Devil Rays Pound Rangers

Jose Canseco likes hitting in Arlington and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have joined the list of teams that like hitting Texas Rangers pitching.

Canseco tied the major league lead with his 14th home run and John Flaherty had two home runs as the Rangers pitching staff struggled for the second consecutive game in the Devil Rays' 13-3 win over Texas Monday night.

Canseco tied Seattle's Ken Griffey Jr. for most homers in the majors with his towering three-run shot in the second inning off a restaurant window in left field. He now has 34 career home runs against Texas, the second-most by a Rangers opponent and 10 at The Ballpark in Arlington, also second by a Texas opponent.

Lately the Rangers pitching staff has been making a lot of mistakes. This was the Devil Rays' turn to capitalize on it.

Rangers starter John Burkett (0-3) allowed a career-high 12 earned runs in four innings to break his own club record for earned runs allowed in one game and set a major league high this season. Burkett allowed 11 earned runs against Kansas City on Aug. 24, 1998.

Burkett also tied Charlie Hough for most runs allowed in one game by a Rangers pitcher. Hough gave up 12 runs against Toronto on Aug. 16, 1986.

This after Aaron Sele allowed nine earned runs in 2 1-3 innings Sunday in a 16-5 loss to Baltimore as Rangers pitchers tied a club record for hits allowed in a nine-inning game with 24.

"We can't go like this for very long," said Rangers manager Johnny Oates.

"We'll sit down and put our collective heads together and hopefully come up with a plan for this. It's understandable that we can't keep digging holes."

Flaherty hit a two-run shot off Rangers starter Burkett in the first inning and added a thee-run blast off him in the fourth for his seventh of the season. It was his fourth multihomer game.

Fred McGriff had a solo home run off Ryan Glynn in the sixth inning, his 12th. The blast to right-center field gave him home runs in 35 ballparks, extending his own major league record.

Tampa Bay's four home runs and winning margin both matched club records.

Six Tampa Bay players had two or more hits and every starter had a hit except Danny Clyburn. McGriff and Canseco each had three RBIs and Canseco scored three runs.

With about 30 friends and family in the stands, Devil Rays starter Ryan Rupe (1-1) got his first major-league win by allowing three runs and four hits in seven innings.

Rupe was drafted out of Texas A&M by the Devil Rays with their sixth pick in last year's draft.

"I would have rather had it last week, but yeah, this was a good time to do it," said Rupe, who struck out four and walked three. "It certainly helped that they scored 13 runs. When they hit the ball that well, all I have to do is go out and throw strikes."

Rusty Greer hit his fourth home run in six games and sixth of the season in the first inning, a two-run shot to right-center field.

Burkett allowed eight hits and had five walks.

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