AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Kittle’s Homer Powers Chicago, 1-0

His performance didn’t rival the no-hit pitching of Oakland’s Dave Stewart or the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela, but the Chicago White Sox are beginning to believe Jack McDowell is about to live up to expectations.

McDowell, the former Stanford star from Van Nuys, held the New York Yankees to four hits in seven innings at Chicago Friday night and improved to 5-4 when Ron Kittle hit a 454-foot home run to give the White Sox a 1-0 victory.

McDowell struck out eight and the White Sox, by winning their eighth in a row, remained ahead of Oakland in the West.

It was the third victory in the last four decisions for McDowell, who has pitched three recent games in which he kept the White Sox in the game and they went on to win.

Kittle’s home run, in the second inning, was his 14th of the season and his fourth home run in his last six at-bats.

Kansas City 3, Detroit 2--Kevin Seitzer barely missed a home run in the seventh inning at Kansas City and eventually scored the tiebreaking run on Bo Jackson’s single.

Seitzer, hitting .422 in the last 11 games, hit the top of the left-field wall, but had to settle for a single. He was sacrificed to second and George Brett drew his fourth walk of the game before Jackson delivered.

“I’m hitting .260 and they walk me four times,” Brett said. “I guess it shows somebody still thinks you can play the game. Yeah, it makes me feel good.”

The Tigers have lost 11 in a row at Royals Stadium.

Baltimore 6, Minnesota 2--Catcher Bob Melvin had two run-scoring singles, including one that drove in the go-ahead run in a four-run seventh at Minneapolis.

The Orioles chased Allan Anderson in the seventh inning. Anderson, who won 16 games in 1988 for the Twins and was 17-10 last season, fell to 2-11.

Dave Johnson (7-4), who needed help in the seventh, had no trouble with any of the Twins except Kent Hrbek, who had two doubles and his 10th home run.

Texas 4, Boston 3--Ruben Sierra has come back strong after Rangers’ Manager Bobby Valentine gave him a day off.

Sierra, who homered in his first game back, doubled home the tiebreaking run with two outs in the ninth inning at Boston and the Rangers ended the Red Sox’ seven-game winning streak.

Seattle 4, Milwaukee 2--Tracy Jones doubled home two unearned runs with two outs in the seventh inning for the Mariners at Seattle.

Randy Johnson (8-3) got his fifth consecutive victory and the Mariners won their third in a row.