BASEBALL - GONZALEZ HOMERS TWICE AS RANGERS BEAT INDIANS .
ARLINGTON , Texas 1996-08-31
Juan Gonzalez homered twice and Ivan Rodriguez added a two-run shot as the Texas Rangers defeated the Cleveland Indians 5-3 in a matchup of division leaders Friday .
Rodriguez 's 18th homer , off Chad Ogea ( 7-5 ) in the first , gave Texas a 2-0 lead .
One out later , Gonzalez smacked his 40th homer , extending his hitting streak to 20 games .
Gonzalez , who hit in 21 straight games earlier this season , joined Mickey Rivers as the only players in Texas history with two 20-game streaks in the same year .
Gonzalez hit his second homer in the third for his fifth multi-homer game of the season .
Gonzalez has three 40-homer seasons and his 121 RBI broke Ruben Sierra 's team record of 119 set in 1989 .
The Indians had their four-game winning streak stopped .
" It 's not something I 'm going to try to explain , " said Texas manager Johnny Oates about his team winning seven of the 10 meetings from Cleveland this season .
" We 've got two more regular season games against them and we might get lucky enough or unlucky enough to play them in the post-season . "
Roger Pavlik ( 15-7 ) gave up three runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings and became the fourth 15-game winner in the American League .
Jeff Russell pitched two perfect innings for his third save .
Brian Giles and Jim Thome homered for Cleveland .
Cleveland 's lead over the White Sox in the American League Central dropped to nine games .
Texas 's lead over Seattle in the West increased to six .
At California , Tino Martinez 's two-run homer keyed a three-run first and Andy Pettitte became the league 's first 19-game winner as the New York Yankees beat the Angels 6-2 .
New York snapped a season-high five-game losing streak and also got homers from Mariano Duncan , Darryl Strawberry and Jim Leyritz .
Pettite ( 19-7 ) allowed two runs and eight hits over eight innings with a walk and seven strikeouts .
He improved to 12-2 following Yankees ' losses .
Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth , striking out two .
Ex-Yankee Randy Velarde hit his 11th homer , his most at any professional level .
In Seattle , Pete Incaviglia 's grand slam with one out in the sixth snapped a tie and lifted the Baltimore Orioles past the Seattle Mariners , 5-2 .
It was Incaviglia 's sixth grand slam and 200th homer of his career .
Baltimore 's Eddie Murray cracked his 20th homer of the season and 499th of his career .
Jay Buhner hit his 38th homer and Edgar Martinez his 23rd for Seattle .
The Orioles remained tied with the White Sox for the American League wild card with the Mariners a game back .
In Toronto , Kevin Tapani ( 12-8 ) allowed two runs and six hits over 7 1/3 innings and Frank Thomas hit his 29th homer and drove in three runs as the Chicago White Sox cruised to an 11-2 victory over the Blue Jays .
Thomas , Harold Baines and Robin Ventura each collected three hits .
Baines homered and scored three runs .
Danny Tartabull added two hits and three RBI as all Chicago starters got at least one hit .
In Oakland , Dave Telgheder scattered seven hits over eight innings and Mark McGwire hit his major-league leading 45th homer and drove in three runs as the Athetlics blanked the Boston Red Sox 7-0 .
Telgheder ( 2-5 ) snapped a personal three-game losing streak .
Buddy Groom pitched a perfect ninth inning .
McGwire singled home a run to spark a three-run sixth and capped the scoring with a two-run homer in the seventh .
The loss was Boston 's seventh in its last 29 games .
In Detroit , Todd Van Poppel pitched a five-hitter for his first career shutout and Tony Clark homered to cap a four-run first inning as the Tigers blanked the Kansas City Royals 4-0 .
Van Poppel ( 3-6 ) walked two and struck out two in defeating the Royals for the second time this week .
He threw 108 pitches as he lowered his ERA from 8.08 to 7.24 .
Kansas City has scored only one run in two games .
In Milwaukee , Marc Newfield homered off Jose Parra ( 5-4 ) leading off the bottom of the 12th as the Brewers rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins .
Milwaukee has won 10 of its last 15 .
Bob Wickman ( 6-1 ) pitched 2 2/3 hitless innings for the win , his second for the Brewers .
Matt Lawton hit a three-run homer off closer Mike Fetters with one out in the ninth to give Minnesota a 4-2 lead .
But Milwaukee tied it up in the bottom of the ninth on pinch-hitter Dave Nilsson 's two-run double .