Jun 24, 2002 5 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Alex Rodriguez doesn’t go into too many slumps, so it seems as if he’s picked the right time to get out of this one. Rodriguez hit a two-run homer for his first extra-base hit in 16 games and the Texas Rangers finished off a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning 10-4 Sunday.

Kevin Mench also hit a two-run homer, Mike Lamb had four hits and Chan Ho Park (3-3) made his best start in weeks by limiting the slumping Pirates to two runs over six innings.

The Rangers won their fifth in a row and seventh in 10 games, while the Pirates lost their sixth straight – all at home to AL clubs – and ninth in 10 games. They have scored only 13 runs during their losing streak.

“I felt all along we were going to be a second-half club,” Rodriguez said. “Hopefully, our health stays the way it is now and we’ll be OK.”

The Rangers went 6-3 on an all-NL road trip against the Astros, Cubs and Pirates. Chasing three clubs in the AL West, they return home for a 14-game homestand that begins with a doubleheader Monday against Anaheim.

“We’ve got to keep playing good baseball and continue the momentum we’ve built on this trip,” Rodriguez said. “Absolutely, this is a very important homestand for us, the most important one of the year.”

Being at home isn’t helping the Pirates, who were swept in consecutive three-game series by Oakland and Texas and are 0-6 on a nine-game homestand. They are 1-8 in interleague play.

“Your guys are going to struggle at times, and you’re going to lose five or six or seven games in a row during a 162-game season,” manager Lloyd McClendon said. “But we’re going to stay focused on what we’re doing. It was an ugly game, but this can happen.

“We could come out Tuesday and score 35 runs in our next series.”

Pittsburgh couldn’t get the Rodriguezes out in their first matchup against Texas, with Ivan Rodriguez, who didn’t play Sunday, driving in three of the Rangers’ first five runs in the series. Alex Rodriguez had four hits in the final two games, including his 21st homer following Lamb’s single in the third.

Just as encouraging to the Rangers was Park’s outing. He allowed four hits to beat the Pirates for the first time in six starts since 1998.

“It was his best start of the year,” Alex Rodriguez said. “I think he’s a little more familiar with the National League and he did a great job.”

Park, a big disappointment so far after winning 46 games the previous three seasons for the Dodgers, had won only once since May 12. He entered with a 9.40 ERA and gave up at least three runs in all but one of his first nine starts.

“The feeling is not quite there yet, but the focus is there,” Park said. “I had better command, I wanted to be aggressive and my fastball was good.”

It was the first time Park has pitched since Orel Hershiser, his former Dodgers teammate and mentor, took over as the Rangers’ pitching coach.

“I feel good, but it’s up to me,” Park said. “I hope he can give me some help in the future, but I have to do my job.”

Alex Rodriguez’s homer came off Josh Fogg (7-6), who has allowed at least one home run in nine consecutive starts. Fogg, losing for the fifth time in his last seven decisions, gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings.

“I threw too many bad pitches, that’s what it comes down to,” he said.

Fogg fell behind 2-0 in the first – the fourth time in six games the Pirates have trailed by two or more runs before they batted – on Juan Gonzalez’s RBI single and Rafael Palmeiro’s sacrifice fly.

Pittsburgh got a run back on Aramis Ramirez’s run-scoring single in the first, but Alex Rodriguez’s homer made it 4-1 in the third. Alex Rodriguez was in a 3-for-34 slump before getting three hits Saturday night and had only one RBI in 14 games.

The stretch of 15 games without a homer was the third-longest of his career, with his longest being a 17-game drought in 1994. Mench’s homer, his sixth, came on an 0-2 pitch by reliever Ron Villone and was his fourth homer in seven games.

Bill Haselman and Ryan Ludwick had RBI singles, and Lamb hit a two-run single in a four-run eighth against reliever Mike Fetters. Lamb went 4-for-5 with four singles.

Rob Mackowiak hit a two-run homer over the right-field stands in the ninth for Pittsburgh. Notes:@ Mackowiak’s homer bounced into the Allegheny River on two hops, the sixth such ball to do so at PNC Park. No one has homered into the river on the fly. … Fogg was 5-1 with a 2.36 ERA in his first eight starts but is 2-5 with a 5.71 ERA in his last seven. … Park had been 0-4 with a 6.32 ERA in five starts against the Pirates since beating them on June 26, 1998. … Texas is 8-7 against the NL.