American League Roundup : Blue Jays Rally to Thwart Red Sox Again, 5-2

The Toronto Blue Jays have found come-from-behind victories hard to come by this season, but they have recorded a pair in the last two days, when they needed them most.

Saturday at Toronto, the second-place Blue Jays fell behind by two runs but rallied for a 5-2 victory over the Red Sox, keeping Boston’s magic number at six and cutting its lead in the East to 8 1/2 games. The teams will meet four more times this year, including today.

Toronto also came back from a two-run deficit Friday night to win, 6-4, after coming into the series with a 26-39 record in games when the opposition scored first.

Boston got to Blue Jay starter Joe Johnson (6-2) for two runs and three hits in the second inning but got only five more hits before the Brookline, Mass., native left in the eighth. Mark Eichhorn pitched impressively for his 10th save, to go along with his 12 wins.

“I’m from the Boston area, so I was really pumped up,” said Johnson, a midseason acquisition from the Atlanta Braves. “I try not to think about the guys I’m pitching to.”

Eichhorn came in with Toronto leading, 5-2, but Boston had two runners on base and Jim Rice at the plate representing the tying run. Eichhorn, who lowered his earned-run average to 1.67, got Rice to ground into an inning-ending double play and struck out Don Baylor, Dwight Evans and Tony Armas in the ninth to end the game.

George Bell drove in two runs for Toronto, giving him 106 and breaking Willie Upshaw’s club record of 104 RBIs, set in 1983.

New York 5, Detroit 2--Rickey Henderson and Ron Kittle each homered during a five-run first inning at Detroit, and Ron Guidry gave up only three hits in seven innings to lead the Yankees.

Guidry (9-10) had all the runs he needed by the time he took the mound in the bottom of the first.

Henderson led off with his 27th homer, the eighth time he has opened a game in such fashion, breaking the league record of seven he set in 1985. Kittle added a three-run home run off losing pitcher Frank Tanana (11-8) to give New York a 4-0 lead.

Kittle, who went 3 for 4 to go with his 20th homer, said: “There’s a battle for second place, and that means some money to a lot of ballplayers.”

Cleveland 6, Oakland 5--Brook Jacoby’s one-out single in the 10th inning drove in Mel Hall with the winning run at Oakland.

Frank Wills (2-3) pitched 2 innings of one-hit relief for the Indians, and Ernie Camacho pitched the 10th for his 18th save. Jay Howell (2-6) took the loss by giving up an infield hit to Hall, a walk to Dave Clark and Jacoby’s single to left.

Baltimore 4, Milwaukee 3--Jim Traber broke out of a 10-for-71 slump with a two-run pinch single in the eighth inning at Baltimore to hand the Brewers their seventh straight loss.

Milwaukee fell 3 1/2 games behind the sixth-place Orioles in the battle to avoid the cellar in the East.

Minnesota 3, Texas 2--Tom Brunansky hit a two-out, two-run home run in the eighth inning at Arlington, Tex., as the Rangers had their four-game win streak snapped.