Baseball Roundup : Santiago Homers in 5-1 Win

Dennis Rasmussen pitched six no-hit innings, and Benito Santiago hit a three-run home run Thursday as the San Diego Padres downed Philadelphia, 5-1, in San Diego.

The victory, San Diego’s seventh in eight games, pulled them within 6 1/2 games of division-leading San Francisco, which was idle, in the National League West.

To Rasmussen, the possible no-hitter and shutout were secondary.

“We’re just trying to play it one game at a time and win as many games as we can,” Rasmussen said. “We’ve got a feeling in here that we didn’t have earlier in the season. Nobody cares who gets the job done, as long as we win the game.”

Rasmussen (8-9) retired the first 16 batters he faced before Dickie Thon drew a one-out walk in the sixth. The left-hander, who won for the fourth time in his last five decisions, lost his no-hitter in the seventh when Tommy Herr followed a leadoff walk to Len Dykstra with a single.

Ex-Padre John Kruk followed with a single that scored Dykstra. Mark Grant replaced Rasmussen, retired the side and went the final three innings for his second save, allowing three hits.

Rasmussen would have been the first San Diego pitcher to pitch a no-hitter since the Padres joined the National League in 1969.

The Padres scored in the second inning off Don Carman (4-15) on a double by Jack Clark and an RBI single by Chris James. Santiago followed one-out singles by James and Garry Templeton in the sixth with his ninth homer of the season, a drive over the left-field fence.

Toronto 5, Chicago 1--George Bell drove in three runs, two on a home run that extended his hitting streak to a club-record 22 games, as the Blue Jays moved into a tie with first-place Baltimore after a three-game sweep of the White Sox at Toronto.

Dave Stieb (14-8) allowed four hits in six innings, struck out two and walked two. Jim Acker followed with two hitless innings, and Tom Henke pitched the ninth to finish the combined six-hitter.

Steve Rosenberg (4-10) gave up five runs and nine hits in his second complete game of the season.

Toronto came back from a one-run deficit with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Mookie Wilson opened with an infield single and scored on Manny Lee’s triple. Lee scored on Bell’s ground-out to first base. Kelly Gruber doubled with two out, took third on Rosenberg’s wild pitch and scored on Tony Fernandez’ single.

Cleveland 11, Baltimore 0--Joe Carter hit two home runs, and John Farrell pitched a five-hitter at Cleveland, dropping the Orioles into a first-place tie with Toronto.

Farrell (8-13) got his sixth complete game, striking out five and walking two in his second career shutout.

Carter led off the fourth inning with his 27th homer, the first of five straight Cleveland hits off rookie Dave Johnson (4-3). Pete O’Brien and Brook Jacoby singled to put runners at first and third, and Cory Snyder and Brad Komminsk followed with RBI singles that finished Johnson.

In the fifth inning, Carter hit a two-run homer off Dave Schmidt, giving Carter 20 games in his career with two or more home runs.

Kansas City 3, Detroit 0--Bret Saberhagen pitched eight innings, allowed five hits, struck out seven and walked none at Kansas City, winning his eighth game in a row, as the Royals moved within 2 1/2 games of Oakland in the American League West.

Saberhagen (17-5) has won 14 of his last 15 decisions. Jeff Montgomery worked the ninth for his 15th save.

Kansas City scored an unearned run in the first after Kevin Seitzer doubled leading off. With one out, Bo Jackson hit a grounder under the glove of Detroit first baseman Dave Bergman, and Seitzer scored on the error. Seitzer led the offense with three of Kansas City’s six hits. Minnesota 8, Texas 6--Chip Hale’s first major league run batted in broke a 3-3 tie and helped the Twins win at Minneapolis.

Hale, called up last Saturday when Gary Gaetti was placed on the disabled list, hit a sacrifice fly to score Brian Harper with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fifth. He added an RBI single in the seventh.

Milwaukee 6, Seattle 1--Mark Knudson combined with two relievers on a five-hitter, and Billy Spiers drove in three runs at Milwaukee.

Knudson (5-4) walked one, struck out two and allowed four hits and an unearned run in 7 1/3 innings.