AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Twins’ Tapani Rises to Occasion

The Minnesota Twins’ goal as they began a 10-day, cross-country trip to start this month was to return home still leading the American League West.

They barely attained their goal. The two pitchers, Scott Erickson and Jack Morris, who led them to the top went into slumps, but the Twins might have found a new mound leader.

Kevin Tapani (10-7) pitched a four-hitter for his fifth victory in a row as the Twins beat the Mariners, 5-2, Sunday at Seattle. The Twins finished the trip they began Aug. 1 in New York with a 6-4 record and a one-game lead over the Chicago White Sox.

The Twins, with the best home record in the league, will open a four-game series tonight against the last-place Angels. The Twins are 32-19 at home, where they will play 30 of their last 50 games.

Tapani, one of the pitchers the Twins obtained from the New York Mets in the Frank Viola deal, was 12-8 last season. But, when he lost, 1-0, to Toronto June 27, he was 5-7.

His strong suit is control. The 27-year-old right-hander began his winning streak at Boston on July 21 by holding the Red Sox without an earned run for six innings.

He went 33 2/3 innings without walking a batter before Edgar Martinez walked to start the fourth inning and wound up scoring.

Seattle’s Jay Buhner hit his 21st home run in the fifth inning, but most of the time Tapani was in control.

Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek hit home runs for the Twins.

“Don’t ask me how he does it,” Twin Manager Tom Kelly said of Tapani. “He just does it. He throws strikes.”

Early in the season, the Twins couldn’t score for him. But during the winning streak, they have scored 44 runs in five games.

“Kevin’s been pitching like this all year,” catcher Brian Harper said. “He could easily have 15 wins if we had been getting him runs earlier.”

The Twins have won 20 of 29 since the All-Star break, but are only a game ahead of the White Sox and three ahead of Oakland.

The Mariners have lost five out of six and trail by 8 1/2 games.

Boston 9, Toronto 6--Manager Joe Morgan of the Red Sox said that the only hope for his team in the pennant race was to sweep the four-game series at Toronto.

He has three of the victories, his club is on a hitting rampage against the league’s best pitching and he has Roger Clemens ready to pitch the finale tonight.

In the three games, the Red Sox have outscored the Blue Jays, 28-14, and have moved to within eight games of the division leaders.

Joe Carter, the Blue Jays’ right fielder, made two errors in the first inning and the Red Sox turned them into five runs. Carter hit his 27th home run of the season, but later made the final out to give Jeff Reardon his 27th save.

Mike Greenwell had four of Boston’s 16 hits, drove in two runs and scored another.

New York 12-10, Detroit 6-8--With a chance to cut deep into Toronto’s lead, the Tigers gave up 22 runs and 27 hits to lose a doubleheader at New York.

Don Mattingly, aching back and all, hit a two-run pinch single in the ninth inning of the second game to make the score 8-8, then Mel Hall hit a two-run home run in the 10th to win it.

In the first game, Hensley Meulens and Randy Velarde each drove in three runs for New York.

The Tigers’ Mickey Tettleton hit a two-run homer in the first game and a grand slam in the second game. Teammate Dave Bergman hit solo home runs in each game.

Kansas City 3, Cleveland 2--The Royals, held to two hits for eight innings at Kansas City by Eric King, rallied to tie the score in the ninth and, despite Jeff Manto’s home run, won in the 13th.

After Manto homered to make the score 2-1, Indian shortstop Felix Fermin committed two errors. George Brett’s single up the middle with none out drove in the winning run.

Texas 5, Milwaukee 4--Juan Gonzalez, who made an error in the first inning that gave the Brewers two runs in the first inning, made amends in the 10th.

Gonzalez singled home Julio Franco from third to break the 4-4 tie at Arlington, Tex., and end the Rangers’ two-game losing streak.

Rafael Palmeiro of the Rangers, the major leagues’ leading hitter, went 0 for 5 and dropped to .348. He is hitless in his last two games.