American League Roundup : Niekros Get Act Together; Phil Falls Short, 1-0

Phil Niekro, with younger brother Joe looking on, pitched one of his best games Wednesday night at Boston, only to be a victim of poor support.

Roger Clemens, last season’s American League Cy Young Award winner, worked out of four jams to pitch the Red Sox to a 1-0 victory over Niekro and the Cleveland Indians.

Joe, who pitches for the New York Yankees, was in attendance because a victory by Phil, 48, would have given the Niekros 530 victories and broken the tie with Gaylord and Jim Perry for the most victories by brothers.

The Yankees gave Joe, who beat the Angels Saturday night at Anaheim to tie the record, permission to leave the team and attend the game. Joe, 42, has won 216 games, and will get his chance to break the record Saturday against the Oakland A’s.

Phil, a winner of 313 games, pitched a four-hitter, but his wild pitch led to the only run of the game in the fifth inning. Jim Rice singled, took second on the wild pitch, third on an infield out and scored on Bill Buckner’s sacrifice fly. Otherwise, Niekro, who has lost five in a row since winning his first two decisions, was in command.

“I’ll be there when Joe pitches,” Phil said. “I hope he fares better than I did tonight.”

It was the best pitching by Phil since he worked 7 scoreless innings May 1 in beating the Kansas City Royals. In his last four starts, he pitched 18 innings, gave up 26 hits and 21 earned runs.

The Indians threatened often, but Clemens, who has struggled after staging a walkout in spring training, pitched out of trouble. With runners on second and third in the first inning, he struck out Mel Hall. With a runner on third in the third, Pat Tabler flied to left.

The Indians’ best chance came in the sixth. Brett Butler and Julio Franco opened with singles, and Tabler sacrificed. But Joe Carter popped up and Hall grounded out.

Sparkling fielding plays by shortstop Spike Owen and third baseman Wade Boggs followed Butler’s double with one out in the eighth.

“It’s just amazing to see him (Niekro) go out there and pitch,” said Clemens (4-4) after pitching his second shutout.

“I just didn’t make any mistakes tonight. I made some good pitches, and the guys played great defense behind me. I think the key was I had a good fastball and was ahead of the hitters most of the time.”

Oakland 4, Toronto 1--Rookie Mark McGwire hit his league-leading 17th home run and singled in another run at Toronto to pace the Athletics.

Another rookie, Luis Polonia, also homered to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.

McGwire’s home run leading off the fourth landed 15 rows into the left-field bleachers to get Moose Haas (2-1) off to a good start. Haas gave up five his in six innings.

Of McGwire’s last 17 hits, 12 have been home runs.

“I’m just trying to take it in stride, but hitting as many home runs as I have has come as a surprise,” said McGwire, who has an eight-game hitting streak, during which he six home runs. “I just go up there to see the ball and hit the ball. You know the pitchers are going to be around the plate, so you can be more aggressive.”

Chicago 3, Kansas City 2--Harold Baines, who struck out four times for the first time in his career Tuesday night, made amends at Chicago.

The White Sox designated hitter had two singles and his third home run to lead Chicago’s 10-hit assault on Charlie Leibrandt (6-3).

Detroit 4, Texas 3--Jack Morris (6-2) gave up just three hits at Detroit, but he barely won because all three were home runs, two of them by Pete O’Brien.

Kirk Gibson, who hit a two-run double in the 11th inning to win Tuesday night, hit a two-run home run in the third inning to lead the Tigers to their 12th win in 15 games.

Seattle 6, New York 5--The Yankees returned home after a 7-3 trip that solidified their grip on first place in the East. They went into this game with the best home record in the majors, 14-2.

But David Valle, who hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the tying run as a pinch-hitter in the fifth, singled off reliever Ron Guidry (0-1) in the seventh to bring home the winning run.

The Mariners used seven pitchers, and the last one, Mike Trujillo, got the last out for the save.

Minnesota 7, Milwaukee 2--Frank Viola gave up five hits and struck out seven in six innings at Minneapolis as the Twins handed the slumping Brewers their fourth loss in a row.

The Brewers have lost 16 of 18.