AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Hawkins a Winner in His Debut for A’s

Almost overnight, Andy Hawkins has gone from being the worst pitcher on the worst staff in the American League to being a winner in his favorite ballpark.

Hawkins, in his first start for Oakland, held the Indians to three hits and no runs in 5 1/3 innings Saturday at Cleveland and was the winning pitcher in the A’s 3-0 victory.

Dave Henderson helped Hawkins by hitting his major league-leading 11th home run.

Hawkins, 0-2 with an earned-run average of 9.95 while pitching for the New York Yankees, loves to pitch in Cleveland Stadium. He has never given up an earned run there in 31 innings and has a 4-0 record, including a three-hit shutout last season.

With several pitchers ailing, including Dave Stewart, the Athletics were desperate for help. After the Yankees released Hawkins May 9, the A’s showed interest. They signed him four days ago.

“I wanted to make an impression, and fortunately we were playing here,” Hawkins said. “It’s a big park and the wind usually blows in. And, I’m a fly-ball pitcher.”

Four relievers followed Hawkins, who won 18 games for San Diego in 1985. Dennis Eckersley pitched the ninth inning and earned his 10th save.

Charles Nagy (1-3) got the loss, but yielded only six hits in eight innings. The Indians, who scored 10 runs in Nagy’s first start this season, have 12 in his last seven starts.

The shutout came after the Indians scored 46 runs against the A’s in their previous three meetings.

Henderson’s home run in the third inning was hit into a stiff wind blowing in from left field.

“I didn’t think he could hit (it) out,” Nagy said. “The win was blowing in hard, and every ball hit to the outfield was dying. He’s a great hitter. He just sat back on the changeup and crushed it.”

Rookie infielder Mark Lewis had two of the Indians’ four singles. He has 12 multihit games in 19 major league games and is hitting .403.

Seattle 4, New York 1--With Scott Bankhead injured, the Mariners called up 27-year-old right-hander Pat Rice from triple-A Calgary in the Pacific Coast League.

Rice, who had never even been to a major league training camp, made an auspicious debut at Yankee Stadium. He held the slumping Yankees to two hits in 5 2/3 innings for his first victory.

Ken Griffey Jr. led the Mariners to their sixth victory in a row and 12th in their last 13 games and kept them a half game in front of Oakland.

Rice flew for 10 hours and arrived in New York at 2 a.m. Saturday. He had a 5-1 record at Calgary.

“I said I was going to keep pitching until they fired me,” said Rice, who is called “Dad” by his young Calgary teammates. “I was wondering how close I was. This was something I’ll never forget.”

Minnesota 4, Detroit 1--Shane Mack hit a three-run home run at Detroit and Kirby Puckett hit a solo shot as the Twins handed the Tigers their eighth defeat in a row.

Texas 13, Boston 5--Brian Downing opened the game at Arlington, Tex., with the first home run off Roger Clemens this season and the Rangers handed him his first loss after six victories.

Clemens gave up nine runs and 13 hits before departing after giving up four singles to start an eight-run sixth inning. The runs matched the most Clemens ever had given up in a game.

Kansas City 7, Milwaukee 4--The Royals hit four home runs at Kansas City, three of them in the eighth inning, including back-to-back shots by Jim Eisenreich and Danny Tartabull. Carmelo Martinez also homered in the inning.

Toronto 9, Chicago 2--Rookie Ed Sprague hit his first major league home run and Jimmy Key gave up only four hits in seven innings at Chicago.

Key (6-2) struck out seven and walked only one. He improved to 14-5 against the White Sox. Tom Henke, recently reactivated, pitched a scoreless inning in his first appearance since April 10.

With Boston losing, the Blue Jays moved to within percentage points of first place in the East.