AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Not Even Clemens Can Save the Fading Red Sox

Boston turned to its ace to try to prolong the inevitable, and he failed.

Roger Clemens lost for the first time in eight weeks, and the Red Sox stumbled to the brink of elimination Tuesday night, falling to the Detroit Tigers, 8-5, at Boston.

Boston’s seventh loss in nine games, coupled with Toronto’s 5-2 victory over the Angels, enabled the Blue Jays to clinch a tie for the AL East championship. Toronto has four games left and Boston has five.

Dave Bergman, Travis Fryman and Pete Incaviglia each hit homers off Clemens (18-9), who lasted only five innings and left trailing 6-0. The Tigers became just the third team ever to hit three homers in a game off Clemens.

Clemens had been 6-0 in his past 11 starts. He gave up five hits and walked two as his earned-run average climbed from 2.38 to 2.54, still best in the league ahead of Tom Candiotti’s 2.60.

Frank Tanana (12-12) earned his 219th victory in his seventh attempt. Tanana gave up six hits, struck out three and walked one before giving up three unearned runs in the sixth after an interference call against catcher Mickey Tettleton.

With one out in the second, Tettleton walked and Bergman hit a 2-0 pitch into the Boston bullpen in right-center for his seventh homer. Fryman led off the fifth by hitting a 2-0 pitch into the screen in left for his 21st homer.

Oakland 4, Kansas City 0--Jose Canseco hit his major league leading 44th home run and Mike Moore extended his scoreless streak to 24 1/3 innings in the Athletics’ victory over the Royals at Kansas City.

Canseco led off the fourth inning with a towering fly ball into the left-field bullpen. He leads Cecil Fielder by one homer.

Moore (17-8) is 8-1 in his past 12 games. He gave up five hits, struck out seven and walked one in 7 1/3 innings.

Minnesota 3, Chicago 2--Kirby Puckett hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning to lead the AL West champion Twins at Chicago.

With the score tied 2-2, Puckett homered off Melido Perez (8-7), his 15th home run of the season.

Mark Guthrie (7-5) allowed two hits in two innings and Rick Aguilera pitched the ninth.

Milwaukee 11-2, Cleveland 0-6--Reggie Jefferson scored the go-ahead run on Darren Holmes’ wild pitch in the sixth inning as the Indians won the second game at Cleveland to gain a split of their doubleheader.

In the first game, Bill Wegman lowered his ERA to 2.85 and Milwaukee rode a six-run fifth inning to the victory. The loss was the Indians’ major league-leading 102nd, tying a team record they also reached in 1914, ’71 and ’85. They have been shut out 18 times this season.

In the second game, Holmes (1-4) gave up consecutive two-out singles in the sixth to Jefferson and Jim Thome before bouncing a pitch past catcher Rick Dempsey, letting Jefferson slide home safely for a 3-2 lead.

Seattle 8, Texas 1--Jay Buhner hit his 26th homer, against Oil Can Boyd (2-7) in the second, and Greg Briley hit a three-run triple in the third against Mike Jeffcoat in the Mariner victory at Texas.

Dave Burba (2-2) held Texas to three hits in six innings. Calvin Jones pitched three innings for his second save.

Rangers rookie Juan Gonzalez singled home a run in the first inning for his 100th RBI of the season.

New York 3, Baltimore 2--Rookie John Ramos drove in Jim Leyritz with the winning run in the 11th in the Yankee victory over the Orioles at New York.

Roberto Kelly’s RBI single in the fifth put the Yankees ahead, 2-1. Kelly’s double in the first inning set up an RBI grounder by Mel Hall.