AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Clemens Finds Umpire He Likes in 6-2 Win

Roger Clemens, ejected by umpire Terry Cooney the last time he pitched, actually had some fun with replacement Tim Higgins calling balls and strikes.

Clemens, eligible to pitch while appealing his suspension for the run-in with Cooney in the American League playoffs, allowed one run in eight innings Monday at Toronto, and Jack Clark hit a grand slam in his first game with Boston as the Red Sox downed the Blue Jays, 6-2.

The game drew 50,114 fans, second-largest crowd to see a baseball game in the SkyDome and the 60th consecutive sellout. The Blue Jays drew 50,286 for the third game of the 1989 playoffs against Oakland.

“I asked (Higgins) what he’d be doing tomorrow,” Clemens said. “He said he was a chef, so I guess he’ll be going back to being a chef tomorrow.”

Higgins, a former minor league umpire, was part of a crew that filled in when the regular major league umpires couldn’t get to Toronto after a contract agreement was reached early Monday.

Clemens, 10-4 in his career against Toronto, gave up six hits, struck out six and walked none. Toronto’s Dave Stieb had no complaints about Higgins either.

Stieb, 1-3 in openers, allowed five runs and four hits in five innings, struck out two and walked two.

“They threw a lot of strikes and that makes things awfully easy,” Higgins said. “There were just a couple of oohs on some pitch calls. But that’s all.”

Higgins had an interesting moment when Stieb hit Ellis Burks with a pitch after Clark’s homer in Boston’s five-run third inning.

“You’re not going to plunk anyone, are you?” Higgins asked Clemens. “He said ‘No’ and I told him to wait for the regulars to get here.”

Clark, signed as a free agent in December for $8.7 million over three years, made things easier for Clemens when he hit his eighth grand slam in the third inning to break a 1-1 tie.

“I haven’t had very good opening days in the past,” Clark said. “I guess I was very relaxed today because I probably expected not to have a very good day.”

Mookie Wilson’s sacrifice fly gave the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead in the second inning and Joe Carter, playing his first game with Toronto following an off-season trade from San Diego, homered off Jeff Gray in the ninth.

Burks had a run-scoring double in the eighth inning for the Red Sox.

Chicago 9, Baltimore 1--Sammy Sosa hit two homers and drove in five runs, and Jack McDowell pitched a four-hitter as the White Sox trounced the Orioles before 50,213 at Baltimore.

McDowell matched his career-high with 10 strikeouts and allowed only three runners after the first inning, when the Orioles scored on Cal Ripken’s single and a double by Glenn Davis in his first at-bat for Baltimore.

Sosa, hit a three-run homer off Jeff Ballard to make it 3-1 in the second inning, singled home a run in Chicago’s five-run sixth inning and added a solo homer in the eighth.

Detroit 6, New York 4--Cecil Fielder hit a tiebreaking, two-run double in the seventh inning and the Tigers got past the Yankees in front of 47,382 at Detroit.

Fielder, who led the majors with 51 home runs last season, hit drives that were caught on the warning track in his first two at-bats before connecting off Eric Plunk.

Alan Trammell hit a two-run homer in the first and a two-run double to tie the score, 4-4, in the fifth inning.

Paul Gibson pitched two innings for the victory and Mike Henneman worked the ninth for a save.

Tim Leary pitched the first six innings for the Yankees, giving up four runs and five hits. He struck out nine and walked three.

Kevin Maas hit a two-run homer and Mike Blowers added a solo shot for the Yankees.

Kansas City 4, Cleveland 2--Kirk Gibson tripled in his first at-bat and added a run-scoring single as the Royals got their first opening-day victory in six seasons with a victory over the Indians before 39,363 at Kansas City.

Bret Saberhagen pitched seven innings and gave up one earned run and six hits. Jeff Montgomery pitched two innings for the save.

Albert Belle, who hit 11 home runs during spring training, hit a solo homer and run-scoring grounder for Cleveland.

Gibson, signed as a free agent after four seasons with the Dodgers, tripled into the right-field corner off Greg Swindell in the second and scored on Mike Macfarlane’s single. Kurt Stillwell followed with a double to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.

George Brett, Danny Tartabull and Gibson hit singles in the third to make it 3-1.

Milwaukee 5, Texas 4--Robin Yount’s two-run homer in the fifth inning off Nolan Ryan carried the Brewers past the Rangers at Arlington, Tex., where President Bush threw out the first ball and joined a crowd of 40,560.

Yount’s homer hit the top of the left-field wall and bounced over, giving the Brewers a 5-2 lead. The Rangers made it close with solo home runs by Ruben Sierra in the sixth and Rafael Palmeiro in the eighth.

Mark Knudson pitched 5 1/3 innings to get the victory despite giving up Sierra’s home run and a two-run shot by Kevin Reimer in the second.

Milwaukee built a 3-0 lead off Ryan, who struck out nine. Gary Sheffield singled home a run and scored on Franklin Stubbs’ double in the first inning, and Paul Molitor singled home a run in the second.