AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Athletics Lose, but Clinch a Tie for West Title

The Oakland Athletics must wait at least until today to break out the champagne.

The A’s missed a chance to clinch their fourth American League West title in five years and instead settled for at least a tie for the division crown when they lost to the Brewers, 4-1, Friday night at Milwaukee.

“It would’ve been nice to do it tonight,” said Dave Stewart, the losing pitcher. “But it’s inevitable. It’s going to happen.”

The A’s magic number is one. The second-place Twins are 8 1/2 games back.

Milwaukee, meanwhile, remained 3 1/2 games behind the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, who beat the New York Yankees. Ricky Bones (9-9) gave up three hits in 7 1/3 innings and Kevin Seitzer hit a two-run homer for the Brewers, who have eight games left.

Bones gave up one run and three hits, walked two and struck out one. Dan Plesac and Doug Henry finished with combined two-hit relief.

Stewart (12-10) gave up four runs and five hits in five innings.

Toronto 3, New York 1--David Cone, pitching in New York for the first time since the Mets traded him to Toronto, stopped the Yankees for seven innings and the Blue Jays cut their magic number to five with the victory at New York.

Rain fell throughout the game, but with tropical storm Danielle bearing down, and showers in the forecast for today, the umpires allowed play to continue with only a couple of brief stops.

Kansas City 4, Minnesota 3--George Brett got his 2,994th hit and scored on Gregg Jefferies’ double as the Royals won at Minneapolis.

Rusty Meacham (9-4) gave up two hits in 2 1/3 innings and struck out two. Jeff Montgomery pitched the ninth for his 39th save.

Detroit 6, Cleveland 5--Chad Kreuter’s pinch-hit double in the 10th inning gave the Tigers a victory at Detroit.

The win was Sparky Anderson’s 1,131st in Detroit, tying him with Hughie Jennings as the winningest manager in Detroit.

Carlos Baerga’s two-run homer in the first inning made him the first AL second baseman with 100 RBIs since Bobby Grich in 1979.