AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : First No-Hitter, Then Victory Elude Darling

Ron Darling pitched seven hitless innings Tuesday night at Kansas City and the Oakland Athletics held a 1-0 lead.

But during the eighth inning, Darling lost the no-hitter and then didn’t even get a victory.

Keith Miller beat out a hit to shortstop to spoil the no-hit bid, Darling was replaced and the Royals, with only that one infield hit, pulled out a 3-1 victory.

There were three sacrifices, two wild pitches and an error beside the hit that added up to one of the weakest three-run rallies ever.

Rick Honeycutt, who relieved Darling, made the error on the first sacrifice and followed with two wild pitches for the first two runs.

It was a strange way for the Royals, who lost their first seven games, to get their first victory, but Manager Hal McRae was ready to accept anything.

“It was strange, but we’ll take it,” McRae said.

Honeycutt cut right to the point. “Basically, I screwed up,” he said.

Darling acknowledged being disappointed, but refused to second-guess Manager Tony La Russa.

“Every pitcher wants to stay in there,” he said. “Whatever Tony wants, I have no problem with Rick relieving me. He’s one of our better pitchers.”

Toronto 12, New York 6--While the Royals were ending their losing streak in unusual fashion, there was nothing odd about the end of the Yankees’ six-game winning streak.

After getting a couple of runs in the first inning at Toronto, the Blue Jays added six during the second to knock out Jeff Johnson.

Dave Winfield sparked the 14-hit assault. The former Angel hit a two-run home run and two singles and drove in four runs. The Yankees are 6-1, but the Blue Jays still lead the Eastern Division at 7-1.

Juan Guzman (2-0) gave up eight hits and three runs in six innings.

Milwaukee 11, Minnesota 1--Paul Molitor is off to a poor start at the plate, but if you let him get on base, you can be in trouble.

Molitor, batting a weak .143, had only one hit during the Brewers’ assault on the Twins at Minneapolis, but he led the attack.

Molitor stole home and two other bases and scored another run.

John Smiley gave up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings and the National League 20-game winner saw his ERA soar to 9.39 after two starts.

Darryl Hamilton also stole six bases for the Brewers, who have 20 steals in seven games.

The Brewers had 11 hits, including a two-run triple by Franklin Stubbs during a seven-run third. Jaime Navarro retired 17 in a row after the first.

Cleveland 8, Detroit 7--Brook Jacoby hit a three-run home run at Cleveland and singled in the go-ahead run during a four-run eighth inning at Cleveland.

Detroit had taken a 6-4 lead during the seventh when Cecil Fielder hit his fourth home run in eight games, a two-run shot over the center field wall.

But Sandy Alomar, Mark Whiten, Jacoby and Kenny Lofton singled in runs during the eighth as the Indians batted around.

Rob Deer hit his third home run during the ninth inning, but all that did was narrow the gap.