American League Roundup : After 24 in Row, Red Sox Lose at Fenway, 18-6

Everything pointed Sunday to the red-hot Boston Red Sox winning their 25th consecutive game at Fenway Park.

They had Roger Clemens, one of the best pitchers in the majors, going against Eric King, the weakest starter on the Detroit Tiger staff.

Furthermore, the Tigers were leading the American League East because of their pitching and defense. They had lost by scores of 9-4 and 16-4 the previous two days at Fenway, which is a hitter’s ballpark.

So what happened? The Tigers knocked Clemens (15-8) out before he had retired five batters and clobbered the Red Sox, 18-6, to end their league-record home winning streak at 24 games, two short of the major league mark.

After the game, the Red Sox revealed that Clemens has a muscle strain in his side and may miss his next start.

Chet Lemon and Darrell Evans each drove in five runs as the Tigers increased their division lead to 3 1/2 games.

After the Tigers turned five hits and three walks into eight runs in 1 innings off Clemens, they kept on pounding away at his successor, Mike Smithson. They built a 14-0 lead, and King (3-1) coasted to the victory.

In their previous six games, the Tigers had scored a total of only 15 runs.

For the Red Sox, the end of the streak was the least of their worries.

Mike Greenwell, who is tied for the major league lead with 92 runs batted in, was injured running into the wall chasing down Dwayne Murphy’s double in the third inning. Greenwell bruised his elbow and may miss several games.

Then there’s Clemens, who has lost three games in a row for the first time in his career.

“He’s got a slight muscle strain in his right side,” the team doctor, Arthur Pappas, said. “It’s affecting the way he’s pitching. We don’t know how this came about. I don’t know if he’ll make his next scheduled start.”

In consecutive starts in late July, Clemens made a total of of 310 pitches. He hasn’t pitched well since.

“He never pitched well against us,” Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson said.

Clemens, who was pounded for seven runs in 6 innings at Detroit Aug. 4, is 4-4 lifetime against the Tigers with an earned-run average of 5.59.

The last loss at home for the Red Sox was against Baltimore June 24, and the loser was Clemens. Sunday’s loss was the first at Fenway Park for Manager Joe Morgan after 19 victories in a row.

Morgan was more concerned with Clemens, who has given up 18 earned runs in his last 14 innings.

Of Lemon’s 3-run homer in the first inning on a 3-0 pitch from Clemens, Morgan said, “That’s the first time in four years that I’ve seen a home run hit off his knee-high fastball. I don’t like it.”

The temperature was 103 at game time. The hot weather may have had something to do with so many runs being scored throughout the majors Sunday. The 24 runs at Fenway were the highest total by only a small margin.

New York 9, Minnesota 6--The Yankees are battling to stay close to the Tigers and set up a stretch drive to the pennant.

Jack Clark singled in two runs in the fifth inning to break a tie at Minneapolis, and the Yankees scored five runs in the seventh to stay four games behind the Tigers.

New York’s John Candelaria (13-7) left the game after he gave up nine hits and just two runs in six innings. The Twins wound up with 14 hits, same as the Yankees.

Mike Pagliarulo hit only his third home run in the last 59 games to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the second inning.

The Twins disappointed a lot of Metrodome fans by losing two of three to the Yankees. The weekend series drew 155,509.

Cleveland 3, Texas 0--In 93-degree weather and high humidity at Cleveland, Greg Swindell lost 10 pounds. He couldn’t have cared less.

Swindell lost the weight pitching 7 scoreless innings to gain only his third victory in his last 13 decisions. He is now 13-11.

“When it’s like this, you just want to throw strikes,” he said. “I got some first-pitch outs.”

Bobby Witt (4-8) gave up only four hits in pitching his seventh complete game in a row, but one was a home run by Brook Jacoby.

Kansas City 6, Toronto 0--At Kansas City, rookie Luis Aquino pitched a six-hitter for his first major-league shutout, and it was against his former club.

The start was Aquino’s second for the Royals. He was 1-1 with Toronto in 1986.

Bo Jackson had the big hit in a three-run fourth inning. He doubled in a run, stole third and scored on a hit.

Baltimore 11, Milwaukee 9--Eddie Murray has started his hitting splurge too late to do the Orioles much good.

He hit his 22th home run and drove in three runs at Milwaukee to lead the Orioles to victory in the slugfest.

Murray has eight home runs and 21 RBIs in the last 20 games.

Seattle 11, Chicago 0--Mike Moore pitched a four-hitter at Seattle for his sixth victory in 19 decisions and benefited from a barrage of home runs.

Alvin Davis hit his 16th and took over the all-time club lead with 108. Mickey Brantley, Rey Quinones and Henry Cotto also hit homers to lead the 14-hit attack.

Moore, pitching his second shutout and sixth complete game of the season, struck out 11.