AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Ripken Gets Key Hit and Ties Elster’s Mark

On a night when he tied a major league record in the field, Cal Ripken carried the Baltimore Orioles to victory with his bat.

Ripken matched Kevin Elster’s record of 88 consecutive errorless games at shortstop and drove in two runs with a first-inning double as the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-1, Thursday night at Baltimore.

Ripken, who hasn’t made an error since April 13, tied the record set by Elster, who went 88 games without an error with the New York Mets from July, 1988, to May, 1989. Ripken has handled 401 chances without an error, a major league record.

The loss was only the second for Chicago in its last 14 road games. The White Sox, who fell two games behind the Oakland Athletics in the American League West, won six of their first seven games on an 11-day road trip.

John Mitchell (2-2), who benefited from three double plays, allowed seven hits in 8 2/3 innings before being relieved by Gregg Olson, who retired Scott Fletcher to end the game for his 21st save.

New York 2, Minnesota 1--Tim Leary snapped an eight-game losing streak and the Yankees scored their runs on a fifth-inning error by shortstop Greg Gagne at Minneapolis.

Leary (4-12), who hadn’t won since May 23 when he beat the Twins, 12-0, on a four-hitter in the Metrodome, gave up eight hits in 7 1/3 innings.

After giving up a run in the second, Leary blanked the Twins on five hits in the next 5 1/3 innings before being relieved by Greg Cadaret with runners at first and third with one out in the eighth. Cadaret got a double-play grounder before Dave Righetti pitched the ninth for New York, his 499th career appearance, and earned his 20th save in 22 opportunities.

Righetti moved past Hall of Famer Whitey Ford to first place on the Yankees’ all-time list for pitching appearances.

Roy Smith (4-8) was the loser despite giving up five hits and one earned run in 7 1/3 innings.

Detroit 1, Boston 0--Jeff Robinson pitched a two-hitter over eight innings and Larry Sheets’ sixth-inning single scored Alan Trammell from first base with the only run for the Tigers at Detroit.

Robinson (7-7) lowered his earned run average from 5.67 to 5.25 with eight shutout innings. He out-pitched Greg Harris (7-4), who gave up eight hits and pitched his first complete game since 1982, his second in 61 starts.

Milwaukee 4, Seattle 0--Mike Felder and Greg Vaughn hit first-inning home runs as the Brewers beat the Mariners at Milwaukee in a game that took nearly six hours to complete because of rain.

Bill Krueger and Jamie Navarro combined on a seven-hitter. Krueger (5-5) stopped Seattle on three hits and two walks through five innings. Navarro allowed four hits over the final four innings to earn his first major league save.