AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Royals Rally, Then Defeat Orioles in 15th

Bill Pecota singled home the winning run with two out in the bottom of the 15th inning Wednesday night as the Royals rallied from a seven-run deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-8, at Kansas City.

Baltimore’s Sam Horn struck out six times, tying a major league record held by five others. The last to do it was Boston’s Cecil Cooper in a 15-inning game June 14, 1974. Horn doubled in the 15th but was stranded.

George Brett led off the bottom of the inning with a single. Jim Eisenreich flied out, but Todd Benzinger singled and Pecota followed with his hit off Mark Williamson (3-3), the sixth Oriole pitcher.

The last three games between the teams have all gone to extra innings tied, 8-8, and have taken a combined 13 hours 43 minutes to complete.

Luis Aquino (3-2), the fifth Royal pitcher, allowed three hits in three innings for the victory.

The Royals, who trailed 7-0 in the fourth, scored twice in the ninth to tie the score, 8-8.

Cleveland 2, Oakland 1--Rod Nichols ended a 13-game losing streak that had lasted almost two years with a four-hitter at Oakland.

Glenallen Hill hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning to give Nichols his first victory since he shut out Detroit, 4-0, Sept. 14, 1989.

Nichols was 0-4 lifetime against Oakland and 0-16 against the West. In a career that began with the Indians in 1988, he was 5-24.

“Is there a monkey off my back? It feels like a whole zoo,” Nichols said. “A lot has been made of my losses, but I felt good today. It’s fun to win.”

A crowd of 40,158 watched Nichols outpitch Bob Welch (8-6), who knows much about winning, having done it 27 times last season. Nichols didn’t walk a batter and struck out six.

Although he was 0-8, all his pitching for the Indians (28-58), the worst team in the majors, has not been bad. Nichols lost a 1-0 game in which the run was unearned, pitched four scoreless innings for a save and twice lost 2-1 games.

“Really, despite his record, there’s been only two or three times he’s been knocked around,” Manager Mike Hargrove said. “When you average only two runs a game for a pitcher, Cy Young might have a problem winning games.”

Nichols lowered his earned-run average to 3.59.

The Indians, who have won only eight games since June 4, have the worst road record (14-33) in the majors. But they finished 3-3 at Oakland.

Detroit 6, Texas 4--Rob Deer is hitting only .185 and he is on a pace to strikeout nearly 200 times. Yet, he remains a valuable Tiger.

Deer, with only his second hit in 23 at-bats since the All-Star break, hit a two-run home run in the 10th inning at Detroit and the Tigers completed a three-game sweep of the slumping Rangers.

Deer, who has only 54 hits, but 19 home runs, ended an 0-for-18 skid when he homered in the eighth inning Tuesday night to tie the score of a game the Tigers won in the ninth.

“I know I’m a better hitter than my average shows, and (Tiger Manager) Sparky Anderson knows it, too,” Deer said. “His confidence in leaving me in the lineup helps.”

Milwaukee 6, Seattle 1--After pitching his first complete game in more than a year last week, Bill Wegman went for another at Milwaukee.

The 28-year-old right-hander pitched a four-hitter for his fourth consecutive victory and improved his record to 6-3.

Mariner pitchers walked 15 batters.

Randy Johnson (7-7) gave up only one hit in four-plus innings, but he walked 10, gave up four runs and was the loser.

Wegman, who walked only one, said: “I’ve quit worrying about whether my arm will hold up, and I’m concentrating on getting hitters out.”

Boston 4, Chicago 2--Usually reliable Jeff Reardon failed to save Roger Clemens’ 12th victory, but Carlos Quintana came through in the 10th inning for the Red Sox at Chicago.

After Clemens held the White Sox to two hits in seven innings and departed with a 2-1 lead, the White Sox scored on Dan Pasqua’s single off Reardon. It was only the fourth time in 27 chances that Reardon didn’t get the save.

With two out and two on in the 10th against Chicago bullpen ace Bobby Thigpen, Quintana hit a two-run double to make a winner out of Tony Fossas (1-1).

Jack Clark, who had a miserable first half of the season, provided Clemens with a lead when he hit a two-run home run, a 419-foot blast to left off Greg Hibbard in the first inning.