American League Roundup : Against White Sox, It Continues to Be Roger, Over and Out

Most American League teams agree that Roger Clemens is easily the best pitcher in the league. Don’t count the Chicago White Sox among them.

The talented Boston Red Sox right-hander, winner of the last two Cy Young Awards, is just another pitcher to the White Sox.

Greg Walker and Ivan Calderon hit home runs Wednesday night at Boston, and the White Sox defeated Clemens, 6-2. It was the fifth consecutive time they had beaten him.

He has not beaten the White Sox since 1986, when he had a 24-4 record and the White Sox handed him half his losses. When he was 20-9 last season, the White Sox also beat him twice.

Clemens, in losing for the first time after four victories, gave up 7 hits and struck out 7 in 6 innings. He leads the majors in strikeouts with 67.

Former Stanford ace Jack McDowell took a big step toward erasing the stigma of being the first pitcher to lose to the Baltimore Orioles this season. McDowell (2-2) gave up just three hits in seven innings before giving way to Bill Long.

Clemens became a loser in the fourth when Walker, with two runners on, just cleared the barrier in right at the 302-foot mark for his second home run. It was only the second hit off Clemens. Calderon’s eighth homer of the season, a two-run shot in the sixth, cleared the wall at the 379-foot mark in left-center.

However, the White Sox success may be in jeopardy. Clemens wasn’t aware that they had caused him so much trouble.

“I was not aware I had lost so many in a row to them,” Clemens said.

McDowell didn’t think that he deserved the credit.

“I’m not going to walk around tomorrow saying I beat Roger Clemens,” McDowell said. “When your team scores that many runs against him, you’re going to beat him. Our team beat him. If he’d pitched a shutout, I would have lost.”

New York 4, Kansas City 3--Since the return of Billy Martin as manager, there have not been many dull games involving the Yankees.

In this one at Kansas City, George Brett, no longer known for his speed, hit an inside-the-park home run; winning pitcher John Candelaria was thrown out of the game, and Martin filed a protest.

The protest wasn’t needed because Rickey Henderson, who had three singles earlier, hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie.

Candelaria, after getting the Royals out in the seventh, argued with plate umpire Durwood Merrill. Merrill threw him out, and Martin announced the protest.

With one out and Kurt Stillwell on third in the third, Brett hit a line drive to the bullpen fence in right field. The ball hit hard off the fence and caromed sharply left, rolling along the base of the wall as right fielder Dave Winfield and center fielder Gary Ward gave chase. There wasn’t even a play at the plate.

Baltimore 4, Minnesota 3--So far, the Orioles are a .500 club in May.

Larry Sheets doubled home Cal Ripken in the 11th inning at Baltimore to give the Orioles a 3-23 record for the season.

Ripken, who is 26 for 49 in the last 15 games after going 2 for 43, walked with one out in the 11th. After Eddie Murray popped out, Sheets hit a slicing drive down the left field line that got by John Moses, and Ripken easily made it home.

The Orioles, who had a 2-1 lead going into the ninth, fell behind, 3-2, then rallied to send it into extra innings. Ripken’s double, an infield out and Sheets’ sacrifice fly tied it.

Milwaukee 6, Texas 5--Glenn Braggs drove home three runs at Milwaukee as the Brewers won their fifth game in a row.

Charlie Hough (3-4) continued to have his troubles trying to beat the Brewers. He gave up seven hits and six runs, five of them earned, in four innings and is 1-8 in his career against Milwaukee.

Mike Birkbeck (1-2) went 5 innings and ended a personal six-game losing streak.

Oakland 3, Toronto 2--The return home didn’t slow the Athletics’ mad dash through the West.

Bob Welch (4-2), Rick Honeycutt and Dennis Eckersley combined on a six-hitter as the A’s won their 10th in a row and increased their lead to 5 1/2 games.

Eckersley, unscored on in 14 innings, picked up his major league-leading 11th save by pitching the final 1 innings.

Carney Lansford, who went 2 for 3, including a home run, to raise his average to .339, keyed the Oakland offense.

Seattle 5, Cleveland 4--David Valle hit a two-run home run to cap a four-run sixth inning at Seattle, and Mark Langston struck out 10 batters.

Although his record is only 2-3, it was the fourth time Langston had struck out 10 or more this season.

Brook Jacoby and Ron Kittle homered to give the Indians a 2-0 lead in the third. After the home run, Jacoby left for Kansas City, where his wife is expecting a baby.

Langston went eight innings, giving up six hits, and Julio Solano pitched the ninth to pick up his third save.