American League Roundup : Tigers Hit 5 Homers, Hand Athletics 4th Straight Loss, 8-1

The Detroit Tigers hit five home runs and got strong pitching from Jeff Robinson and Paul Gibson Thursday night to defeat the Oakland Athletics, 8-1, in a battle of division leaders at Detroit.

Detroit increased its lead over New York to 3 games in the East, while Oakland’s lead remained at 3 1/2 in the West, even though the A’s lost their fourth straight.

The Tigers took a 3-0 lead in the second on consecutive home runs by Chet Lemon and Larry Herndon, and a home run by Mike Heath.

Luis Salazar hit a three-run home run, his 10th, in the third, and Ray Knight added a two-run shot later in the inning to make it 8-0.

Curt Young (6-6) allowed all the homers.

“I’ve never seen the ball jump like it did today,” Salazar said. “The reason the ball was not carrying so much the first two months was because of the cold weather. The last two weeks, it’s been carrying more and it’s going to carry the rest of the season.”

Robinson (10-3) gave up a leadoff single to Luis Polonia before retiring the next 17 batters. Robinson, who allowed three hits, including a run-scoring single to Jose Canseco in the seventh, left the game with two outs in that inning with a jammed right ankle.

Boston 4, Minnesota 3--Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd earned his first win in almost a month, and Bob Stanley was credited with his first save in more than a year as the Red Sox defeated the Twins at Minneapolis.

Boyd (7-7) allowed two earned runs and nine hits in six innings while winning for the first time since June 12. Stanley pitched the final three innings for his first save since Sept. 29, 1986.

The score was tied, 2-2, going into the sixth, which Jim Rice and Todd Benzinger led off with singles. The runners advanced on Rich Gedman’s sacrifice, and Rice scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Charlie Lea (5-4), who had won five straight. Jody Reed followed with a squeeze bunt that scored Benzinger with what turned out to be the winning run.

Boston’s Mike Greenwell hit his 15th home run in the second, giving him 66 runs batted in and tying him with Canseco for the league lead.

Gary Gaetti hit his 18th homer for the Twins, and Kirby Puckett went 3 for 5 to push his average to .354, moving him ahead of Boston’s Wade Boggs as the AL’s leading hitter.

Kansas City 7, Milwaukee 3--Mike Macfarlane hit a three-run home run, and George Brett had 3 hits and 2 RBIs as the Royals gained their first victory over the Brewers at Royals Stadium in eight games dating back to last season.

Charlie Leibrandt (5-10) shut out Milwaukee until giving up a run-scoring single to Jeffrey Leonard with two out in the sixth.

Milwaukee starter Chris Bosio (6-10) lasted 3 innings and lost his seventh straight game.

Kevin Seitzer opened a five-run second inning with a bunt single and scored after singles by Frank White and Bo Jackson. Pat Tabler followed with a single, but White was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Robin Yount.

Macfarlane followed with his second homer, which barely cleared the wall in left field.

Baltimore 6, Texas 0--Oswaldo Peraza and Tom Niedenfuer combined on a seven-hit shutout, and Mickey Tettleton, Ken Gerhart and Cal Ripken Jr. hit home runs to lead the Orioles at Baltimore.

Peraza (2-3), who entered the game with an earned-run average of 6.83, won for the second time in four starts since being recalled from the minor leagues on June 20. Peraza allowed six hits in seven innings, struck out seven and retired 11 in a row at one point.

Tettleton led off the second inning with a home run off Paul Kilgus (7-8), who lost to the Orioles for the second time in five days. Four batters later, Gerhart hit a two-run home run.