AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Abbott Still Has Little Support

Hard luck seems to have chased Jim Abbott all the way from California to New York.

Victimized by nonsupport last season with the Angels, the Yankees’ left-hander pitched seven strong innings Wednesday night, but lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2, at Cleveland.

Albert Belle hit the first pitch from reliever John Habyan for a tiebreaking two-run home run in the eighth, after Carlos Baerga led off with a double against Abbott.

“There are things you can control in this game and things you can’t,” Abbott said. “I just try to keep my team in the game. I feel like I did that today, so I don’t want to be too hard on myself.”

Abbott gave up three runs and nine hits, struck out three and walked one. Last season, he was 7-15 with a 2.77 earned-run average as the Angels backed him with 2.55 runs per start, the worst support for an American League pitcher since the designated hitter was introduced in 1973.

Bernie Williams tied it, 2-2, with a two-run home run during the seventh off Dennis Cook, the Indians’ third pitcher.

Baerga put Cleveland ahead with a run-scoring single in the first after Kenny Lofton led off with a double. Thomas Howard’s homer made it 2-0 in the third.

Boston 3, Kansas City 2--David Cone, back with the Royals after a seven-year absence, lost to Frank Viola at Kansas City.

Cone, a Kansas City native who was traded to the New York Mets after the 1986 season in one of the Royals’ worst deals, was foiled by the same pitcher who beat him in his final start last year. Cone gave up two runs and eight hits in eight innings, striking out five and walking two.

Viola beat Cone with a one-hitter in Toronto’s SkyDome in his final start last year. This time, Viola gave up four hits over eight innings, striking out four and walking one.

Texas 3, Baltimore 1--Doug Strange hit a two-run pinch-home run off Gregg Olson in the 11th inning, lifting the Rangers over the Orioles at Baltimore.

Dean Palmer hit his third homer in two games for Texas, which blew a 1-0 lead during the eighth, but came back for a sweep of the two-game series.

The game was played before a crowd of 46,447, giving the Orioles the major league record for consecutive sellouts with 61. The previous record was set by Toronto in 1990 and 1991. Baltimore has sold out every game in Camden Yards since May 23.

Palmer, who homered twice on opening day, hit a solo homer in the second off Mike Mussina.

Toronto 2, Seattle 0--For a day, Al Leiter made the Blue Jays forget about Dave Stewart’s injured arm.

Leiter, starting in Stewart’s place, pitched seven shutout innings at Seattle as the defending World Series champions rebounded from an opening-night loss.

Leiter retired the Mariners’ first 13 batters and gave up only two singles. He struck out five and walked two during his first major league start since May 6, 1989.

Minnesota 6, Chicago 1--Dave Winfield drove in four runs, and Jim Deshaies gave up four hits in seven innings for his first American League victory as the Twins beat the White Sox at Minneapolis.

Winfield’s three-run double off Scott Radinsky capped a four-run eighth inning.

Deshaies, who had a 7.94 ERA in spring training, gave up only Carlton Fisk’s home run and three singles during seven innings.

Kirk McCaskill gave up nine hits in 7 1/3 innings before Radinsky came in and walked Kent Hrbek with the bases loaded, making it 3-1. Winfield followed with a double, his 1,010th extra-base hit, moving him past Ernie Banks into 18th on the all-time list.