AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : White Sox’s Thomas Quickly Gets Even

Frank Thomas’ three strikeouts didn’t matter. Jeff Montgomery’s bad slider did.

The Kansas City Royals had a two-run lead with two innings to play and the American League’s top relief pitcher on the mound.

But Thomas, who struck out three times in his first four at-bats, hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to highlight a three-run rally against Montgomery for a 5-4 White Sox victory at Chicago.

The victory increased first-place Chicago’s lead to 3 1/2 games over Kansas City and four over the Texas Rangers in the American League West.

With the White Sox trailing, 4-2, the White Sox’s Ron Karkovice led off the eighth with a double and scored on pinch-hitter Warren Newson’s single.

After a sacrifice and an out, Thomas hit a 1-and-0 pitch into the left-center field seats for his 30th home run.

“I just wanted to hit the ball hard. I was having a terrible night,” Thomas said.

Montgomery (3-3), who has a league-leading 35 saves, had earned a save in 24 consecutive opportunities.

“I didn’t feel crisp,” Montgomery said. “I wasn’t throwing quality pitches. Frank hit a slider that was up. It was a really bad pitch and didn’t have anything on it.”

New York 4, Baltimore 1--Jim Abbott came within two outs of pitching his first shutout in more than two years and led the Yankees at New York.

The Orioles loaded the bases with one out in the ninth on singles by Mike Devereaux, Cal Ripken Jr. and David Segui. Tim Hulett’s sacrifice fly ruined the shutout.

The Yankees moved into a first-place tie with the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East.

Abbott (9-9) gave up eight hits, walked three and struck out one, giving the Yankees their third consecutive victory. He hasn’t thrown a shutout since May 16, 1991, a 7-0 victory at Yankee Stadium while pitching for the Angels.

Boston 5, Toronto 3--The Boston Red Sox moved within one game of the American League East lead with the victory at Boston and Danny Darwin won his seventh consecutive decision at Fenway Park.

Darwin (12-8) gave up two runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings and is 7-1 in his last 10 starts. The Red Sox scored three runs in the third when Scott Cooper doubled in two runs and Billy Hatcher hit a sacrifice fly. Boston also scored on Andre Dawson’s sacrifice fly in the first and Scott Fletcher’s run-scoring double in the fourth.

Toronto’s John Olerud went three for three to increase his average to .393.

Cleveland 6, Texas 3--Paul Sorrento singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and Jim Thome added a two-run homer, Cleveland’s fourth of the game, to give the Indians a victory at Cleveland.

With one out in the eighth, Albert Belle singled against reliever Craig Lefferts (3-8) and continued to second when right fielder Donald Harris bobbled the ball. Sorrento’s single scored Belle for a 4-3 Cleveland lead and Thome followed two batters later with his first home run of the season.

Milwaukee 6-7, Detroit 1-1--Ricky Bones pitched his second consecutive complete game, matching the performance of teammate Angel Miranda in the opener, as the Brewers swept a doubleheader at Milwaukee.

The Brewers won the first game on a six-hitter by Miranda (2-2). Bones (8-8) stopped the Tigers on the same number of hits in the nightcap.

The Tigers had scored 47 runs in their three previous games.

In the second game, B.J. Surhoff had three runs batted in, including a two-run double as the Brewers scored three times against Tom Bolton (2-5) in the fifth inning.

Minnesota 5, Oakland 2--Kent Hrbek homered twice to drive in five runs, and Eddie Guardado and two relievers gave up five hits as the Twins won at Oakland.

Hrbek matched his game-high for RBIs with his 15th career two-homer game, putting the Twins ahead by 5-1 by the third inning.

Guardado (3-4) walked four and struck out four in 6 1/3 innings, giving up solo homers to Terry Steinbach and Scott Hemond. Carl Willis pitched 1 2/3 innings and Rick Aguilera got the final three outs for his 28th save.

Ron Darling (4-6) gave up nine hits, walked one and struck out five in his second consecutive complete game, both losses.