From the little leagues to the big leagues, batters are told that a walk is as good as a hit. That is, unless the hitter is John Olerud.
Instead of taking a walk, Olerud swung at what would've been ball four and hit a home run in the ninth inning Thursday night that gave the Toronto Blue Jays an 8-7 victory over the Texas Rangers.Olerud homered on a full-count pitch from Cris Carpenter leading off the ninth in Texas. Olerud's 19th homer of the season also raised his batting average to an even .400.
No major leaguer has been batting .400 this late in the season since George Brett reached the mark on Aug. 17, 1980.
"There's no pressure on me to hit .400," Olerud said. "It wasn't a goal I set out to do at the beginning of the year."
Olerud hit an RBI double in the first inning, then Texas became determined to pitch around him. The Rangers walked him in his next three at-bats, twice intentionally.
"We tried not to let Olerud beat us," Rangers manager Kevin Kennedy said. "He's hitting .400 for a reason. That's why we intentionally walked him."
But in the ninth, Olerud swung at a high slider and hit it over the right-field fence.
"I don't know that that was a good pitch to swing at," Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. "The ball was up and out of the strike zone. John just went after it and got enough of it to hit it out."
Joe Carter doubled twice and drove in four runs for Toronto.
Red Sox 9, Athletics 7
Boston won its seventh straight game, breaking a tie in the eighth inning after second baseman Brent Gates made Oakland's fourth error of the game.
Mike Greenwell singled home the go-ahead run and Mo Vaughn drove in another run with his fourth single. The Red Sox have won 22 of their last 27.
Rickey Henderson homered twice and drove in three runs for the visiting A's. He trotted home slowly after his second homer and exchanged words with pitcher Danny Darwin, causing the benches to briefly empty.
White Sox 7, Brewers 2
Bo Jackson homered and drove in three runs, helping Jack McDowell become the first 15-game winner in the majors. Chicago won for the 10th time in 13 games and sent visiting Milwaukee to its seventh straight loss.
McDowell (15-6) improved to 9-1 lifetime against the Brewers despite giving up 12 hits in 71/3 innings.
Yankees 12, Angels 1
Danny Tartabull hit two of New York's five home runs. Don Mattingly hit his 200th career home run, and Paul O'Neill and Mike Stanley also connected. The Angels lost their sixth straight game.
Jim Abbott (7-8) gave up only an unearned run in eight innings. Russ Springer (1-5) was the loser.
Royals 12, Tigers 6
Greg Gagne hit the 10,000th home run at Tiger Stadium and Kansas City sent Detroit to its 21st loss in 28 games.
Tiger Stadium is the first ballpark where 10,000 major league home runs have been hit.
Gagne drove in four runs, George Brett had three hits and drove in two runs and Wally Joyner had three hits and scored three times. Royals manager Hal McRae was ejected for the second straight game and for the sixth time this season.
Twins 8, Orioles 4
Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield and Brian Harper each drove in three runs as Minnesota beat Baltimore at the Metrodome.
Mariners 3, Indians 2
Ken Griffey Jr. homered for the third straight game and Seattle beat Cleveland for the eighth time in nine meetings this season.
Griffey has 25 home runs, two shy of his career high set last year.
Omar Vizquel singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning off Jeff Mutis (2-3).