AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Perez Must Shoulder the Blame

Pascual Perez, in his first two starts for the New York Yankees, pitched brilliantly. In 11 innings, he gave up only five hits and no earned runs.

But his record was 1-1, and maybe that had something to with Perez chastising his new teammates. He accused them of not hustling and not concentrating on baseball.

In his much-anticipated third start, Pascual was something less than brilliant. He left in the fourth, blaming muscle spasms in his shoulder, and had himself to blame for the Yankees’ 5-2 loss to Seattle Wednesday at New York. It was the Yankees’ sixth loss in the last seven games.

Brian Holman, making his first appearance since coming within one out of a perfect game, gave up a hit and a run in the first inning to the Yankees.

But in the third, Mike Brumley doubled in the tying run and Perez made a wild pitch that put Seattle ahead to stay.

Holman went six innings to improve his record to 3-1.

Perez will be examined today to determine if he will miss any starts.

Toronto 5, Cleveland 3--The complaints last year were that the Skydome was not a hitter’s park. Something has changed that.

Kelly Gruber, Glenallen Hill and Pat Borders homered to lead the Blue Jays to their third victory in a row. Gruber, who leads the majors with seven home runs, has hit one in each of the three.

Gruber was five for five and his three runs batted in raised his league-leading total to 19. Gruber is eight for 11 in the last three games, all victories over the Indians. The Blue Jays (11-5) have already hit 25 home runs.

Keith Hernandez, off to a poor start for the Indians, hit his first American League homer.

Milwaukee 1, Kansas City 0--In his one appearance as a relief pitcher this season, Tom Filer couldn’t make it through one inning. As a starter, he has been sensational.

For the second outing in a row, Filer (2-1) gave up three hits and no runs in six innings in this game at Milwaukee.

Bret Saberhagen pitched a four-hitter and lost. One of the hits was Dave Parker’s first triple in two years, in the second inning. He scored after Greg Brock hit a long fly.

The Royals had the bases loaded with nobody out in the eighth, but Dan Plesac disposed of George Brett on a popup and forced Willie Wilson, the league’s leading hitter, to ground into a double play.

Oakland 4, Baltimore 3--Jose Canseco’s fourth home run gave the Athletics a three-run lead in the sixth inning at Baltimore, then he won the game in the 12th with an RBI single.

A wild throw by relief pitcher Rick Honeycutt and a home run by Cal Ripken enabled the Orioles to tie it in the seventh.

The Athletics are 7-0 on the road.

Detroit 6, Minnesota 4--Cecil Fielder drove in three runs and the Tigers won a series on the road for the first time in a year. They won two out of three at Minneapolis.

Chicago 5, Texas 4--Ron Kittle hit a two-run home run at Arlington, Tex., to help the White Sox build a lead. This time, they didn’t blow it.

Tuesday night, the Rangers scored five times in the ninth and beat Bobby Thigpen. This time the bullpen ace got Pete Incaviglia, who homered earlier, to hit into a double play in the eighth.