Crafty Rogers Has the Smarts to Win

Kenny Rogers and Rod Barajas made an adjustment after Brandon Inge’s homer in the first inning Tuesday night.

It worked so well that Rogers went on to give up only two more hits in seven innings, setting a team record with his sixth win of the month, and the Texas Rangers stretched their winning streak to nine games with an 8-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Detroit.

Inge, a right-handed batter, drove a 2-and-1 pitch into the right-field stands to tie the score at 1-1 leading off the bottom of the first.

“We saw they were really leaning out over the plate, trying to hit the sinker,” said Barajas, the Texas catcher. “We made an adjustment.”

Rogers (7-2) won his seventh consecutive start and lowered his American League-leading earned-run average to 1.65. He gave up one run, struck out a season-high six and walked one. He broke the team record for wins in May, which he had shared with Rick Helling.

Kevin Mench homered for Texas, which has scored 72 runs during the longest active winning streak in the majors. It’s the Rangers’ longest winning streak since a pair of nine-game streaks during 1999.

Cleveland 4, Minnesota 3 -- Victor Martinez’s two-run homer broke a sixth-inning tie to lift the Indians over the Twins at Minneapolis.

Cleveland slugger Juan Gonzalez, out since spring training because of a strained right hamstring, returned to the lineup but aggravated the injury while running out a grounder in his first at-bat and never made it to right field.

Kansas City 5, New York 3 -- Matt Stairs and Emil Brown had two hits apiece to get Buddy Bell off to a good start in his debut as Royal manager at Kansas City, Mo.

Bell, introduced just hours earlier as Kansas City’s 14th manager, watched his new team break a six-game losing streak. Run-starved Zack Greinke (1-6) won for the first time in 15 starts.

Boston 5, Baltimore 1 -- Wade Miller scattered five hits over seven innings to rebound from an awful outing where he lasted only two innings, and the Red Sox broke through against Daniel Cabrera at Boston.

Cabrera (4-4) held Boston hitless until Mark Bellhorn bounced a grounder up the middle with one out and one on in the fifth -- the first of four consecutive hits that led to a 4-1 lead.

Oakland 10, Tampa Bay 1 -- Dan Haren pitched a five-hitter for the first complete game of his career, and rookie Nick Swisher had a bases-loaded triple and a career-high four runs batted in to lead the Athletics at Oakland.

Toronto 9, Seattle 7 -- Vernon Wells tied career highs with two homers and five RBIs to lead the Blue Jays at Seattle.