BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Yankees Defeat Indians

Sterling Hitchcock, promoted to the majors to make a spot start, held the Cleveland Indians scoreless for seven innings Thursday night in the New York Yankees’ 4-0 victory at Cleveland.

Hitchcock, starting in place of the injured Scott Kamieniecki, spoiled Bob Ojeda’s most effective outing since his comeback. The Indian starter matched Hitchcock for six innings, but he was replaced in the seventh and the Yankees rallied.

Hitchcock (1-0) gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out three, helping the Yankees move into a first-place tie with the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East.

It was the first victory for Hitchcock, a 22-year-old left-hander who was 0-2 in three starts last September.

Bob Wickman pitched two scoreless innings for his fourth save, finishing the Yankees’ 12th shutout.

Mike Stanley broke a scoreless tie with a two-run home run against Bill Wertz (2-2) in the seventh, and the Yankees added two in the ninth on Danny Tartabull’s bases-loaded single.

Kansas City 3, Minnesota 0--Kevin McReynolds drove in two runs with a home run and a single and Mike Magnante pitched seven scoreless innings at Kansas City.

Making only his second start of the season, Magnante (1-1) gave up six hits, struck out two and walked none in recording his first victory since Sept. 7, 1992.

Stan Belinda pitched the eighth and Jeff Montgomery got the final three outs for his league-leading and career-high 40th save.

Milwaukee 5, Oakland 3--Angel Miranda pitched eight shutout innings and Juan Bell and Kevin Seitzer homered at Milwaukee.

Miranda (3-3) gave up three hits, struck out eight and walked two. He gave up singles to Troy Neel in the second and Scott Hemond in the third before retiring 12 batters in a row at the end.

Seattle 6, Toronto 3--Ken Griffey Jr. took over the major league lead with his 38th and 39th home runs at Seattle.

It was Griffey’s second consecutive two-homer game, his 10th career two-homer game and his fifth this season. He tied a major league record this season by homering in eight consecutive games.

Mike Blowers also homered twice for Seattle in support of Randy Johnson (14-8).

Johnson gave up nine hits, struck out eight and walked one in eight innings, increasing his major league-leading strikeout total to 234. Ted Power pitched the ninth for his sixth save.

Boston 3, Texas 1--Frank Viola gave up only four hits in 7 1/3 innings at Arlington, Tex., as the Red Sox ended a six-game losing streak.

Viola (9-8), who won his fourth consecutive game, gave up a homer to Ivan Rodriguez, but otherwise stifled the league’s hottest hitting team. Texas had scored 38 runs in its last four games.

The Red Sox jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first against Kevin Brown (10-10), who was starting after only three days’ rest because of injuries to Nolan Ryan and Charlie Leibrandt.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

New York 7, Colorado 1--Dwight Gooden, pitching on two days’ rest for the first time in his career, scattered four hits in eight innings at New York and ended a career-high four-game losing streak.

Gooden (12-14), who was ejected in the third inning of Monday’s game against Cincinnati after hitting a batter, struck out nine and walked one. John Franco, making his first appearance since Aug. 2, worked the final inning and struck out two.

Eddie Murray doubled and hit his 20th homer for the Mets.

Florida 5, Houston 4--Pitcher Richie Lewis, batting for only the second time in his major league career, lined a two-out single to left in the 13th inning to give the Marlins the victory at Miami.

Walt Weiss walked against Doug Jones (4-10) to start the inning. After two forceouts, Orestes Destrade walked to bring Lewis to the plate.

Lewis connected on an 0-1 pitch for his first major league hit, driving in Rich Renteria. Lewis (6-1) got the victory by pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings.