AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Evans Gets Big Homer for Boston

Rather quietly, Dwight Evans has been one of baseball’s best clutch hitters. At 38, despite a serious back problem, he is still the man the Boston Red Sox count on when the going gets tough.

Evans hit a three-run home run with two out in the ninth inning at Minneapolis Wednesday to give the leaders of the American League East a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

Evans said he was just trying to get a hit to tie the score, at 3-3, but he drove an inside fastball from bullpen ace Rick Aguilera over the fence in left for his 10th home run.

“Aguilera has been tough on me all year,” Evans said. “When I hit it, I was sure it was a hit, but I wasn’t sure it was going out.”

It was only the third time in 22 chances that Aguilera failed to get a save. He said Evans hit a good pitch, not a mistake.

Evans, who has been with the Red Sox since 1972, thought his career was over this spring. His problem was diagnosed as a bone spur and a stress fracture in the lower back. With treatment, he has been able to perform as the designated hitter.

A couple of weeks ago, he beat the Baltimore Orioles with home runs in successive games. In one, his two-run homer in the 10th was the first home run off bullpen star Gregg Olson in more than a year. The next day he hit a homer and drove in the other run in a 2-0 win.

He is halfway to his goal of hitting 20 or more home runs for 10 consecutive seasons. The only time he has failed to hit 20 or more since 1977 was in 1980 when he missed 14 games and had only 18.

“The back doesn’t really bother me, but it does prevent me from playing the outfield,” Evans said. “I would rather be playing.”

Milwaukee 7, Oakland 1--In his first start after pitching a no-hitter, Dave Stewart was no mystery to the Brewers at Milwaukee.

Stewart (10-7) gave up six runs in 2 1/3 innings, his shortest outing ever for the Athletics.

Ron Robinson (2-1) gave up eight hits and pitched his first complete game in six years.

The Brewers ended a five-game losing streak against the pitcher who was 12-1 lifetime against them.

Detroit 10, Chicago 7--Mike Heath hit a three-run home run with one out in the 12th inning at Chicago and the Tigers kept the White Sox from regaining first place in the West.

The White Sox battled back after the Tigers scored five times in the fourth inning. They finally tied it, 7-7, in the bottom of the eighth. The tying run scored on a wild pitch by Mike Henneman, whose error contributed to the first run of the inning.

Scott Lusader, who hit his first home run for the Tigers, a three-run smash in the fourth, singled with one out to start the winning rally.

Ron Kittle hit two home runs for the White Sox, who remained a game behind Oakland.

Seattle 3, Cleveland 2--At 6-foot-10, left-hander Randy Johnson of the Mariners towers over batters. He also seems to be intimidating them.

In sweltering weather at Cleveland, Johnson (9-3) gave up seven hits and two runs in six innings and won his sixth in a row. Johnson, the league’s pitcher of the month in June, began his streak with a no-hitter June 2 against Detroit.

Tracy Jones homered for the Mariners and Ken Griffey, Jr., the first Mariner elected to the All-Star game, extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

Kansas City 13, New York 6--Hot-hitting Bo Jackson hit a long three-run home run to center to trigger a seven-run seventh inning rally at Kansas City.

It was the fourth loss in a row for the Yankees, who had taken the lead on a three-run home run in the top of the seventh by catcher Bob Geren.

Jackson has hit six of his 15 home runs in the last nine games.

Baltimore 9, Texas 4--Sam Horn, recalled from the minors earlier in the week, hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning at Arlington, Tex., to break a tie and give Dave Johnson (8-4) a 5-0 record after Orioles’ defeats.

Johnson left with nobody out in the sixth, giving up four runs and five hits.