AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Fielder’s Home Run Expands June Boom

The weather at Tiger Stadium has been hot recently. Cecil Fielder has been hotter.

Fielder hit his sixth home run of the week--his 18th of the season--and David Wells won for the ninth time in 10 decisions as the Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-7, Saturday at Detroit.

Fielder has nine homers in June, his biggest month since July of 1991, when he hit 11 on his way to a 44-homer season.

“You go back and check his record and you’ll see that he hits them in bunches,” Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson said.

Alan Trammell and Mickey Tettleton also hit home runs for Detroit. Tom Brunansky, Robin Yount, Kevin Reimer and Juan Bell each hit home runs for Milwaukee.

The Tigers, who lead the majors with 83 home runs, have homered in seven consecutive games, hitting 19 in that span.

Wells (9-1) won his fifth decision in a row.

Toronto 9, Boston 4--John Olerud extended his hitting streak to 24 games, and the Blue Jays hit three home runs at Toronto in their fifth consecutive victory.

Paul Molitor homered, doubled and drove in four runs. Devon White homered leading off the Blue Jay first inning, and Pat Borders hit a two-run homer.

Olerud went one for three and continued the longest hitting streak in team history. Olerud, batting .402, also received his club-record 17th intentional walk of the year.

Dave Stewart (3-2), trying to pitch Toronto’s third shutout in four games, took a three-hitter and a 9-0 lead into the ninth inning, but gave up four runs.

Cleveland 3, Baltimore 0--Hot-hitting Carlos Baerga had three hits, including a two-run single, and Mark Clark, recently recalled from the minors, pitched six scoreless innings to lead the Indians at Cleveland.

Baerga has hit safely in 20 of 22 games, increasing his average to .308. He has driven in 26 runs over that span and leads the Indians with 57 runs batted in.

Fernando Valenzuela (2-7) lost for the fourth time in his last five decisions, giving up three runs and six hits in seven-plus innings.

New York 8, Minnesota 4--Matt Nokes hit two home runs to lift the Yankees at New York.

Scott Kamieniecki (2-1), starting in place of Jim Abbott, who is on the disabled list, gave up up seven hits and pitched his first complete game.

Seattle 6, Texas 5--Randy Johnson, baseball’s strikeout leader, struck out 10 in 6 1/3 innings and survived a seventh-inning rally to lead the Mariners to their sixth victory in seven games, at Seattle.

Johnson (9-3) walked only two and helped hand Texas its eighth defeat in 11 games.

Johnson took a one-hitter into the seventh, but the Rangers knocked him out by sending 10 hitters to the plate and scoring five runs. The Rangers’ Juan Gonzalez hit a two-run homer, his American League-leading 19th.

Kansas City 3, Oakland 0--Felix Jose had his second consecutive four-hit game and Kevin Appier shut down the Athletics on four hits over 8 1/3 innings at Oakland.

The Royals had been the only team in the American League without a shutout this season. Oakland was shut out for the third time in five games.

Appier (8-4) struck out seven and walked one. He is 4-1 with a 1.14 earned-run average in seven lifetime starts at the Oakland Coliseum, and has never given up more than two earned runs in a game there.