Aguilera Goes Route As Twins Tip Texas

American League

Rick Aguilera pitched nine innings for the first time in seven years and struck out a career-high 10 Friday night to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 9-2 victory over the visiting Texas Rangers.

Dave Hollins and Marty Cordova each had two-run doubles and Roberto Kelly went 4 for 5 for Minnesota, which won for just the second time in six games and closed within four games of Chicago in the wild-card race.

Yankees 5, Athletics 3

New York

Dwight Gooden pitched New York past their first-inning problems before leaving with a migraine headache, and newcomer Graeme Lloyd provided late relief that helped beat Oakland.

Lloyd - a much-needed lefty reliever the Yankees got before the game, along with infielder Pat Listach, in a trade with Milwaukee for pitcher Bob Wickman and outfielder Gerald Williams - made his debut in the seventh.

The A’s, trailing 4-3, had a runner on second with one out when Lloyd came in to face lefty Jason Giambi, who had hit an RBI single in his previous at-bat. Lloyd struck out Giambi, then Mariano Rivera relieved and fanned Mark McGwire to end the inning.

Blue Jays 4, White Sox 2

Chicago

Pat Hentgen pitched his fourth straight complete game and won for the ninth time in 10 starts as Toronto beat Chicago.

Hentgen (16-7) settled down after allowing five hits and two runs in the first two innings.

Tigers 3, Royals 2

Kansas City

Travis Fryman, Bobby Higginson and Tony Clark homered off Kevin Appier in the seventh inning to give Detroit a victory over Kansas City, which lost its sixth straight.

Appier (11-9) had allowed only a pair of singles entering the seventh when Fryman led off with a towering homer, his 18th, to give Detroit a 1-0 lead. One out later, Higginson hit his 20th home run and Clark followed with his 15th.

Brewers 6, Indians 5 (11)

Cleveland

Marc Newfield singled home the go-ahead run in the 11th inning, lifting Milwaukee over Cleveland.

Newfield, who threw out Manny Ramirez at the plate in the eighth to keep the game tied 5-5, hit a line drive to center off Jose Mesa (2-4) that landed just out of the reach of a diving Kenny Lofton.

Angels 2, Orioles 0

Baltimore

Shawn Boskie pitched 6-1/3 solid innings and Chili Davis and Jim Edmonds hit solo homers as California beat Baltimore, extending its winning streak to three games.

Boskie (12-6) allowed four hits and permitted only one runner past second base. The right-hander struck out seven and walked three.

Twins sign Knoblauch

The Minnesota Twins ended almost a year of speculation about Chuck Knoblauch’s future by giving the All-Star second baseman a $30 million, five-year contract extension.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am,” Knoblauch said. “This will finally end all the rumors and speculation that have been going on.”

The deal, which will pay $6 million per season, is virtually identical to the contract Kirby Puckett signed in December 1992 - the richest in Twins history.

Clearing the bases

Nearly three months after Albert Belle’s collision with Fernando Vina, the fans in Cleveland haven’t forgotten. In Friday’s opening game of the first series between the Indians and Milwaukee Brewers since Belle decked Vina in the basepath in Milwaukee on May 31, Vina led off and was booed loudly. He promptly doubled down the right-field line and scored on a throwing error by Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel to give Milwaukee a 1-0 lead. … California Angels left-hander Mark Langston, on the disabled list because of an injured right knee for the third time in 1996, will not pitch again this season.