AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Reardon Can’t Hold Lead for Clemens, 4-3

Joe Morgan played both of his aces, but somehow the Boston Red Sox lost.

Pinch-hitter Matt Merullo homered off Jeff Reardon to tie the score with two out and two strikes in the ninth inning, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Red Sox, 4-3, on Ron Karkovice’s run-scoring single in the 10th.

“(Roger Clemens) told us he was dead,” said Morgan, Red Sox manager, after Clemens threw 106 pitches in eight innings while going for his seventh consecutive victory. “But there’s been weirder nights than this, that’s for sure.”

Clemens settled down after a 59-minute power delay and left after eight innings with a 3-2 lead. He gave up five hits, struck out seven and walked two.

Reardon was perfect in his first 10 save attempts this season, giving him 13 consecutive save conversions since last July before Merullo connected.

“I had a ton of family and friends in the stands,” said Merullo, a New England native. “It’s great to have something like this happen in front of them. It’ll stay with me the rest of my life.”

Robin Ventura singled with one out in the 10th off Jeff Gray (1-3), pinch-runner Joey Cora stole second and scored on Karkovice’s hit, giving the victory to Bobby Thigpen (2-0).

Boston was trailing, 2-0, but rallied for three runs in the seventh against Jack McDowell on Tony Pena’s RBI double, a run-scoring single by Steve Lyons and a wild throw by Chicago right-fielder Sammy Sosa.

Robin Ventura singled home Tim Raines in the first and third innings to give Chicago a 2-0 lead.

New York 6, Oakland 3--Scott Sanderson pitched seven solid innings against his former teammates and Randy Velarde hit a two-run double to lead the Yankees past the Athletics at New York.

The Yankees, who lost 16 consecutive games to the A’s over two seasons before winning the series opener Friday night, took three of four games in the series.

Sanderson, who wasn’t offered a contract by Oakland after winning 17 games last season, scattered seven hits over seven innings, striking out one and walking two. Steve Farr, Greg Cadaret and Lee Guetterman blanked the A’s over the last two innings.

Velarde singled, was balked to second by Curt Young (1-1), took third on Young’s wild pitch and scored on catcher Jamie Quirk’s throwing error to get the Yankees even, 1-1, in the third. Roberto Kelly followed with a homer to make it 2-1.

The Yankees made it 4-1 on Velarde’s two-run double in the fourth and Hensley Muelens hit a solo homer off Young in the sixth.

Toronto 4, Kansas City 2--Todd Stottlemyre won his fifth consecutive decision and Joe Carter hit his fifth home run as the Blue Jays downed the Royals at Toronto.

The Blue Jays won for the fifth time in six games and snapped the Royals’ three-game winning streak.

Stottlemyre (5-0) gave up six hits in 8 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking two. Duane Ward relieved and got his major league-leading 12th save.

Roberto Alomar hit a two-run double for the Blue Jays in the third and Manny Lee tripled home a run in the fourth to make it 3-0.

Stottlemyre, who walked Brian McRae to start the game, retired the next 13 batters before Warren Cromartie tripled and scored on Kurt Stillwell’s single to make it 3-1 in the fifth.

Carter hit a solo home run off Storm Davis (2-4) in the bottom of the fifth.