AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Canseco, Athletics Flex Their Muscle, 7-6

Even with only one healthy shoulder, Jose Canseco hit nine home runs in six weeks. Now that his other shoulder is feeling stronger, he plans on picking up the pace.

“I’ve always felt the timing from the beginning, I just didn’t have the strength,” said Canseco, whose two home runs Wednesday helped the Oakland Atheltics complete a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox, 7-6.

Canseco, who missed five games last week with a sore shoulder, now has three homers in six games and has RBIs in 10 of his last 12 games. Is this a trend?

“I hope so,” Canseco said. “I’ve always been known to be a streaky power hitter.”

Canseco has a way to go to catch teammate Mark McGwire, who hit his 20th homer in the same inning that Canseco hit his 12th -- the third. All of the homers were hit off John Dopson, who took out his frustration by throwing a pitch behind Jamie Quirk’s back.

Quirk charged the mound, was tackled by catcher John Flaherty before he could reach Dopson, and both benches emptied without a punch being thrown. Quirk and Dopson were ejected.

“Truthfully, I didn’t think you could get thrown out of the game for that,” Quirk said. “It’s not something you think about. It was just a reaction. But a rule’s a rule.”

Dopson said he “tried to come inside on Quirk, and it got away from me a little bit.”

But even his manager, Butch Hobson, wasn’t buying that explanation. “The fact that Dopson’s pitch went behind Quirk surprised me as much as anybody,” Hobson said. “I’d have been mad, too.”

The move ultimately backfired on the Red Sox. Terry Steinbach, who replaced Quirk, broke a 4-4 tie in the seventh with a bases-loaded, two-run single.

“Jamie reacted probably the way 99.9 percent of the players would have,” Steinbach said. “It’s not right to throw behind a guy. Every player’s got a big behind. Shoot for that instead.”

Hobson said the A’s took the shot and scored.

“We got our butts whipped here, that’s for sure,” Hobson said.

Jeff Parrett (5-0) pitched 2 2-3 scoreless innings as the A’s completed a three-game sweep. Dennis Eckersley got three outs for his 20th save in 20 chances and his 24th in a row despite allowing Phil Plantier’s two-out, two-run single.

Eckersley, one short of Tom Henke’s major league record for consecutive saves, then retired Ellis Burks on a groundout.

With the score tied at 4 in the seventh, Mike Gardiner (3-4) walked Randy Ready and hit Canseco with a pitch. Harold Baines followed with a drive off the center-field fence, but Ready was thrown out at home plate after he held up to tag.

Steinbach singled for the lead, and Mike Bordick added an RBI single off Tom Bolton with two outs.

Luis Rivera hit an RBI single in the second and Jack Clark’s sacrifice fly in the third tied the score at 2.

The third-inning homers by Canseco and McGwire gave Oakland a 4-2 lead.

Jody Reed’s sacrifice fly and Mike Greenwell’s RBI infield single tied the game for Boston in the sixth against Kevin Campbell.

Detroit 10, Milwaukee 4--Cecil Fielder hit a pair of two-run homers, driving in five runs as the Detroit Tigers cooled off the Milwaukee Brewers 10-4 Wednesday to end a six-game losing streak.

Fielder, who had just one home run since April 23, hit an RBI single in a five-run first and homered in the fourth and the sixth innings, giving him 10 this season.

Kevin Ritz (1-1) allowed three runs and eight hits in 5 1-3 innings for his first victory in 30 appearances since Sept. 5, 1989. Bill Wegman (5-5) was tagged for seven runs and six hits in four innings, including four unearned runs in the first.

Robin Yount hit his fourth homer for Milwaukee, which had won five of six.