AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Amaral’s Hit in 10th Beats Toronto

Manager Lou Piniella was laughing as he sat at his desk Wednesday night after the Seattle Mariners’ 10-9 victory in 10 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays, partly from exhaustion and partly from watching the game that had just transpired.

“I heard they score a lot more runs in the American League,” Piniella said after a game that took 3 hour 52 minutes. “But this is ridiculous.”

Rich Amaral singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and the Mariners, after blowing a seven-run lead, beat the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Ken Griffey Jr.’s single scored a run in the sixth that put Seattle ahead, 7-0. An error by first baseman John Olerud on Omar Vizquel’s grounder allowed two runs to score in the seventh, giving the Mariners a 9-3 lead.

Pat Hentgen (0-1) walked two in a row in the 10th, including Tino Martinez’s team-record fifth of the game, before Jay Buhner hit a grounder that could have been an inning-ending double play. But shortstop Dick Schofield’s relay pulled Olerud off the bag, bringing up Amaral.

“I just threw it down the line,” Schofield said. “There’s no excuse. It was just a bad throw.”

Amaral, the oldest rookie in the majors at 31, lined a 2-0 pitch off reliever Mike Timlin to score pinch-runner Henry Cotto with the go-ahead run.

“That was a big one for anybody,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or a 15-year veteran. To win a game with a base hit in extra innings is a great feeling.”

Rich DeLucia (1-0) won despite giving up two runs and three hits in 2 2/3 innings. Norm Charlton pitched the 10th for his first American League save.

“I wish I’d done a little better, maybe get out of here without giving up the homer,” DeLucia said. “But I’m happy to bounce back and put up some zeros after that.

“But my job is to save games, not to win them.”

The Mariners had a chance to go ahead in the ninth, but rookie Fernando Vina was picked off second base by Pat Hentgen.

Paul Molitor’s three-run homer capped Toronto’s five-run seventh inning, bringing the Blue Jays to 9-8. Schofield and Roberto Alomar had RBI singles off Dwayne Henry and Molitor connected against DeLucia.

The Blue Jays made it 9-9 in the eighth on Ed Sprague’s run-scoring single.

Seattle roughed up Juan Guzman, scoring once in the first inning and four more in the fourth. Guzman lasted only 3 1/3 innings and gave up seven hits, including Jay Buhner’s two-run single.

Erik Hanson, who pitched six shutout innings in his first start against Baltimore last Friday, did not give up a run until the sixth. Hanson hit Joe Carter in the helmet with a curveball with the bases loaded and Olerud followed with a two-run single.

Baltimore 6, Texas 5--Nolan Ryan, stuck on the mound in the middle of a rainstorm, lasted only four innings and lost for the first time this season as the Orioles won at Arlington, Tex.

A steady drizzle fell all evening and the game time temperature was 48 degrees. Whipping winds dropped the wind chill factor to 38 degrees, and the poor conditions sent several players slipping to the grass.

Ryan, 46, gave up six runs, eight hits, four walks and a wild pitch. He struck out four. Ryan (1-1) threw 97 pitches. Pitching on the last day of the Rangers’ home stand, he tried to continue, but left with Texas trailing, 6-1.

The Rangers almost rallied to save Ryan from his first loss in his 27th and final season. Pinch-hitter Doug Dascenzo led off the ninth with a double against reliever Greg Olson and took third on a sacrifice, but Gary Redus lined out and Rafael Palmeiro flied out.

Ben McDonald (1-1) won despite giving up five runs, nine hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings. Olson got his second save.

Boston 12, Cleveland 7--Mo Vaughn and Scott Cooper led a rejuvenated attack with four hits apiece, and the first-place Red Sox had 18 hits, including nine doubles, in the victory at Boston.

The Red Sox, who finished last in the AL East last season with the league’s second worst batting average, are off to their best start in 38 years with a 6-2 record.

Vaughn went four-for-five with four runs-batted in and Cooper was four-for-four with three RBIs.

Carlos Baerga hit his fourth home run for the Indians. Joe Hesketh (1-0), who pitched only the fifth inning in relief of John Dopson, was the winner. Mike Bilecki took the loss.

New York 6, Kansas City 5--Wade Boggs had four hits and drove in two runs and the Yankees withstood a ninth-inning comeback at Yankee Stadium.

Bob Wickman (2-0) went into the ninth with a three-hitter and a 6-1 lead, but gave up four runs with two out on Kevin McReynolds’ single and a three-run home run by Phil Hiatt, his second.

Steve Farr got the last out for the Yankees’ first save of the season.

Boggs singled in the first, third, fifth and seventh innings, driving in the Yankees first run off Mark Gubicza (0-2) in the third.