American League Roundup : Clemens Is 11-0 After 3-2 Victory

Roger Clemens held the Blue Jays to four hits in eight innings Wednesday night at Toronto, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Blue Jays, 3-2, for the big right-hander’s 11th consecutive victory.

Clemens gave up one run and struck out six before Bob Stanley took over and yielded the final run in the ninth.

With his 11-0 start, Clemens is only four away from the American League record held by Johnny Allen of Cleveland (1937) and Dave McNally of Baltimore (1969). The major league record is 19-0 set by Rube Marquard of the New York Giants in 1912.

Don Baylor hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning to break a 1-1 tie and get Clemens the victory.

In a game delayed almost three hours at the start by rain, Clemens gave up an RBI double to Rance Mulliniks in the first inning, then retired 16 consecutive batters before Tony Fernandez doubled in the sixth.

The Red Sox scored their first run in the first when Wade Boggs, playing despite bruised ribs suffered Monday night when he fell trying to take off his cowboy boots, singled and scored on Jim Rice’s double.

The Blue Jays became the 10th team Clemens has beaten this season. Only Minnesota has been victimized twice by the pitcher.

Texas 6, Minnesota 2--Oddibe McDowell hit a three-run home run in the 16th inning at Minneapolis to give the Rangers the victory in the longest game ever played at the Metrodome.

Charlie Hough set a Ranger record by pitching the first 13 innings. In one stretch he retired 20 of 21 batters.

Rookie Allan Anderson worked 10 innings for the Twins in his major league debut.

Baltimore 4, Milwaukee 3--Mike Boddicker and Don Aase are becoming inseparable. What Boddicker starts for the Orioles, Aase almost always finishes.

In this game at Milwaukee, Boddicker went seven innings to improve his record to 8-1, and Aase pitched two scoreless innings for his major league-leading 17th save.

Boddicker, bothered by a tendon injury in the middle finger of his pitching hand for almost two months, has made 10 starts. He has pitched two complete games. Aase has appeared in the other eight, winning one and saving six.

The Boddicker-Aase situation brings to mind the relationship between New York Yankees Lefty Gomez and Johnny Murphy in the 30s. Gomez, one of the best pitchers of that era, was asked one spring if he thought he could win 20 games again. “I can if Murphy’s arm holds up,” Gomez, known as El Goofy, retorted.

The Brewers found the Orioles’ 1-2 punch hard to handle.

“That’s a pretty good combination,” Milwaukee Manager George Bamberger said. “Boddicker throws the off-speed stuff, then Aase comes in and throws the ball right by us.”

Detroit 9, New York 3--Ron Guidry’s luck continues to be all bad. In this game at Detroit, the first four runs he gave up were unearned, and the veteran left-hander went on to lose an unprecedented (for him) fifth consecutive game.

Guidry, who has won only once since April 24, went seven innings, giving up nine hits and two earned runs. He is 4-6.

Frank Tanana, moved up in the rotation because Dave LaPoint was at his grandmother’s funeral, pitched seven strong innings to improve his record to 6-4.

Cleveland 7, Oakland 4--Carmen Castillo and Tony Bernazard each hit two-run homers in the fifth inning at Cleveland as the Indians came from behind to beat the A’s.

The A’s, who have blown 6-0 and 3-0 leads the last two nights, have lost eight in a row and their last 10 on the road.

Dave Kingman hit his 14th home run for the A’s, and rookie Jose Canseco hit a sacrifice fly to run his RBI total to 57 in 60 games.

Seattle 12, Kansas City 2--The Mariners continued to show the World Series champions no respect, especially at Royals Stadium.

The Mariners scored seven runs in the second inning to knock out Charlie Leibrandt, then scored five more in the third to beat the Royals for the eighth time in their last nine games at Kansas City.

Mike Morgan (4-6) pitched an eight-hitter and breezed behind the Mariners’ 18-hit attack.