Burkett’s Pitching Keeps Texas Well-Armed

The Texas Rangers have relied on their bats for victories all season. On Thursday, they used their arms to defeat the Oakland Athletics.

John Burkett pitched eight strong innings for his first win since June 6 and Ivan Rodriguez singled in the tie-breaking run in the ninth as the Rangers defeated the Athletics, 4-1, and moved within half a game of the Angels in the West Division.

The Rangers lead the majors in hitting, but are not even among the upper half of AL teams in pitching.

“It’s good to win a low-scoring ballgame. We haven’t done that a lot,” Texas Manager Johnny Oates said. “That could be a confidence builder for us, that we were able to beat a very good pitcher.”

Pinch-hitter Tom Goodwin led off the ninth with a single off reliever Bill Taylor (3-6). Goodwin stole second and continued to third on a throwing error by catcher Mike Macfarlane, who had entered the game at the start of the inning. Will Clark then walked.

Juan Gonzalez, who leads the majors with 101 runs batted in, struck out. Rodriguez slapped a ball up the middle that hit Taylor’s heel and caromed past second baseman Bip Roberts into right field.

Rusty Greer followed with an RBI single to make it 3-1 and pinch-hitter Bill Haselman hit a sacrifice fly off Buddy Groom.

“You look at the results today, you could almost blame it on the three days off,” said Oakland’s Matt Stairs. “Both teams were sluggish.”

New York 2, Tampa Bay 0--Andy Pettitte pitched five-hit ball over eight innings as the Yankees won their seventh consecutive game and built on baseball’s best start in 96 years with a 2-0 victory over the Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Joe Girardi hit a two-run homer off Bryan Rekar (0-1) in the second inning, giving Pettitte (11-5) all he needed to win his fifth consecutive decision.

The victory kept the Yankees on pace with the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates for the best start through 82 games at 62-20.

Detroit 4, Toronto 3--Tony Clark hit a tie-breaking home run in the eighth inning, lifting the Tigers past the Blue Jays at Detroit.

Clark broke a 3-3 tie when he led off the eighth with his 18th home run, a towering blast into the upper deck in left field off Dan Plesac (3-3).

Geronimo Berroa hit his 100th career homer and Damion Easley had two RBIs for the Tigers, who won for the fifth time in seven games. The loss ended a three-game winning streak for the Blue Jays, who had won 10 of 13.

Minnesota 3, Cleveland 0--Bob Tewksbury gave up three hits in 7 1/3 innings as the Twins, trying to sound a warning shot from second place in the AL Central, defeated the Indians at Cleveland.

Tewksbury (5-9) retired 18 straight after Brian Giles’ double with one out in the second. Former Indian Greg Swindell got out of a jam in the eighth, and Rick Aguilera pitched the ninth for his 19th save.

Cleveland was shut out for the fourth time this season and third at home, and saw its lead over Minnesota shrink to 9 1/2 games.

Baltimore 3, Boston 2--Cal Ripken singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to lift the Orioles past the Red Sox at Baltimore. It was only the Orioles’ second victory in 13 games since June 22.

Roberto Alomar and Mike Bordick homered for the Orioles, who headed into the All-Star break having lost three straight and 11 of 12.

John Valentin and Darren Bragg had solo homers for Boston, which was trying to move 20 games over .500 for the first time this season.

Kansas City 6, Chicago 4--Sal Fasano drove in three runs night to match his career high and lead the Royals to a victory over the White Sox at Chicago.

Fasano, a Chicago native, hit an RBI double in the fourth and a two-run double in the sixth as the Royals won for the seventh time in 11 games.

Tim Belcher (8-7) won for the sixth time in seven decisions, giving up four runs on six hits and one walk over seven innings.

NEXT SERIES FOR ANGELS

WHO: Oakland A’s

WHERE: at Oakland

WHEN: Monday, 7 p.m.; Tuesday, 12:15 p.m.