AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Brewers Primed for Stretch Run

The Milwaukee Brewers are making a run at Toronto in the AL East on the strength of aggressive baserunning.

The Brewers stole four bases Sunday at Milwaukee and scored eight runs in the sixth inning during a 9-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles that helped Milwaukee pull to within four games of Toronto.

Paul Molitor had two doubles, Kevin Seitzer had two singles and the Brewers took advantage of four other singles, a walk, an error and two stolen bases on delayed double steals during their big inning.

“That’s Brewer ball for you right there,” Milwaukee Manager Phil Garner said. “We had some unusual things happen on the basepaths, but that’s what we do. We run, we do some unusual things and put pressure on you. It was a super inning.”

Said Oriole Manager Johnny Oates: “Things snowballed. We didn’t get anybody out and we didn’t execute defensively. It was not a pretty inning.”

James Austin (5-2) pitched the sixth inning and earned the victory.

The Brewers, who lead the majors with 232 stolen bases, have won four in a row and eight of nine. They do not play Toronto again this season.

Baltimore, which is 5 1/2 games behind Toronto, opens a series against the Blue Jays Tuesday at Baltimore.

Texas 7, Toronto 5--Jose Guzman (15-11) gave up three runs, five hits and struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings at Toronto as the Rangers handed the Blue Jays only their sixth loss in 21 games.

Ranger center fielder David Hulse had three hits, including two bunt singles, and made a diving catch on a ball hit by Devon White.

Juan Guzman (15-4) of the Blue Jays gave up seven runs and nine hits in four innings.

Chicago 10, Cleveland 8--Bobby Thigpen became the youngest pitcher to reach 200 saves and Ron Karkovice and Robin Ventura homered to lead the White Sox at Cleveland.

Thigpen, 29, got four outs for his 22nd save, joining 13 others with 200. Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith and John Franco all reached the 200-save mark at age 30.

Oakland 4, Seattle 2--The Athletics won for the 11th time in 12 games and cut their magic number for clinching the AL West to five with the victory at Seattle.

Dave Stewart (12-9) gave up two runs in seven innings. Dennis Eckersley pitched the ninth inning and got his career-high 49th save in 51 chances.

Boston 5, Detroit 4--John Valentin of the Red Sox drove in three runs and broke a seventh-inning tie with a solo homer at Detroit.

Frank Viola (12-12) gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings and won for the first time in five starts.

Detroit’s Cecil Fielder had his major league-leading 116th RBI.

New York 10, Kansas City 4--The Yankees hit seven doubles at Kansas City, matching a Royals record for most doubles allowed.

Danny Tartabull hit his 23rd home run for the Yankees.

Rookie Bob Wickman (4-1) gave up four runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.

George Brett had two hits. He needs 11 to reach 3,000.