American League Roundup : Detroit Defeated By Toronto, 5-4; Boston Takes Over First in East

Ernie Whitt homered leading off the 10th inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-4 victory over Detroit Monday night, knocking the Tigers out of first place in the East.

The Tigers have lost 5 straight and 12 of their last 14. This one at Detroit took them out of first place for the first time since July 27. Boston beat Baltimore to take over the undisputed lead.

The fifth-place Blue Jays have won five straight and are 6 1/2 games back.

Todd Stottlemyre (4-8) pitched three innings of perfect relief for the victory and Duane Ward got his 12th save.

Whitt hit the game-winning home run off reliever Guillermo Hernandez (5-4). It was Whitt’s 21st career home run against Detroit, 11 of which have come at Tiger Stadium.

Fred Lynn homered for the Tigers. It was his 19th home run of the season and first since being traded from Baltimore to Detroit Aug. 31.

Boston 4, Baltimore 1--Dwight Evans drove in three runs with a two-run home run and a single and Larry Parrish homered for the fourth time in five games to power the Red Sox into sole possession of first place with a win at Baltimore.

The victory marked the first time since June 21 that the Red Sox won back to back games on the road.

Parrish’s home run, his 13th of the season and sixth for the Red Sox after being claimed on waivers, gave Boston a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Evans’ two-run home run in the ninth, his 14th, gave the Red Sox insurance runs.

Mike Smithson got his first victory since July 23.

Milwaukee 5, Chicago 2--The Brewers are using good pitching and timely hitting to creep back into the East race--a trend rookie Don August and veteran Paul Molitor kept going at Milwaukee.

August pitched a six-hitter over eight innings and Molitor scored the go-ahead run in the third on Robin Yount’s double as the Brewers won their seventh consecutive game.

“We’ve done some good things at the right times,” said Manager Tom Trebelhorn, whose Brewers are 4 games behind Boston. “What’s amazing is that we have to try to do these things all year long. To me it’s not that big of a deal. The big thing is that why we weren’t like this a little earlier.”

August (9-6) beat the White Sox for the third time in three starts. Juan Nieves relieved after Carlton Fisk led off the ninth inning with his 15th home run, and the reliever recorded his first major league save.

Shawn Hillegas took the loss in his first appearance for the White Sox since being traded by the Dodgers for Ricky Horton on Sept. 2.

Oakland 11, Texas 4--Storm Davis won his 10th straight game as Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco homered to lead the A’s 15-hit attack at Arlington, Tex.

Davis (15-4) has 10 wins and 2 no-decisions in his last 12 starts. A Dallas native, he threw a six-hitter in 7 innings to improve his lifetime record against the Rangers to 11-1.

Oakland won for the 8th time in 10 games and lowered its magic number to 16. The Rangers, who lost their sixth straight, were mathematically eliminated from the race with the loss.

Minnesota 2, Seattle 0--The pregame matchup at Minneapolis seemed to be more of a mismatch. The Twins’ Frank Viola was going for his 21st victory of the year and the Mariners’ Erik Hanson was pitching his first major league game of his life.

But the only difference between the two in the end was two ground balls, hit by Minnesota’s John Moses and Al Newman in the eighth inning that scooted through the infield and gave the Twins the win with a pair of unearned runs.

Viola (21-6) pitched 8 innings, striking out 8 and walking 1, before Jeff Reardon came in for his 36th save. Only two Mariners reached second base.

New York 7, Cleveland 2--The Yankees scored six runs in the eighth inning at New York with the help of a three-run home run by Ken Phelps to keep pace in the East.

Tom Candiotti held New York to 1 run on 5 hits for 7 innings before Don Gordon (2-3) relieved to start the eighth.