American League Roundup : Indians Push Yankee Loss Streak to 3 Games

Ron Kittle took no special pleasure in hitting two home runs against his former New York teammates, other than the feeling any player gets from beating the Yankees.

“I don’t hold grudges,” Kittle said after his two solo homers helped the Cleveland Indians defeat the Yankees, 6-4. “But it’s fun doing something against the Yankees. I’ll tell you, it’s something special putting on that uniform. Those guys in their clubhouse will tell you that.”

Kittle hit his homers in his first two at-bats of the season against New York. Both came off starter John Candelaria (8-3), whose seven-game winning streak was stopped.

The Indians got 10 hits, 8 for extra bases. Cleveland is 14-2 against left-handed starters.

A crowd of 56,485 at Cleveland saw the third-place Indians pull within two games of the first-place Yankees in the American League East. New York has lost three in a row.

Cleveland starter John Farrell (7-4), gave up 4 runs, 3 of them earned, on 6 hits in 7 innings. Doug Jones pitched the final four outs for his 16th save.

Minnesota 4, Seattle 1--Tim Laudner doubled home three runs to break a tie in the sixth inning, sparking the Twins over the Mariners at Minnesota.

Minnesota has won 3 straight and 7 of its last 10 games. Twin starter Frank Viola (10-2) allowed 1 run and 6 hits in 6 innings. Jeff Reardon pitched the ninth for his 18th save.

Seattle starter Scott Bankhead (1-3), allowed 3 runs on 5 hits in 5 innings to take the loss.

The game-winning hit came in the sixth when Laudner doubled in three runs with the bases loaded.

Milwaukee 7, Chicago 2--Jeffrey Leonard hit his first American League home run, and Jim Gantner drove in three runs as the Brewers beat the White Sox at Milwaukee.

Leonard, who came to the Brewers in a June 8 trade with the San Francisco Giants, homered in the fifth off Bill Long (2-3) for a 4-0 lead. Leonard immediately broke into his “one flap down” home-run trot, to the delight of 33,657 fans at County Stadium.

“It’s something the fans wanted to see, and I had to do it to get it out of the way,” Leonard said.

In his next at-bat, Leonard was hit on the leg by Long’s first pitch and walked slowly to first base as plate umpire Al Clark went to the mound to warn Long.

Rookie Don August (3-1) called up from triple-A June 2, beat the White Sox for the second time in a week with a six-inning, four-hit effort.

Steve Lyons hit a two-run homer in the Chicago sixth that made it 4-2. Paul Mirabella took over in the seventh, and Chuck Crim went 1 innings for his third save.

Detroit 12, Toronto 5--Chet Lemon, who tripled and doubled earlier, hit a tie-breaking, two-run home run in the seventh inning to lead the Tigers past the Blue Jays at Detroit.

The game took 3 hours 59 minutes, breaking the record for the longest nine-inning night game in American League history. The previous longest was 3 hours, 56 minutes on Aug. 1, 1977, between Texas and Chicago.

Alan Trammell opened the seventh with a single off losing reliever David Wells (3-4). Trammell was balked to second and Lemon lined a 1-0 pitch into the left-field seats for his fourth home run of the season.

The Tigers broke the game open with five runs in the eighth, capped by Darrell Evans’ three-run home run.

Reliever Guillermo Hernandez (4-2) earned the victory.

Baltimore 3, Boston 2--Jim Traber singled home Eddie Murray with one out in the 11th inning to lead the Orioles to victory over the Red Sox at Baltimore.

Murray drew a one-out walk from Dennis Lamp (1-3). Murray then stole his fourth base of the season and continued to third when catcher Rich Gedman’s throw went into center field. Traber followed with a single to center.

Dave Schmidt (3-2) pitched two innings of hitless relief to gain the victory.

Orioles starter Jay Tibbs allowed 3 hits in 9 innings, and retired 21 of the last 22 batters he faced. The only man to reach base against Tibbs in his final six innings was Marty Barrett, who drew an eighth-inning walk.