American League Roundup : Viola Beats Stewart as Twins Sweep Athletics

Frank Viola gave up seven hits, beating Dave Stewart in a battle of the winningest American League pitchers since 1987, as the Minnesota Twins completed a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics, 2-0, Wednesday night at Minneapolis.

Wally Backman and Jim Dwyer had RBI doubles in the first and seventh innings, respectively, as the fifth-place Twins won their fourth consecutive game and pulled within 5 1/2 games of West-leading Oakland. The Twins have won 14 of their last 19 games.

The A’s suffered their first three-game sweep since last June and lost their sixth consecutive road game. Oakland has lost nine of 13.

Viola (6-8) hasn’t given up a run in his last two starts, a span of 17 innings. He walked three and struck out four for his first shutout and fourth complete game of the season.

Stewart (12-4) failed to become the first 13-game winner in the majors, despite yielding only six hits. The right-hander dropped to 3-9 lifetime against the Twins.

Kansas City 12, Seattle 7--Bob Boone drove in four runs, Kurt Stillwell hit a two-run double in a five-run fourth-inning rally and Bo Jackson hit his 18th home run as the Royals rallied from a five-run deficit to win at Kansas City.

Kansas City starter Mark Gubicza (8-5) gave up five runs and 10 hits in six innings as the Royals came from behind to win for the 20th time.

Gene Harris (0-1), the 13th starting pitcher used by Seattle this season, was knocked out during the Royals’ five-run fourth inning, which erased a 5-1 deficit.

Baltimore 2, Toronto 1--Cal Ripken broke a 1-1 tie with a solo home run with one out in the eighth inning to lift the Orioles at Baltimore with President Bush in attendance.

The Blue Jays’ Fred McGriff hit his second home run in as many nights, his 17th of the season.

Oriole reliever Kevin Hickey (2-2) worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings. Gregg Olson pitched the ninth for his 12th save, striking out the side after yielding a leadoff single to Ernie Whitt.

Baltimore starter Brian Holton held the Blue Jays to four hits before McGriff’s homer. Holton, who equaled the longest appearance of his three-year career, had retired nine in a row before McGriff hit a 2-and-0 pitch over the Toronto bullpen in right field.

Detroit 6, New York 5--Lou Whitaker led off the 10th inning at Detroit with his 16th home run, sending the Yankees to their ninth consecutive loss at Tiger Stadium.

Mike Henneman (5-1) worked the final 1 2/3 innings to keep the Yankees winless in Detroit since Aug. 8, 1987. New York’s Dave Righetti (2-2), against whom the Tigers tied the score in the eighth inning, then served up Whitaker’s homer.

Don Slaught homered for the Yankees.

Milwaukee 12, Boston 5--B.J. Surhoff drove in a career-high five runs, Rob Deer hit his league-leading 21st home run and Teddy Higuera won his first game since June 1 as the Brewers won at Milwaukee.

The victory gave the Brewers their first three-game winning streak since April 24-27 and ended a stretch of four consecutive no-decisions for Higuera (2-2). Boston lost its third game in a row.

Higuera, who began the season on the disabled list, gave up single runs in the first and second innings. He also surrendered Nick Esasky’s 12th homer in the sixth before being replaced by Chuck Crim, who made his league-leading 39th appearance.

The victory lifted Milwaukee into second place in the East, 7 1/2 games behind Baltimore and one percentage point ahead of New York.

Texas 10, Chicago 5--The Rangers broke a 4-4 tie at Chicago with five unearned runs in the fifth inning, including RBI singles by Steve Buechele, Jeff Kunkel and Cecil Espy.

The Rangers, who trailed, 3-0, after one inning, tied the score, 4-4, with two runs in the fourth on singles by Julio Franco and Sammy Sosa, Buechele’s sacrifice fly and a double by Kunkel, who was three for four and has nine hits in his last 20 at-bats.

The White Sox added a run in the seventh on Ivan Calderon’s triple and Carlton Fisk’s sacrifice fly. Texas scored in the ninth on singles by Ruben Sierra and Franco, and Leach’s groundout.

The fourth-place Rangers won for the sixth time in eight games and pulled within two games of Oakland.