American League Roundup : He Fuels the A’s Again--Off Bench

Rickey Henderson’s broken-bat pinch single scored two runs and broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning as the Athletics beat the Indians, 6-4, at Cleveland Saturday night.

Henderson has hit safely in eight of nine games since rejoining the A’s in a June 21 trade with the New York Yankees. He didn’t start Saturday because he was being rested.

Winner Mike Moore (10-5) gave up three runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings, increasing his earned-run average from 2.21 to 2.35, still best in the league.

Todd Burns, the fourth Oakland pitcher, went the last two innings for his fifth save. He came on after Rick Honeycutt walked the first two batters in the eighth.

Henderson batted for Mike Gallego with runners at first and third and one out in the sixth. He blooped a pitch from Rich Yett into center field to score Glenn Hubbard. Stan Javier went from first to third on the hit and continued home when center fielder Joe Carter’s throw to third skipped into the dugout.

Henderson took second on the error, stole third and scored on Dave Henderson’s single off Scott Bailes.

Yett (4-6) gave up four runs, three of them earned, in 4 1/3 innings of relief for injured starter Tom Candiotti.

The Athletics scored twice in the second after Candiotti started the inning by walking the first two batters. Candiotti, who left a game six days earlier because of a stiff right shoulder, took himself out again after walks to Mark McGwire and Carney Lansford.

Boston 3, Toronto 1--Eric Hetzel gave up three hits and no runs for 5 2/3 innings in his major league debut, and Mike Greenwell homered as the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Hetzel (1-0) struck out four and walked four as the Red Sox won their third straight game. Rob Murphy pitched 1 2/3 innings, and Lee Smith finished for his 10th save.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the third on Danny Heep’s sacrifice fly off Todd Stottlemyre (0-4). Dwight Evans doubled in the fourth and scored on Nick Esasky’s single. Greenwell hit his ninth homer leading off the sixth.

New York 5, Milwaukee 1--Rookie Clay Parker, activated from the disabled list before the game, gave up one run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings, and Don Mattingly drove in two runs as the Yankees beat the Brewers in New York.

New York won its third consecutive game, while Milwaukee lost its third straight and eighth in its last nine at Yankee Stadium.

Parker (3-1), who hadn’t pitched since June 8 because of a blister on his middle finger, lowered his ERA to 2.66. Milwaukee’s Paul Molitor hit his sixth home run of the season leading off the fifth inning.

Eric Plunk pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief of Parker, and Lee Guetterman worked the ninth.

Mattingly extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an RBI double in the first inning. He scored on Jesse Barfield’s single.

Roberto Kelly had three hits for the Yankees.

Baltimore 8, Detroit 1--Jeff Ballard ended two pitching slumps-- his own and Baltimore’s--by holding Detroit to five hits in 7 1/3 innings as the Orioles defeated the Tigers at Baltimore.

Cal Ripken, Randy Milligan and Craig Worthington hit solo home runs for the Orioles.

Ballard (10-3) won for the first time since June 5. He had gone 0-2 in four starts since then, giving up 14 earned runs in 12 2/3 innings and getting past the third inning only once.

In their previous seven games, Baltimore pitchers had given up 52 runs and 97 hits in 60 innings, for an earned-run average of 7.80.

Milligan and Ripken homered off Charles Hudson (0-4), who gave up three runs and six hits in six innings.

Worthington’s home run was disputed by the Tigers. A fan reached over the top of the left-field wall and attempted to catch the ball. It dropped on the track, and the Tigers argued unsuccessfully that it would not have gone over the fence.

Texas 1, Seattle 0--Bobby Witt, 0-3 with an 8.15 ERA for his previous four starts, gave up two hits in 7 2/3 innings as the Rangers beat the Mariners at Arlington, Tex.

Witt (6-8) struck out seven, walked three and combined on the shutout with Jeff Russell, who pitched the last 1 1/3 innings for his 19th save.

Randy Johnson (3-1), the 6-foot-10 rookie left-hander who came to Seattle from Montreal in the Mark Langston trade, took the loss. He gave up seven hits, struck out six and walked two in his first complete game of the season.

The Rangers scored in the third when Jim Sundberg doubled with one out, went to third on Jeff Kunkel’s bloop single and scored on rookie Sammy Sosa’s single.

Chicago 6, Kansas City 4--Harold Baines greeted Kansas City reliever Tom Gordon with a tie-breaking, two-run double, capping a three-run rally in the seventh inning that lifted the White Sox to victory in Chicago.

Trailing, 3-0, the White Sox began their comeback on Greg Walker’s two-run double in the bottom of the second. They trailed, 3-2, in the seventh when pinch-hitter Daryl Boston singled off starter Luis Aquino (3-3).

One out later, Dave Gallagher and Steve Lyons singled to tie the score. Gordon relieved, and Baines’ blooper fell in front of center fielder Willie Wilson as two runs scored. The White Sox scored in the eighth on Carlton Fisk’s third double of the game and Ozzie Guillen’s single.

Winner Shawn Hillegas (4-7) pitched a scoreless seventh inning in relief of starter Richard Dotson, who was released by the New York Yankees June 22. Dotson, who spent the first eight years of his career with Chicago, gave up the three runs--one earned--and five hits in six innings. He walked six.

Bobby Thigpen pitched the last two innings for his 15th save.