AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Short Walk Ends Long Night as A’s Outlast Indians in 13th, 7-6

Terry Steinbach walked with the bases loaded in the 13th inning to give the Oakland Athletics a wild 7-6 victory over the Cleveland Indians Tuesday night at Oakland.

With the victory, the A’s moved into second place in the six-team American League West race, 2 1/2 games behind Minnesota.

Cleveland took a 6-4 lead off Joe Klink (6-2) in the top of the 13th on a tiebreaking, two-out infield single by Sandy Alomar and a run-scoring double by Felix Fermin.

Oakland tied the score against struggling Indian reliever Doug Jones in the bottom of the inning on a two-run triple by Mike Gallego, his fourth hit of the game. Jones (1-7) walked Mark McGwire and Rickey Henderson intentionally to load the bases before Mike York came on and walked Steinbach on a 3-and-2 pitch.

The Indians built a 3-0 lead early off Oakland ace Dave Stewart, and Charles Nagy seemed to be coasting to an easy victory when the A’s awoke in the eighth.

Rickey Henderson hit a three-run homer to tie the score, and one out later Jose Canseco hit his 22nd home run of the season to give Oakland a 4-3 lead.

However, All-Star reliever Dennis Eckersley stumbled in the bottom of the ninth, when the Indians tied the score on a run-scoring grounder by Alomar.

Boston 2, Chicago 0--There is more than one Greg Harris pitching well in the majors these days.

The other day, Greg Wade Harris of the San Diego Padres carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning and put an end to the New York Mets’ 10-game winning streak.

Greg Allen Harris, also a right-hander, is doing quite well these days for the Boston Red Sox.

Boston’s Harris, who was born in Lynwood and pitched for Long Beach City College, limited the White Sox to two hits in seven innings as the Red Sox won at Chicago.

Although he has not pitched a complete game in a year, Harris, 35, has won four of his last five outings.

He got support from Carlos Quintana, who homered in the fifth inning, and Mo Vaughn, who hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Jeff Gray gave up the third White Sox hit in the eighth, but Jeff Reardon pitched a hitless ninth for his 23rd save.

Kansas City 2, Toronto 1--While building their big lead in the East the Blue Jays played almost flawlessly.

But in this game at Kansas City, catcher Greg Myers was anything but flawless and cost Tom Candiotti another victory.

Candiotti, the veteran knuckleball pitcher acquired from Cleveland late last month, appeared on his way to his third win in a row for the Blue Jays.

He led, 1-0, going into the ninth extending his scoreless string to 23 innings.

Kirk Gibson tripled to center to open the ninth and scored the tying run when Myers let a knuckleball get away for a passed ball.

Then, in the 10th, Candiotti hit Bill Pecota, who was sacrificed to second. On the first pitch to Kevin Seitzer, Pecota broke for third. Myers’ throw sailed over third baseman Kelly Gruber, and Pecota trotted home with the winning run.

Manager Hal McRae had told his Royals to run on Candiotti whenever they had the chance because of the knuckler.

The loss cut the Blue Jays’ lead in the East to seven games over Detroit.

Milwaukee 4, Minnesota 3--The other division leader, the Twins, blew a lead in the ninth at Milwaukee and lost.

Brian Harper’s two-run home run in the top of the ninth off Dan Plesac, a reliever the Dodgers reportedly are trying to get, gave the Twins a 3-2 lead.

But Rick Aguilera couldn’t hold the lead.

He retired the first two Brewers, but Bill Spiers singled and scored the tying run on Paul Molitor’s double. Daryl Hamilton followed with a single to win the game.

Detroit 6, Texas 5--Gary Pettis is an outstanding center fielder, although some contend that part of the reason is he uses an illegal, oversized glove.

But it was Pettis, who lost this one for the Rangers in the ninth inning.

After the Tigers blew a 4-0 first-inning lead and fell behind on a two-run home run by Rafael Palmeiro, they tied it on Rob Deer’s homer in the eighth.

In the ninth, with two runners on, Pettis dropped Travis Fryman’s short fly in center for an error to fill the bases. Dave Bergman hit a deeper fly to center and Pettis caught it. Instead of it being the third out and sending the game into extra innings, it was a sacrifice fly that won the game.

The Tigers also pulled out a victory in the ninth inning Monday night.

The Tigers lost shortstop Alan Trammell indefinitely. He suffered a sprained ankle running out a ground ball in the third inning.

Seattle 5, New York 0--Brian Holman pitched a six-hitter at Seattle for his third shutout.

Holman (9-9) extended his shutout string to 17 innings, and the Mariners won for the fifth time in six games.

The big hit for the Mariners was Pete O’Brien ‘s two-run homer off Scott Sanderson (10-4).