American League Roundup : Red Sox Beat Yankees, Move One Step Closer to East Title

The Boston Red Sox aren’t quite ready to claim the East title, but it’s getting harder for them to resist doing so.

“Every game we win makes it that much tougher on everyone who’s chasing us,” Manager John McNamara said Friday night after his Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, 7-2, in the opener of a three-game series in Yankee Stadium.

The victory, Boston’s 12th in its last 13 games, gave the Red Sox a 10-game lead over the second-place Toronto Blue Jays, who lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, and an 11-game lead over the third-place Yankees. The win also reduced Boston’s magic number for eliminating the Blue Jays to 12.

Bill Buckner went 3 for 4, including 2 home runs, and drove in 4 runs to support pitcher Bruce Hurst (11-7), who scattered 11 hits, all singles. Hurst, who struck out six and walked one, has won four of his last five starts.

Buckner is 9 for 12 with 5 home runs and 9 RBIs in his last three games. He has a career-high 17 homers this season. Previously, he had 16 last year and in 1983 with the Chicago Cubs.

“I’ve been hot like this before, but with hits, not home runs,” Buckner said. “I’ve never been this way with home runs. I can’t explain it. I go two months without a home run and now this.”

Milwaukee 4, Toronto 1--Jim Clancy gave up two hits and allowed only four Brewer baserunners in the first seven innings at Milwaukee, but two of them scored, which was enough to hand the right-hander his third straight loss.

The Brewers added two runs in the eighth. Consecutive doubles by Bill Schroeder and Jim Gantner gave Milwaukee a 3-1 lead. Paul Molitor’s single drove in Gantner.

It was the fifth straight loss for the Blue Jays.

Cleveland 9, Oakland 3--It was the Joe Carter Show at Cleveland. The big right fielder doubled twice, singled, scored four runs, drove in one, stole his 22nd and 23rd bases and threw a runner out at the plate to lead the Indians.

Carter has 104 RBIs, second in the American League to Oakland’s Jose Canseco, who has 108 after hitting his 31st home run in the first inning.

Rookie outfielder Terry Steinbach, just called up from Huntsville, Ala., of the Double-A Southern League, became the 26th player to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat when he homered in the seventh inning.

Minnesota 4, Texas 2--Kirby Puckett hit a three-run homer to make Tom Kelly’s managerial debut a success at Minneapolis.

Kelly, the Twins’ third base coach, was named interim manager after Ray Miller was fired Friday. The Rangers, who still trail the Angels by nine games in the West, also were playing under an interim manager.

Art Howe, the club’s hitting instructor and first base coach, will manage the team while Bobby Valentine sits out a four-game suspension. Valentine was suspended because the league ruled that he “questioned the integrity” of umpire Larry Barnett during an argument over balls and strikes in Thursday night’s 6-2 loss to the Twins.

Puckett went 2 for 4 to gain ground in the American League batting race. He has a .344 average, third behind Boston’s Wade Boggs (.350) and New York’s Don Mattingly (.345).

Detroit 5, Baltimore 3--Kirk Gibson’s two-out single in the seventh inning scored Tom Brookens with the tiebreaking run at Detroit. The victory was Sparky Anderson’s 1,500th as a major league manager. He is the 12th manager ever to reach that figure.

Seattle 4, Kansas City 2--Bob Kearney hit a two-out, two-run single to highlight a three-run 10th inning at Kansas City as the Mariners snapped the Royals’ four-game winning streak.

Mark Langston (12-11) allowed nine hits, including Willie Wilson’s solo homer in the bottom of the 10th, to raise his record against the Royals to 5-0.