AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Henderson Does a Little Bit of Everything in His Blue Jay Debut

Rickey Henderson took his time joining the Toronto Blue Jays.

He wasted no time making an impact.

Playing his first game for his new team Tuesday, Henderson sparked the Blue Jays with his bat, arm and legs in an 8-6 victory over the Yankees at New York.

“It’s great to be in the spotlight,” he said. “It’s a challenge, and I always like challenges. The first couple of innings, I was a little nervous. But I got over it.”

Henderson, baseball’s career stolen base leader and a 10-time All-Star, was acquired by the Blue Jays Saturday in a trade that sent pitching prospect Steve Karsay and a player to be named to Oakland. Henderson spent two days taking care of family matters in the Bay Area, missing Toronto’s 4-0 victory over the Yankees on Monday.

He went one for four with two walks and scored twice Tuesday. He also threw out a runner from left field to cut short what could have been a big inning for the Yankees. He later hustled on the bases to keep a key inning alive for the Blue Jays.

“It’s nothing new. He’s an exciting player,” Toronto Manager Cito Gaston said. “Rickey can play.”

Devon White, moved down a spot from the leadoff slot in the Blue Jay batting order to accommodate Henderson, singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning as Toronto won its fourth in a row and ninth in 10 games.

Paul Molitor, dropped from third to sixth in the batting order, drove in three runs, and Roberto Alomar tied a career high with four hits. Tony Fernandez had three hits, including a run-scoring double that capped a four-run eighth.

A crowd of 48,031, largest for a night game at Yankee Stadium this season, saw New York lose its third consecutive home game. Before the game, Bob Sheppard, the team’s public address announcer, asked fans to refrain from booing the Canadian national anthem as they had done Monday night. The crowd responded by overpowering scattered catcalls with cheers.

Chicago 11, Texas 6--Frank Thomas hit a three-run homer to highlight a seven-run second inning, and the White Sox had 18 hits at Arlington, Tex.

Chicago won for the seventh time in eight games and beat the Rangers for the sixth time in eight meetings this season.

Thomas had his third four-hit game of the season, and Robin Ventura had three hits to extend his hitting streak to 10 games for Chicago.

The White Sox chased Texas starter Charlie Leibrandt (9-8) with one out in the second, handing him his fourth consecutive defeat.

Minnesota 6, Boston 1--Willie Banks battled out of several jams and Kirby Puckett hit a three-run homer as the Twins defeated the Red Sox at Minnesota.

Banks (8-7) left runners in scoring position in five consecutive innings to win his third straight start. Boston’s loss was just its fourth in 18 games.

Cleveland 9, Detroit 4--Wayne Kirby homered and tripled for three runs batted in and Kenny Lofton scored four runs in a game at Cleveland shortened to seven innings by rain.

The loss dropped the Tigers under .500 for the first time since they were 3-4 in April. Detroit was 18 games over .500 on June 20, but has since gone 10-29.

Carlos Baerga drove in three runs and Lofton stole three bases for the Indians.

Baltimore 13, Milwaukee 8--The first four Baltimore batters in the sixth inning walked and scored, lifting the Orioles at Baltimore.

David Segui had three hits and tied a club record by scoring four runs as Baltimore rallied from a 4-0 deficit. Mark McLemore had four hits, and Tim Hulett homered for the Orioles, who have won three of four since a season-high four-game losing streak.

Greg Vaughn homered for the Brewers, who have lost six of seven.

Seattle 5, Oakland 4--Dave Valle’s one-out single in the ninth inning drove in pinch-runner Erik Hanson with the winning run as the Mariners broke a three-game losing streak at Oakland.

Randy Johnson (11-7) broke his own three-game losing streak by striking out 12 in eight innings. He was 0-3 with a 7.36 earned-run average in five July starts and hadn’t won since June 30.

Ted Power pitched the ninth for his second save, relieving Johnson after he had thrown 147 pitches.

Edgar Martinez led off the Seattle ninth with a single to center off Edwin Nunez (3-6). Martinez was then replaced by Hanson, a pitcher. Mike Blowers sacrificed Hanson to second, and Valle singled to left to score Hanson with the deciding run.

Trailing, 4-0, the A’s rallied to tie the game on a three-run homer by Craig Paquette in the fourth and a solo homer by Scott Hemond in the fifth.