Caruso’s Fielding Is Off Key, but He Still Hits a High Note

Mike Caruso’s hitting made up for his shaky fielding on his 21st birthday.

Caruso committed a three-run erro, but he had four hits to help the Chicago White Sox defeat the New York Yankees, 12-9, Wednesday night at Chicago.

“That was a huge win for us,” said Matt Karchner, who pitched the ninth to convert his 20th consecutive save opportunity. “We needed that in the worst way. We battled, made a few mistakes in the field, and the pitchers made a few mistakes. But to come back and win was huge.”

Caruso, a rookie shortstop, went four for five but made his 11th error in 38 games when he dropped Paul O’Neill’s bases-loaded fly ball in the third inning.

“I called for the ball. I should have had it,” Caruso said. “I had to [make up for it]. I didn’t want the game to be decided by that.”

Albert Belle had three hits and drove in four runs for the White Sox, who snapped the Yankees’ four-game winning streak.

Minnesota 6, Texas 5--Todd Walker went four for four and hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning at Arlington, Texas, as the Twins won their fourth consecutive game.

Walker hit a solo homer with two out in the seventh off Xavier Hernandez (1-1) for a 6-5 lead. He also tripled and drove in two runs in his second career four-hit game.

Minnesota matched its longest winning streak of the season. Texas lost its third in a row.

Mike Trombley (2-2) pitched two innings of one-hit relief for the victory. Rick Aguilera worked the ninth for his ninth save.

The Rangers’ Juan Gonzalez singled home a run in the fifth, giving him a major league-leading 62 RBIs.

Gonzalez was playing in his 1,000th game. With 852 RBIs, he has the seventh-highest total for 1,000 games in major league history. Hank Greenberg is the leader with 961 RBIs in his first 1,000 games.