American League Roundup : Clemens Rebounds--6th Shutout

After being knocked off the mound by the New York Yankees, Roger Clemens was anxious to get back on.

Clemens, in his first start since the worst outing of his career, scattered nine hits Saturday at Baltimore while pitching his major league-leading sixth shutout of the season, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-0.

“When you have a (lousy) performance, you want to get back out there and pitch well,” Clemens said. “I had to get back out there and do what I did.

“I had a better breaking ball today, but I think I had better stuff against New York. They only hit about three balls hard.”

Last Monday night, Clemens gave up 9 runs and 15 hits in 6 innings.

Clemens (10-4) walked 1 and struck out 9 to raise his major league-leading total to 149. He joined the Cleveland Indians’ Greg Swindell and the Minnesota Twins’ Frank Viola as the only American League pitchers with 10 victories.

Clemens is 8-0 on the road this season and has won 11 consecutive starts away from home. In his eight road starts this year, he has yielded 7 earned runs in 68 innings--an earned-run average of 0.93--and has held opposing batters to a .181 average on 45 hits in 249 at-bats.

Boston took a 2-0 lead in the first inning off Jose Bautista (2-6) when Dwight Evans doubled home a run and scored on Mike Greenwell’s single.

Wade Boggs singled home a run in the second, Evans had a run-scoring single in the fifth and Marty Barrett’s ninth inning single drove in the final run.

Detroit 6, Toronto 1--Walt Terrell pitched a three-hitter, and Pat Sheridan and Darrell Evans hit home runs as the Tigers beat the Blue Jays at Detroit for their 9th victory in 11 games.

The Tigers remained a half-game behind the Yankees in the East.

Sheridan hit a two-run homer in the first inning and doubled home two more runs off Jim Clancy (3-9) in a four-run fifth, which Evans capped with a two-run homer.

Terrell (3-3), winless in his previous four starts, walked 1 and struck out 2 in raising his record at Tiger Stadium to 33-8.

New York 6, Cleveland 3--Dave Winfield’s two-run homer capped a five-run fifth inning as the Yankees beat the Indians before a crowd of 48,936 at Cleveland to stay in first place in the East.

Cleveland, behind Scott Bailes (6-6), had a 2-0 lead in the fifth, but Don Mattingly tied the score with a two-run double, Jack Clark singled home Mattingly with the go-ahead run and Winfield followed with his 15th home run.

Rick Rhoden (3-5) allowed six hits, struck out four and walked one in six-plus innings. Cecilio Guante pitched three hitless innings for his eighth save.

Oakland 2, Texas 1--Ron Hassey singled home Luis Polonia from second base in the 13th inning at Oakland to give the Athletics their second straight extra-inning victory over the Rangers. Oakland won, 7-6, in 14 innings Friday night.

With one out in the 13th, Polonia singled off Dale Mohorcic (2-5), who also lost Friday night. Polonia stole second, and Hassey lined the next pitch into center field for his seventh game-winning RBI.

Gene Nelson (5-2) got the victory with 3 innings of shutout relief, escaping a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the 12th.

Minnesota 6, Seattle 2--Tommy Herr had three hits and scored three runs at Minneapolis as the Twins handed the Mariners their sixth straight loss.

Charlie Lea (3-3) scattered three hits to record his second win against Seattle in the past week and third straight victory overall. Jeff Reardon picked up his 19th save.

Milwaukee 6, Chicago 3--Robin Yount drove in three runs, and Bill Wegman combined with Dan Plesac on a seven-hitter as the Brewers held off the White Sox at Milwaukee.

Wegman (6-5) allowed 7 hits in 8 innings, and Plesac finished for his 16th save. The Brewers knocked out Melido Perez (6-3) with 5 runs in the first 2 innings.