AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Olerud Streak Reaches 22 as the Blue Jays Roll

Al Leiter pitched a two-hitter for the first shutout of his career, and John Olerud doubled to tie George Bell’s club-record 22-game hitting streak as the Blue Jays defeated the fading Boston Red Sox, 7-0, Thursday night at Toronto.

Olerud, who has the longest hitting streak in the major leagues this season--one better than Robby Thompson of the San Francisco Giants--got his major league-leading 25th double, a liner to right to start the fifth. Olerud was one for four, dropping his batting average from .406 to .404.

“When you’re going good, everything seems to slow down,” Olerud said. “I’m not sure if the ball seems bigger, but you seem to see it longer.”

Leiter (4-5), who struck out six and walked two in the first complete game of his career, retired the first 10 batters before Ivan Calderon reached on a one-out walk in the fourth.

“I understand (Boston) is struggling,” Leiter said, “but the way I pitched tonight I don’t think it mattered.”

Said Boston Manager Butch Hobson: “The offense didn’t do much again. Leiter’s fastball was a bit faster than we expected. We had him clocked at 88 m.p.h. in his last start, and tonight he was at 92.”

New York 6, Minnesota 5--Don Mattingly’s two-out single in the eighth inning drove in Bernie Williams with the tiebreaking run as the Yankees rallied at New York.

Wade Boggs’ sacrifice fly against reliever Larry Casian (1-1) enabled the Yankees to tie the score after Minnesota had gone ahead in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by rookie Chip Hale.

“I ask him a lot of things. He picks up a lot,” Mattingly said after his RBI single followed Boggs’ sacrifice fly.

“It’s good to hit behind him. You see how they pitch him.”

Boggs and Mattingly helped Bobby Munoz to his first major league victory, despite a difficult ninth inning by Steve Farr, who threw 33 pitches and walked the bases full before earning his 17th save.

Oakland 5, Chicago 2--Troy Neel, recalled from the minor leagues earlier in the day, hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning at Oakland.

Bobby Witt (6-4) gave up two runs and eight hits, striking out three in 8 1/3 innings.

After being shut out by the White Sox in back-to-back games, the A’s finally broke through for a run in the fifth when Brent Gates singled, scoring Mike Aldrete.

Detroit 9, Cleveland 5--The Tigers overcame Carlos Baerga’s three home runs with five of their own at Detroit.

Dan Gladden and Travis Fryman each homered twice and Rob Deer added a three-run shot in the Tigers’ seven-run sixth inning.

Baerga, who drove in all five Indian runs, gave Cleveland a 3-0 lead with a three-run homer in the first.