American League Roundup : Twins Win on Brunansky’s Homer, Triple, 4-2

Bert Blyleven, the Minnesota pitcher usually victimized by the long ball, was instead the beneficiary Tuesday night at Minneapolis, where teammate Tom Brunansky drove home a pair of runs with a triple and a home run to lead the Twins to a 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

In getting the Twins back to the .500 mark at 22-22, Blyleven, who allowed a major league record 50 home runs last season, allowed four hits and struck out eight over seven innings to even his record at 4-4. Jeff Reardon came out of the bullpen to throw two hitless innings for his 10th save.

Brunansky tripled a run home off Milwaukee’s Juan Nieves (3-2) in the fourth inning to give the Twins a 3-0 lead. Two innings later, he hit his eighth homer, off the left-field foul pole.

The way the trade rumors have been circulating lately about Brunansky, he isn’t sure if his performance will make the Twins want to keep him, or if it merely raises his stock a bit in the trading market.

“It used to (bother me),” Brunansky said about the rumors. “I’m at a point now where there isn’t much I could do. This (Minnesota) is my home, and I want to stay here.”

While Brunansky has struggled at times this year, Twin Manager Tom Kelly never gave up, even giving him a green light on a 3-and-0 count on his sixth-inning homer.

“He’s worked hard to get back in the groove,” Kelly said. “Rumors are front-office stuff. I just worry about the guys on the field.”

Boston 6, Cleveland 5--Wade Boggs, the league’s batting champion in three of the last four seasons, is on one of his typical hot streaks, which is exactly what the Red Sox need as they try to make up ground from sixth place in the East.

In this game at Fenway Park, Boggs had two doubles and a single, driving in one run and scoring one to support pitcher Al Nipper. At the same time, he raised his batting average to .346.

Boggs hit only .283 while leading off in Boston’s first 25 games. But since Manager John McNamara moved him to the No. 3 spot on May 5, Boggs is hitting .429 with 4 homers, 15 RBIs and 16 runs scored.

‘I feel much more comfortable hitting third with a chance to drive in more runs than leading off,” Boggs said.

“Hitting third is where Wade Boggs has wanted to hit right along,” he said. “I hit third in spring training and had my best spring ever. Then when the season started, I was back in the leadoff spot. I hope I can stay where I am right now.”

With the help of a three-run homer by Dave Henderson, the Red Sox built a 5-0 lead in the first three innings. Then, after the Indians scored on Tony Bernazard’s solo homer in the seventh, Boston added an insurance run for a 6-1 lead.

Nipper (4-4) scattered 11 hits over 7 innings as the Red Sox won two games in a row for the first time in three weeks. In all, Cleveland had 15 hits.

Detroit 8, Texas 7--Kirk Gibson, who had homered earlier in the game, lined a two-out, two-run double in the 11th inning at Detroit, giving the Tigers their third straight win and 11th in their last 13 games.

Pete O’Brien put Texas ahead with a home run in the top of the 11th, but the Tigers came back in their half of the inning as Dave Bergman singled with one out and Lou Whitaker followed with a single. Darrell Evans hit a long flyout, with Bergman moving to third and Whitaker holding first.

Gibson then lined a 2-and-2 pitch from Dale Mohorcic (3-2) into the gap in left-center.

Mike Henneman (2-0), the fourth Detroit pitcher, worked the final 2 innings and got the victory. The game, held up for 31 minutes at the start because of rain, lasted 3 hours 51 minutes.

Ruben Sierra hit two home runs and drove in four runs for Texas.

Kansas City 5, Chicago 4--Willie Wilson had three hits, including a home run to lead off the game, to pace the Royals at Chicago.

“Hitting home runs is not my game,” said Wilson, whose homer was his first of the season. “My game is getting on base and making things happen. I hit nine home runs last year but hit only .269. That’s not good for me.”

Wilson, who boosted his average to .290, thought his double into the gap in the seventh inning was a bigger hit than the home run. It came with two outs after Jamie Quirk had singled, and both runners scored on a single by Kevin Seitzer.

It gave the Royals a 4-1 lead, but they needed all of that, plus a bloop, run-scoring pinch single by Hal McRae in the ninth that scored Bo Jackson with what proved to be the winning run.

It helped make a winner out of Danny Jackson (2-6), who retired 13 batters in one stretch and had a career-high 12 strikeouts. Dan Quisenberry picked up his sixth save with ninth-inning help of Jackson.