second homer gave Texas the lead for good.

Tom Henke pitched the ninth for his ninth save, striking out Jim Thome with the bases loaded to end the game.

Oakland 6, Baltimore 4--Geronimo Berroa singled in two runs to cap a three-run sixth inning at Baltimore that helped the Athletics move eight games under .500 for the first time since April 28.

Oakland has won five in a row and 13 of 14. The victory was Oakland’s 12th in its last 13 road games. The A’s are .500 on the road (23-23) for the first time since they were 3-3.

Chicago 9, Detroit 5--Robin Ventura broke out of a two-for-23 slump at Detroit with a double that started a four-run second inning and then hit his 14th homer in the fifth to give the White Sox an 8-1 lead.

The White Sox have won 15 of 19 games. The Tigers have lost three in a row and 13 of 16 to fall eight games under .500.

Seattle 4, Boston 3--Aaron Sele limited the Mariners to one run and three hits in eight innings at Fenway Park, but they got three runs and six hits in the last two innings against reliever Ken Ryan.

Marc Newfield, who had only one hit in his previous 15 at-bats, led off the 10th with a double and moved to third on Dan Wilson’s sacrifice. Brian Turang then lined a single to center to drive in Newfield with the winning run.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 33rd home run.

Toronto 4, Minnesota 3--Rob Butler scored from third on Rick Aguilera’s wild pitch with two out in the ninth inning at Minneapolis.

Butler, who ran for for Darnell Coles after Coles’ leadoff single, advanced to third on Dick Schofield’s one-out single. After Mark Guthrie struck out John Olerud, Aguilera came on and threw the wild pitch to Devon White, the first batter he faced.

Tony Castillo (4-1) blanked the Twins on four hits for 3 2/3 innings.

Kansas City 8, Milwaukee 3--Mike Macfarlane’s three-run homer highlighted a six-run seventh inning for the Royals at Kansas City.

Cal Eldred (9-9) took a three-hit shutout into the seventh but gave up a leadoff double to Felix Jose and a homer to Brent Mayne to cut the Brewer lead to 3-2.

Terry Shumpert then singled, stole second and scored on David Howard’s single. With two out, Brian McRae walked and Macfarlane hit an 0-1 pitch over the left-field fence for his 12th homer.