Randa's Streak Ends In Loss

Before this season, Ed Sprague said he had never delivered a game-winning hit in the last at-bat for his team. Now he's making it a regular occurrence.

Sprague singled off the wall in left-center field in the ninth inning Saturday night to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 9-8 win over the Kansas City Royals.

Sprague ended the game by hitting Jeff Montgomery's 0-2 pitch into the huge gap created by a drawn-in outfield with one out. It was the Pirates' ninth win in their last at bat and the second delivered by Sprague in the last month.

Matt Whisenant (2-2) walked Adrian Brown with one out. Then Al Martin, whose two errors had cost the Pirates three unearned runs, singled Brown to third.

"I wasn't looking at it as a chance for redemption," Martin said. "It's the ninth inning and I'm just trying to win the game. It feels good to win in spite of myself."

Martin was 4-for-6 to match his career best for hits. Sprague had three hits and three RBI.

"That was one of those games where it was going to come down to the last at bat," Royals manager Tony Muser said. "You keep whacking on each other and usually the team that has the last at bat is the one that prevails."

Joe Randa's streak of consecutive hits for Kansas City ended at 10, two short of the major league record. Randa singled in the second off Jose Silva for his team-record 10th hit in 10 at-bats. He then struck out in the third, ending his streak. He struck out and grounded into two double plays in his final three at-bats.

"I ended up getting myself out of my game plan a little bit because I swung at a lot of bad pitches," Randa said. "I guess I got too aggressive."

Randa fell short of the major league record of 12, shared by Pinky Higgins of the 1938 Boston Red Sox and Walt Dropo of the 1952 Detroit Tigers.

Jason Christiansn (2-2), Pittsburgh's sixth pitcher, worked the last two innings for the win.

The Royals have lost 10 of 14 games.

The Pirates tied the game at 8 in the sixth when Terry Mathews walked Young with the bases loaded. Mathews was ejected after the play when he questioned plate umpire Steve Rippley's call by gesturing with his arms raised.

"Ball four was the one he was questioning but there were pitches before that, too," Muser said. "Those things build."

The Royals had taken a 7-6 lead in the top of the inning on Jermaine Dye's two-run double.

Martin misplayed two routine balls in left field for errors that led to three unearned runs in the fifth. Martin dropped a fly ball for a two-base error, then misjudged Scott Leius' liner for another two-base error that scored two runs and gave the Royals a 6-4 lead.

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