AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : A’s Can’t Go It Solo in 8-6 Loss to Twins

Minnesota pitchers yielded six home runs Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum, including three to Dave Henderson, but fortunately for the Twins, all of them came with the bases empty.

The Twins, held scoreless for seven innings by rookie Joe Slusarski, got seven runs in the eighth inning, three on a home run by Brian Harper, for an 8-6 victory.

A’s bullpen ace Dennis Eckersley never even took off his warm-up jacket while the Twins hammered away at Slusarski, Joe Klink and Kevin Campbell.

“It was too early to bring in Eckersley,” Oakland Manager Tony La Russa said. “I did not want to use him in the eighth. It was just a game that got away.”

Henderson homered in his first three at-bats against David West, then struck out and popped out.

The six home runs weren’t close to the record, 10 by Toronto against Baltimore on Sept. 14, 1987. But the A’s set a major league record for bases-empty home runs.

Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Harold Baines also homered for the A’s. Baines, who hit three home runs May 7, hit a pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the eighth to cut the lead to 7-6, but the Twins’ Shane Mack homered in the ninth.

“We’ve got to feel like we robbed a bank and got away with it,” Twin Manager Tom Kelly said. “We were dead in the water. I have no clue on earth how we came back. So don’t ask me.”

On Canseco’s home run, his 29th of the season, left fielder Mack had his glove on the ball but lost it when his arm hit the top of the fence.

Henderson, who ended a long hitting slump last week, hit his home runs to all fields: to center in the first inning, to right in the third and to left-center field in the fifth. He has 22.

Henderson didn’t seem impressed by his performance. “It’s just the quirks of the game,” he said.

Boston 4, Toronto 1--Joe Hesketh continued his comeback and Jack Clark hit a two-run homer in the first inning at Boston as the Red Sox scored their second consecutive victory over the Eastern Division leaders. The Red Sox are eight games behind the Blue Jays.

Hesketh (5-2), who has pitched well since the Red Sox moved him out of the bullpen into the rotation, held the Blue Jays to four hits and shut them out for 7 2/3 innings. He struck out eight before Jeff Reardon took over and gave up the run in the ninth.

“Joe had better stuff than last time out, but if we don’t win tomorrow, it’s wasted,” Red Sox Manager Joe Morgan said.

Baltimore 6, Chicago 3--Jack McDowell’s rock group gave a concert in the afternoon at Baltimore, but it was the pitcher who was rocked at night.

McDowell is lead singer and plays guitar for a group called V.I.E.W. The Orioles hammered the young right-hander for 10 hits and six runs in two innings, his record fell to 13-6 and the White Sox dropped to three games behind the Twins in the West.

Cal Ripken had two run-scoring doubles off McDowell, who had his worst outing of the season.

Detroit 7, New York 6--Lloyd Moseby’s two-run double highlighted a five-run first inning at Detroit and the Tigers moved to within four games of first.

Bill Gullickson (14-6) gave up three runs in seven innings, but Kevin Maas a three-run home run off Paul Gibson in the eighth. Mike Henneman got the last four outs for his 17th save and the Tigers won their fourth in a row.

Cleveland 3, Kansas City 1--Greg Swindell gave up four hits and a tainted run at Cleveland and pitched his fifth complete game.

Alex Cole, who let Brian McRae score from second base on a fly ball in the first inning, got a hit in the seventh inning and scored the go-ahead run. Swindell is 7-9.

Texas 14, Milwaukee 5--Rafael Palmeiro went three for four to raise his average to .351 at Milwaukee. He had two singles and drove in two runs in an eight-run first inning.