AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Fielder Gets Another Good Pitch to Drive

Good hitters usually hit good pitches and Detroit’s Cecil Fielder is proving to be one of the best hitters in the majors.

Fielder continued to produce against Cleveland pitching as he hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the fifth inning that gave the Tigers a 7-3 victory over the Indians at Detroit.

The homer, on a 1-1 count, came on a forkball from Sergio Valdez that broke down and probably out of the strike zone.

“He hit a very good pitch,” Cleveland Manager John McNamara said. “You talk to other people for advice and we try to pitch him with a lot of care. But he’s hitting other people, too. That pitch might have been out of the strike zone. He just goes down and gets it.”

Fielder, who is 12 for 23 against Cleveland, broke a 3-3 tie with his major league-leading 24th homer with two out and Tony Phillips on first with a walk. He also leads the majors with 59 RBIs.

Fielder has five home runs--three in one game--and 11 RBIs in six games against Cleveland.

Chicago 3, Oakland 2--The White Sox climbed to within a game of the first-place Athletics in the West by beating Dave Stewart at Chicago.

The game was the first of the season between the teams with the best records in the league. The Athletics are 39-20; the White Sox 37-20.

The White Sox have won six of their last seven and 14 of 19.

New York 3, Boston 1--Chuck Cary, who yielded six runs in two-thirds of an inning Saturday, held the Red Sox to four hits and a run in seven innings at New York.

With the score tied, 1-1, Jesse Barfield led of the seventh with a double, took third on Mel Hall’s groundout and scored on a wild pitch. The Yankees scored another run on a single by Jim Leyritz and Bob Geren’s double.

Toronto 7, Minnesota 1--Pat Borders hit a tiebreaking three-run homer in the sixth inning at Minneapolis to help Dave Stieb win his fourth game in a row.

It was the Twins’ seventh consecutive loss.

Stieb (9-2) yielded only five hits in seven innings.

Milwaukee 8, Baltimore 5--The Brewers blew a four-run lead, then defeated the Orioles on Robin Yount’s tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the seventh inning and a ninth-inning single by Gary Sheffield, who also stole home.

Seattle 5, Texas 4--Jeffrey Leonard’s two-out single capped a three-run ninth inning as the Mariners rallied at Seattle.