AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Robinson, Tigers Cool Orioles, 8-2

Jeff Robinson continued his hot pitching and the Detroit Tigers hit four home runs en route to an 8-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles Tuesday night at Detroit.

Robinson (8-7) took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, but had it broken up when Mike Devereaux and Brady Anderson hit back-to-back homers leading off the inning. Robinson finished the eighth, and Jerry Don Gleaton pitched the ninth.

The setback ended the Orioles’ five-game winning streak.

Had Robinson succeeded, it would have been the eighth no-hitter in the majors this season.

“I missed with my first pitch to Devereaux, so I decided to go after him with a fastball,” Robinson said. “I just got it up and he hit it.”

Said Devereaux: “His fastball had been very effective all game, but that one was over the plate. I have been working on taking that pitch the other way, and I did just that.”

Robinson, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound right-hander who pitched at Azusa Pacific, yielded only two hits, but he walked five and hit a batter, all in the first four innings.

“I think I was effectively wild,” Robinson said. “I was throwing the ball all over the place and I think that kept them off balance.”

The near no-hitter followed a two-hit shutout Robinson pitched in his last start, July 19 against Boston.

Combined with his outing against the Red Sox, Robinson had a 15-inning scoreless streak and an 11-inning hitless streak broken on Devereaux’s home run.

“Jeffrey has thrown two good outings in a row,” Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson said. “His fastball has been excellent. He is capable of pitching this well all the time.”

The first six Tiger runs came as the result of four home runs. Cecil Fielder started the scoring in the third inning with his major league-leading 32nd.

Kansas City 5, Toronto 3--George Brett’s two-run homer in the 13th inning gave the Royals the win at Toronto.

Jim Eisenreich singled with one out off loser Duane Ward (1-6) before Brett followed with his fifth homer of the year, over the center-field wall. Earlier, Brett extended his hitting streak to 14 games. He’s 25 for 58 (.431) in that span.

The Blue Jays took a 2-0 lead into the ninth, but Mike Macfarlane’s two-out, two-run homer keyed a three-run rally for the Royals. Eisenreich tripled and Brett followed with a single off Tom Henke, only his second blown save in 21 opportunities this year. One out later, Macfarlane hit his second homer of the season, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead.

But Toronto forced extra innings when Tony Fernandez tripled and scored on George Bell’s single in the ninth.

Toronto starter David Wells pitched a three-hit shutout for eight innings, but gave way to Henke to start the ninth. Wells has yielded no runs in his last 24 innings.

Milwaukee 6, Boston 5--Mike Felder singled in the winning run in the 10th inning at Milwaukee.

Darryl Hamilton opened the 10th with a single off Jerry Reed (2-2) and moved to second on a sacrifice by Greg Brock before scoring on Felder’s single to center.

The loss was the Red Sox’s fourth in a row and 15th in their last 20, but they remained one game behind Toronto in the East.

Dan Plesac (2-3) was the winner despite giving up Wade Boggs’ game-tying two-run triple in the ninth.

Chicago 8, Cleveland 3--Adam Peterson earned his first major league victory and Ivan Calderon and Dan Pasqua each drove in two runs in a rain-delayed game at Chicago.

The 24-year-old Peterson (1-2) gave up two unearned runs on four hits and four walks in five-plus innings and won for the first time in 13 career starts, eight this season. Donn Pall pitched the final four innings, giving up just one run on three hits for his first save.

After escaping two-on, two-out jams in the first and fourth, Peterson got in trouble in the sixth when the Indians loaded the bases on two walks and a single. Pall came on to relieve, but a 71-minute rain delay began just as he completed his warmup pitches.

When play resumed, the Indians scored two runs on a throwing error by third baseman Robin Ventura.

Seattle 8, Minnesota 2--Shortstop Omar Vizquel, the No. 9 batter in the Mariners’ lineup, drove in a career-high five runs with a three-run homer and a two-run double at Minnesota.

Vizquel broke open a scoreless game in the fifth with his second homer of the season.

Vizquel, whose previous career-high game was two RBIs, capped a five-run sixth inning with a double down the left-field line.

Seattle’s Harold Reynolds was hitless in five at-bats and had a streak of 39 consecutive games in which he reached base snapped.

Texas 4, New York 1--Bobby Witt pitched a seven-hitter at Arlington, Tex., for his fifth win in a row.

The start of the game was delayed 1 hour 58 minutes by rain.

Witt (8-8) struck out 10 and walked three as Texas won for the fifth time in its last six games and 12th in 16 to even its record at 48-48. It’s the first time the Rangers has been at .500 since May 12.