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GAME LOG
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Catching Rocky Colavito on the career
home run list just felt like another game for Rafael Palmeiro.
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| Palmeiro |
"It just means I've been around for a long time," Palmeiro
said Thursday night after homering and driving in three runs to
lead the Texas Rangers over the Kansas City Royals 5-3.
A 13-year veteran, Palmeiro hit his 374th career homer leading
off the second and tied Colavito for 45th place.
"It really doesn't mean anything to me except that I'm passing
guys whose names are known," Palmeiro said. "I've been off and on
all season -- I've been hot and cold. And now it seems to be
coming."
Ivan Rodriguez was 3-for-5, raising his average to .381 and
moving ahead of Anaheim's Darin Erstad for the AL lead. The Rangers
won for the 11th time in 14 games.
The Royals all thought there was something special about
Palmeiro's milestone homer.
"Palmeiro hit a pitcher's pitch, down and away," Kansas City
manager Tony Muser said. "He's quite a hitter. Very compact. Never
seems to get off stride. When you can pull a pitch that's down and
away over the left-field fence, that's something."
Esteban Loaiza (3-2) went 6 2/3 innings for the victory, giving
up three runs on 10 hits, with a walk and five strikeouts.
John Wetteland pitched the ninth for his 12th save. He has
recorded saves in nine straight appearances, breaking the Rangers
record set by Mike Henneman in 1996.
"If I sit here and gloat about setting a record, and then I go
out and blow tomorrow's game, what does it mean?" Wetteland said.
"We're not concerned with anything except winning tomorrow."
The Royals, who a night earlier stopped the Rangers' seven-game
winning streak, had shut them out for 13 straight innings before
Palmeiro homered in the second. David Segui then homered on Mac
Suzuki's next pitch.
It was the first time this season the Rangers hit consecutive
homers. The Royals have now given up a major league-leading 80 home
runs.
After Luis Alicea tied it 3-all with an RBI single in the
seventh off Jose Santiago (4-2), Rodriguez sliced a line drive down
the right-field line with two out. A spectator appeared to reach
over the railing and touch the ball, and Texas manager Johnny Oates
argued for about 10 minutes when umpires decided it was a
ground-rule double.
Alicea was sent back to third, but Palmeiro followed with a
single.
Brian Johnson, who had a two-run double in the fourth, put the
Royals ahead 3-2 in the sixth with a sacrifice fly that Scarborough
Green made a great play on.
Green, a last-minute replacement for Ruben Mateo in center
field, saved a second run with his running back-to-the-infield
catch of a ball that appeared to be going over his head.
"The next time he came up I asked him why couldn't he just let
that one go," said Johnson, the Royals' catcher. "I said no one
would blame you for not getting to that one."
Green and manager Johnny Oates both called it "the play of the
game."
"It was a ball over my head," he said. "I was playing shallow
as I usually do. I picked a spot on the wall where I thought it was
going to be, and there it was."
Johnson's two-run double in the fourth hooked down the
left-field line just an inch or so above third baseman Mike Lamb's
outstretched glove.
Game notes
The Rangers scratched Mateo from the lineup after he
developed tightness around the right side of his rib cage in
batting practice. He was not believed seriously hurt. ... Texas SS
Royce Clayton, in an 0-for-14 skid which has dropped his average
from .259 to .239, was given the night off. ... Next on the home
run list ahead of Palmeiro is Carlton Fisk with 376. ... Although
they've stolen only one base in their last six games, the Royals
still lead the league with 49 thefts.
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