Alberto Callaspo dressed quickly and raced out of the ballpark to meet his wife at the airport.
Perhaps the error-prone second baseman couldn’t wait to tell her the Kansas City fans weren’t so mad at him any more.
His two hits and three RBI enabled the Royals to double their run total of the four previous games combined and beat the Chicago White Sox 6-4 Saturday.
“Two really big hits,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said. “We finally got some key hits and bunched some key at-bats together.”
It was the Royals’ first win in seven tries against the White Sox and snapped Chicago’s seven-game winning streak. Perhaps it also cooled, at least momentarily, the fan wrath that had been building against Callaspo after his errors at second were big factors in the Royals’ losing their previous four games.
Callaspo got his big day started, and gave the Royals their first run in 13 innings, with an RBI triple off Gavin Floyd (6-6) in the fifth.
“Callaspo hit a slider that didn’t slide,” Floyd said.
Then the switch-hitter turned around to bat right-handed against Matt Thornton in the sixth and blooped a two-run single into right field.
That made it 5-4. Then the bullpen retired nine batters in a row in support of Luke Hochevar (4-3), who went six innings and gave up four runs, including two homers.
TWINS 4, TIGERS 3: Justin Morneau had four hits, including a homer and the tying single in the seventh, as host Minnesota rallied.
Magglio Ordonez’s three-run homer in the seventh spoiled an otherwise stellar start by Francisco Liriano, but Morneau capped the rally with his hit in the bottom of the inning.
In the eighth against Brandon Lyon (3-4), Nick Punto poked a soft single over the outstretched glove of shortstop Adam Everett to allow pinch-runner Matt Tolbert to score on a head-first slide just ahead of the relay throw.
INDIANS 5, ATHLETICS 2: Carl Pavano earned his first win in five starts to lead host Cleveland.
Ben Francisco and Grady Sizemore hit homers off Vin Mazzaro (2-4) for Cleveland, which won consecutive games for the first time since June 11-12. The Indians’ fourth win in 17 games stretched their winning streak to six against the Athletics since April 12, 2008.
Kerry Wood, the fourth pitcher used by Cleveland manager Eric Wedge, worked the ninth for his first save since June 23 and 10th in 14 chances.
YANKEES 6, BLUE JAYS 5, 12 inn.: Jorge Posada hit a game-winning RBI single in the 12th inning to lift host New York. With one out and runners on first and second, Posada lined a 1-1 pitch from Shawn Camp into center field. Alex Rodriguez scored without a play.
MARINERS 3, RED SOX 2: Chris Woodward’s bases-loaded pop-up in the ninth inning dropped behind a partly draw-in infield to score the go-ahead run for visiting Seattle. Jason Varitek hit a two-run homer for Boston. Russell Branyan drove in the other two runs for the Mariners.
RANGERS 12, RAYS 4: Andruw Jones homered and drove in four runs, and Michael Young added a three-run double as host Texas won its fourth in a row.
Jones’ three-run shot in the first and Young’s bases-loaded double gave the Rangers a 6-1 lead against David Price (2-3), who gave up a career-high six runs in 1 1/3 innings.
