BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Brett Sits, Dares Henderson to Catch Him

Kansas City’s George Brett, leading the American League with a .328 average, kept himself out of the lineup in Tuesday night’s game against the Cleveland Indians, saying he wanted to force Oakland’s Rickey Henderson to catch him. Henderson had a .326 average going into Tuesday night’s game against the Angels.

“I want to see what he does tonight,” Brett said. “From the people I talked to, the consensus was, make him come to you.”

With Brett on the bench, the Indians scored nine runs in the first inning and won, 13-3, at Cleveland.

Henderson went one for four in Oakland’s 6-4 win over the Angels and slipped to .325.

Pittsburgh 9, New York 4--The Pirates spoiled Dwight Gooden’s bid for his 20th victory and ended his eight-game winning streak at Pittsburgh.

Sid Bream hit a two-run homer as Gooden (19-7) lost for the first time since Aug. 4. Working on three days rest instead of four, Gooden allowed nine hits and eight runs, six earned, in 4 1/3 innings.

Bobby Bonilla drove in two runs to raise his RBI total to 120, two behind NL leader Matt Williams of San Francisco.

New York’s Dave Magadan was one for five and dropped to .329, six points behind NL batting leader Willie McGee, traded from St. Louis to Oakland last month. Magadan would have to go five for five today to pass McGee.

Chicago 3, Philadelphia 1--Andre Dawson reached the 100-RBI mark for the third time in his career as the Cubs defeated the Phillies at Philadelphia.

Dawson, who left the game after driving in a run in the top of the first, improved his batting average to .310, the highest of his career.

Braves 16, Giants 7--Tommy Gregg’s three-run, pinch-hit homer keyed a seven-run sixth inning for Atlanta at San Francisco.

Gregg’s fourth pinch-hit homer of the year put the Braves ahead, 7-6. Atlanta finished with 18 hits, including nine for extra bases.

Montreal 2, St. Louis 1--Kevin Gross earned his first victory in more than three months and Otis Nixon set a base-stealing record as the Expos won at Montreal.

Nixon set a record for most stolen bases in the fewest at-bats in one season when he stole second base in the first inning. The steal was Nixon’s 50th in 228 at-bats.

Cincinnati 3, Houston 2--None of the Reds’ pitchers threw more than two innings in the victory over the Astros at Cincinnati.

Four Red pitchers, including starter Jack Armstrong, retired the first 16 batters in order before Luis Gonzalez doubled off Rick Mahler with one out in the sixth.

Seattle 3, Minnesota 0--Erik Hanson pitched a seven-hitter for his first major league shutout and became the second pitcher in Seattle history to get 18 victories in a season as the Mariners beat the Twins at Minneapolis.

The victory was the seventh straight for Hanson (18-9), who ended up one win shy of Mark Langston’s club record.

Milwaukee 1, Texas 0--The Brewers’ Kevin Brown gave up one hit over seven innings for his first major league victory as the Rangers lost at Milwaukee.