AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Rangers Knuckle Under to Candiotti, 2-0

Before the Toronto Blue Jays obtained Tom Candiotti last month in a trade with Cleveland, they had already forged in front in the American League East.

The veteran knuckleball pitcher may be what they need to make a runaway of the division.

In his second consecutive strong effort, Candiotti held the Texas Rangers to five hits and struck out 10 in eight innings Thursday night at Toronto and the Blue Jays won, 2-0.

Candiotti, a loser in his debut for Toronto June 28, has been flawless since. He pitched seven shutout innings against Minnesota July 3 and has a string of 15 scoreless innings.

The Rangers are the best hitting team in the majors, but they couldn’t handle Candiotti’s knuckler.

“It was dead calm out there,” Candiotti said, “and the knuckleball was dancing real well. The conditions were just about ideal.

“I usually throw the dancer about 50 to 60% of the time. But tonight, it was working so well I threw it 70%. And when I wasn’t throwing it, the curve was working well.”

John Olerud’s single, his third hit, drove in the first Toronto run in the seventh and Rance Mulliniks had an inside-the-park home run in the eighth. Left fielder Kevin Reimer tried to make a shoestring catch of Mulliniks’ low liner, didn’t come close and the ball skipped past him and Mulliniks easily circled the bases.

“That was a long run,” Mulliniks said. “I haven’t run that far since I won the 1,500 meters in the 1986 Olympics,” he added facetiously.

It was the fourth win in a row for the Blue Jays and their 16th in the past 19 games as they increased their lead to 6 1/2 games over the Boston Red Sox.

The Rangers had won four in a row and moved into first place in the West, but Candiotti, who lowered his earned-run average to 2.09, knocked them out of the top spot.

Tom Henke pitched the ninth for his 17th save and completed the Blue Jays’ 11th shutout, tops in the league.

Minnesota 7, Boston 3--Mike Pagliarulo’s third hit broke a tie at Minneapolis and the Twins regained first place in the West.

A pinch home run by Paul Sorrento broke it open in the seventh.

Carl Willis (4-2) pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief to win it.

The Red Sox scored two runs in the third, but Greg Harris (5-8) couldn’t hold the lead.

Kansas City 9, Detroit 5--Mike Macfarlane hit a grand slam to climax an eight-run second inning at Detroit that enabled Kevin Appier to improve his record to 6-7.

The Royals scored an unearned run without a hit in the first inning, then had four hits in the second inning. In addition to Macfarlane’s home run, George Brett had a two-run double in the rally.

Mickey Tettleton had three hits for the Tigers.

Milwaukee 5, Chicago 1--Bill Wegman pitched a six-hitter for his first complete game in more than a year. The Brewers scored four times in the fourth inning to give Wegman (5-3) a cushion.

He gave up a run on three hits in the fifth inning, but thereafter was in complete charge.

It continued the comeback for the veteran right-hander who was on the disabled list a year ago with an elbow injury. He won only four games in 1989 and 1990.

Oakland 8, Baltimore 1--Dave Stewart hasn’t been as good as he was in the previous four seasons when he was winning 20 games each year, but Manager Tony La Russa of the Athletics still has faith in his right-haander.

La Russa came right back with Stewart, who was hammered for 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings at Kansas City Sunday. Stewart responded with his second strong performance in his past three starts and improved his record to 7-5.

Stewart, who pitched a three-hit shutout against Texas July 3, pitched seven shutout innings to run his record to 6-1 at home. The A’s are 10-1 in his home starts.

Mike Gallego drove in three runs and the Athletics scored five runs in the first inning.

Seattle 6, Cleveland 0--Brian Holman and Bill Swift combined on an eight-hitter at Seattle to hand the Indians their major league-leading 12th shutout.

Jay Buhner drove in two runs for the Mariners, who lost three in a row and eight of nine before the All-Star break.

Holman (8-9) gave up six hits in seven innings and is 5-0 against Cleveland.