Dye Getting Back in Swing of Things

Jermaine Dye admits his swing is still not quite right. Even so, the Oakland Athletics liked what they saw from him Wednesday night.

Dye hit his first home run since shattering his left leg last season and the Athletics beat Mike Mussina for the second time in a week, defeating the Yankees, 4-1, at New York.

“It’s been a long road back,” Dye said. “I’m just happy to be back in the lineup.”

Erik Hiljus (3-1) struck out nine in five innings before the bullpen got busy, pitching the Athletics to their fifth victory in six games.

Dye hit a wicked line drive the opposite way into the right-field seats in the third. He received hearty congratulations in the A’s dugout after his solo homer made it 3-0, and for good reason.

Last year, Dye sparked the Athletics to the wild-card playoff berth, hitting 13 homers with 59 runs batted in in 61 games after going from Kansas City to Oakland in a three-team trade.

But Dye crumpled to the ground after fouling a ball off himself in Game 4 in the first round of the playoffs against the Yankees. The former All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder spent the off-season and spring training trying to recover from the badly broken leg.

“We know what he can do,” Oakland Manager Art Howe said. “We were just biding our time, waiting for him to get healthy.”

Chicago 9, Seattle 2--Jon Garland won his fourth consecutive start, and Royce Clayton and Carlos Lee homered at Chicago as the White Sox waited through four rain delays and defeated the Mariners.

The game was called after eight innings after the fourth delay, which lasted 30 minutes. The delays lasted a total of 2 hours 3 minutes.

Garland (4-1) pitched five shutout innings, giving up only three hits on a wet, windy and cold night at Comiskey Park, where the game-time temperature was 48 degrees.

Boston 15, Baltimore 3--Manny Ramirez homered twice, and Jose Offerman went four for four to salvage another rough outing at Fenway Park for Pedro Martinez and lead the Red Sox over the Orioles.

Martinez (4-0) gave up three runs in five innings, including six hits and two walks while striking out five. He is 1-0 with a 9.45 earned-run average in three starts at home this year, and 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA in three road starts.

Detroit 7, Kansas City 6--Shane Halter hit a three-run homer and Wendell Magee had three hits and two RBIs, including a go-ahead single in the seventh off Cory Bailey (0-3) at Detroit.

Detroit (9-17), which had held a share of the AL Central cellar since the start of the season, moved past Kansas City (8-17), which dropped to 0-2 under interim Manager John Mizerock.

Jamie Walker (1-0) pitched 11/3 scoreless innings, and Juan Acevedo got six outs for Detroit’s first save this season.

Texas 8, Toronto 1--Dave Burba (2-0) pitched a four-hitter at Toronto for his first complete game since last June 23 and struck out nine, extending the Ranger winning streak to a season-high four.

Rusty Greer went four for five and Alex Rodriguez hit his 10th homer and drove in three runs. Toronto has lost seven in a row, its longest slide since Aug. 12-18, 1999.

Minnesota 5, Tampa Bay 3--Tom Prince hit a two-run homer at Minneapolis to back Rick Reed (3-1), who struck out seven--his most in 18 starts for Minnesota. Reed gave up three runs and eight hits in six innings.

Greg Vaughn ended an 0-for-34 slump with a double and a single for Tampa Bay--raising his average 17 points to .116. He is homerless in a career-high 174 at-bats since last Aug. 5 against Chicago.