AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Tenace Gets First Victory as Blue Jay Manager

Gene Tenace is not likely to forget his first victory as the acting manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Tenace, taking over for Cito Gaston, who is in the hospital because of a back problem, watched the Blue Jays lose the first two games he managed.

They went into the ninth inning Friday night at Toronto not merely in danger of losing again, but also of dropping into a tie for first place in the American League East.

The Blue Jays, trailing, 5-4, scored twice in a bizarre ninth inning in which the only hit was a blooper by Roberto Alomar that drove in two runs and gave them a 6-5 victory over the luckless New York Yankees.

Steve Farr, who has been excellent as the Yankees’ closer, was on the mound. He went 0 and 2 on leadoff man Mookie Wilson and hit him. Then Farr got Pat Borders to hit a double play ball at shortstop Randy Velarde. In his eagerness to get two outs, Velarde fumbled the ball twice and everybody was safe. Manny Lee, trying to sacrifice, was hit with a pitch to load the bases. Devon White struck out.

Alomar, fooled on the pitch, looped the ball into left-center field and the two runs scored. It was the Blue Jays’ fourth victory in 14 games, but it kept them in first place.

“Easy, hard or exciting,” Tenace said, “It all looks the same in the standings.”

Baltimore 5, Minnesota 4--As it did in five of their six other meetings this season, this game at Baltimore came down to the final at-bat. This time there was an unexpected hero.

David Segui, in a five-for-35 slump, singled with two out in the ninth inning to score pinch-runner Juan Bell from second base.

It was only the second loss in the last eight games for the Twins, who lead by six games in the West.

Dwight Evans hit a three-run homer for the Orioles, who won their third in a row.

Cleveland 4, Chicago 3--Until they went into their slump a couple of weeks ago, the White Sox were winning games in this situation.

Nineteen times this season the White Sox pulled out a victory in games in which they trailed after eight innings.

At Cleveland, they were behind, 4-1, going into the ninth.

They chased Willie Blair (1-1) with two singles. Ozzie Guillen greeted reliever Shawn Hillegas with a double to put the tying runs on second and third with nobody out.

But Hillegas struck out Tim Raines. Another run scored on Robin Ventura’s ground out, but Frank Thomas, who had three hits, flied out to end the game.

Texas 6, Kansas City 1--Brian Bohanan pitched a five-hitter and his first complete game, and the Rangers took advantage of three errors by the Royals at Kansas City.

Rafael Palmeiro had two hits, scored twice and drove in a run to lead the attack. He raised his average to .338.

Milwaukee 13, Oakland 4--Jaime Navarro won his fourth consecutive start and the Brewers’ Willie Randolph drove in three runs and scored three times at Oakland.

Milwaukee has won three in a row and nine of 11. Paul Molitor homered on the first pitch from Dave Stewart and the Brewers ended a four-game winning streak by the Athletics.