AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Royals Ground Down by Clemens, 5-0

Roger Clemens knew he didn’t have his best stuff when he went out to face the Royals Saturday at Kansas City. He had to settle for a three-hitter.

Clemens had only four strikeouts while pitching the Boston Red Sox to a 5-0 victory over the Royals, ending their three-game winning streak.

“My velocity was fairly good,” Clemens (4-3) said after an unusual performance in which he recorded 15 ground outs.

“I was just happy to keep control of the game this time. It was a long four days since my last outing.”

In his previous start, Clemens was a 6-1 loser to the Minnesota Twins in Boston.

“I didn’t get hit hard last time,” he said, “but everything fell in. It was frustrating. I just wanted to make sure I kept focused and did the right things. I’m not a .500 pitcher.”

The Red Sox broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the fourth inning and scored another in the fifth.

“Once you get three runs, it makes you a different pitcher,” Clemens said. “You can do a (few) more things. When it’s tied or you’re down a couple of runs, you have to go against the grain and make pitches you wouldn’t ordinarily make. I was just trying to do the best job I can do.”

Even without his best fastball, Clemens retired 16 batters in a row during one stretch.

“He didn’t have strikeout stuff, just shutout stuff,” Manager Hal McRae of the Royals said. “I’ve seen him have both.”

Jody Reed and Wade Boggs each had two hits to help the Red Sox end a three-game losing streak.

Oakland 5, New York 3--Manager Tony La Russa of the Athletics has long been known as a patient man.

There were some who thought he was showing too much patience with pitchers Ron Darling and Rick Honeycutt. The patience paid off in the same game at Oakland.

Darling, who gave up 15 runs in 13 innings in his three previous starts, pitched a strong six innings for his first victory since April 9.

Honeycutt, who had pitched poorly all season in clutch situations, retired the last two batters for his first save. It was the fourth victory in a row for the Athletics and fifth loss in a row for the Yankees.

Honeycutt picked the right time to come through. Bullpen ace Dennis Eckersley posted saves in three consecutive games and needed a day of rest.

With the tying runs on base and one out in the ninth inning, Honeycutt got his first save since Sept. 22, 1990. Twice this season he failed to hold leads for Darling.

Rickey Henderson was two for three, stole three bases, scored a run and drove in one to trigger the offense. Harold Baines hit his second homer.

Baltimore 5, Chicago 2--When Gregg Olson faced hot-hitting Frank Thomas in the 10th inning Friday night, Thomas hit a home run to win the game.

Thomas, who had two singles and drove in both White Sox runs, represented the tying run when he came up with two on and two out in the ninth inning of this game at Baltimore. This time, Olson struck out Thomas to earn his sixth save.

In his last nine games, Thomas is 13 for 29 with 11 runs batted in and has walked 12 times.

Bob Milacki staggered through five innings before the Baltimore bullpen saved him. The victory gave the Orioles a 13-3 home record and knocked the White Sox out of first place in the West. The White Sox had won six in a row, but fell half a game behind Oakland.

Minnesota 10, Cleveland 5--Shane Mack homered and drove in four runs at Minneapolis and John Smiley won his second in a row for the Twins.

Bolstered by the Twins’ best offense of the season, which included a home run by Kirby Puckett, Smiley (2-2) took a five-hitter and a 10-2 lead into the eighth inning before tiring.

Smiley has done an about-face. In his first five starts after being acquired from Pittsburgh, he was 0-2 and had an ERA of 6.84.

In his last two, he has given up three earned runs in 14 2/3 innings.

Texas 5, Milwaukee 4--Nolan Ryan still doesn’t have a victory, but he is getting closer.

The 45-year-old right-hander struck out nine Brewers and departed with a 4-3 lead after six innings at Arlington, Tex.

But the bullpen blew Ryan’s lead, and the Rangers needed a run-scoring triple from Dickie Thon in the eighth to win it.

Detroit 13, Seattle 0--Bill Gullickson improved his record against the Mariners to 7-0 as the Tigers got 19 hits at Seattle.

Gullickson (5-2) pitched a five-hitter to hand the Mariners their 10th loss in 11 games.