Orioles Win Two From Devil Rays

The Baltimore Orioles planned to give Dave Borkowski one start, thank him for filling a void and hand him a one-way ticket back to the minors. The right-hander ruined that plan with a pitching performance that was nothing short of remarkable.

Making his first major league appearance since 2001, Borkowski took a shutout into the ninth inning Monday night, leading the Orioles past the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 8-2, for a doubleheader sweep at Baltimore.

“I told him, ‘You’re staying here. We appreciate this, don’t move too quick,’ ” Manager Lee Mazzilli said.

Borkowski gave up six hits, struck out six and walked one in his first start since April 23, 2000.

In the first game, Daniel Cabrera and two relievers limited Tampa Bay to four hits, and Baltimore received successive two-out run-scoring doubles in the seventh inning by Luis Matos and Tim Raines Jr. in a 4-2 victory.

Minnesota 9, Kansas City 0 -- Brad Radke pitched a four-hitter at Minneapolis for his first win since May 22.

Kansas City has lost six in a row for the second time this year and, at 29-51, has the franchise’s worst record after 80 games.

Jacque Jones and Nick Punto hit two-run homers for Minnesota, which has won three of four.

Radke (5-4) struck out four and walked none in Minnesota’s first complete game since Radke beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-2, on Sept. 11.

New York 10, Detroit 3 -- Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Bernie Williams and Ruben Sierra hit home runs for the Yankees at New York.

Swept by the New York Mets over the weekend, the Yankees took a 7-0 lead in the second inning. Jason Giambi, who hadn’t started since June 26 because of intestinal parasites, put the Yankees ahead with a run-scoring single.

Jon Lieber (6-5) pitched a shutout into the seventh. Detroit lost its fifth in a row.

Texas 8, Cleveland 5 -- Kenny Rogers became baseball’s first 12-game winner, and the Rangers roughed up All-Star C.C. Sabathia at Cleveland.

Rogers (12-2) didn’t encounter much trouble until the sixth inning, when the Indians cut the deficit to 8-5. Before that, the 39-year-old was in control, using his usual assortment of off-speed pitches to confound Cleveland’s hitters.

Rogers is only one win shy of his victory total for each of the last two seasons.

Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run homer and Mark Teixeira had two runs batted in and scored three times for the Rangers, 12-5 since June 18.