Twins’ Radke Wins His 12th in a Row

Brad Radke pitched seven strong innings to tie a team record with his 12th consecutive victory as the Minnesota Twins, behind a pinch-hit grand slam by Greg Colbrunn, beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-3, Monday night at Minneapolis.

Radke tied the Twin record set by Scott Erickson in 1991 and became only the third pitcher since 1950 to win 12 consecutive starts. Bob Gibson of St. Louis did it in 1968 and Pat Dobson did it with Baltimore in 1971.

“I never really thought I should be there,” Radke said of his climb into the record books. “It’s nice to be up there. It’s nice to be on a streak like this.”

Radke’s winning streak is the longest in the majors this season, surpassing Roger Clemens’ 11-0 start. The American League record for consecutive victories is 16, held by four players. Schoolboy Rowe was the last to do it in 1934.

The major league record is 19, set by Tim Keefe in 1888 and matched by Rube Marquard in 1912.

Radke (16-5), who entered this season with a career record of 22-30, gave up five hits, struck out four and walked three as he lowered his earned-run average during the streak to 1.87. He left after throwing 125 pitches in seven innings.

Colbrunn’s second career grand slam, his first in the AL, came off reliever Omar Daal in Minnesota’s six-run fifth inning. Chris Carpenter (0-4) walked in the first two runs that inning.

New York 5, Kansas City 4--David Wells came within two outs of getting his third shutout in four starts, Charlie Hayes hit two home runs and the Yankees held on to win at Kansas City, Mo.

The victory was the fifth in six games for the Yankees, who moved 19 games over .500 and within 5 1/2 games of idle Baltimore in the AL East.

Wells (12-5) took a three-hitter into the ninth but was relieved by Jeff Nelson with one out after giving up two singles and committing a throwing error that let Kansas City to score its first run.

Glendon Rusch (3-8), who has lost six in a row and hasn’t won in eight starts, gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings.

Boston 11, Texas 5--Troy O’Leary’s three-run triple in the eighth inning led the Red Sox to victory at Arlington, Texas.

With Boston trailing, 5-4, John Valentin led off the eighth with a single off Matt Whiteside and Mike Stanley drew a walk off Danny Patterson (7-5). Wil Cordero’s infield single loaded the bases and O’Leary’s drive to left hit the scoreboard to clear the bases.

Butch Henry (5-2) pitched 2 1/3 innings of one-hit relief with three strikeouts to pick up the victory.

Nomar Garciaparra went three for five with his 19th homer and an RBI single for his league-leading 47th multi-hit game.

Cleveland 7, Detroit 2--Manny Ramirez homered and drove in four runs, Jim Thome hit his 30th homer and Charles Nagy continued his domination of the Tigers as the Indians won at Detroit.

Nagy (11-7) improved to 12-4 lifetime against the Tigers, his most victories against any club. Nagy gave up two runs on seven hits and two walks with seven strikeouts before Albie Lopez came on for the final two innings.

Ramirez had a two-run homer in the third, an RBI single in the ninth and a sacrifice fly in the first.

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BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

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Player Team Performance Team’s Result N. Garciaparra Boston 3 for 5, 3 runs, 2 RBIs Win Manny Ramirez Cleveland 2 for 4, homer, 4 RBIs Win Charlie Hayes New York 2 for 4, two solo homers Win

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PITCHING

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Player Team Performance Team’s Result Brad Radke Minnesota 7 innings, 5 hits, 12th consecutive victory Win Charles Nagy Cleveland 7 innings, 7 hits, 2 runs, 7 strikeouts Win David Wells New York 8 1/3 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 6 strikeouts Win

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