AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Baltimore Keeps Pace in the East

Scoreboard watching? Not Ben McDonald, who figures the Baltimore Orioles can’t win the American League East title if they don’t first take care of their own business.

McDonald pitched a four-hitter and Chris Hoiles homered Saturday night as the Orioles defeated the Oakland Athletics, 3-1, at Baltimore.

The Orioles’ 10th victory in their last 12 games kept them 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays. That was news to McDonald, who had no idea that the Blue Jays earlier beat the Angels, 9-5.

“I didn’t even know they won. I thought they were playing tonight,” McDonald said. “All we can do is take care of ourselves. If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter what the other guys do.”

The last-place A’s had won three in a row at Toronto before beating Baltimore on Friday to stretch their road winning streak to a season-best four games. In each of those four victories, Oakland staged a game-winning rally in the late innings.

“I saw on TV and read in the papers that they had been scoring a lot of runs in the eighth and ninth innings,” McDonald said. “So I knew I had to be especially tough down the stretch.”

McDonald (12-11) struck out six and walked two in his fifth complete game. McDonald, 8-3 with a 2.87 ERA in his last 13 starts, moved over the .500 mark for the first time this year.

New York 12, Kansas City 5--The Yankees hit three home runs in the first inning, including back-to-back shots by Jim Leyritz and Don Mattingly, and then batted around for five runs in the sixth to beat the Royals at Kansas City and stay one game behind Toronto in the AL East.

Leyritz and Mattingly hit consecutive homers in the first and Mike Stanley followed one out later off Royals starter Chris Haney (9-8) as the Yankees broke a four-game losing streak.

Chicago 3, Detroit 1--Major league RBI leader Frank Thomas drove in two runs with a homer and a single and Wilson Alvarez pitched eight innings of three-hit ball, leading the White Sox to a victory at Chicago.

The White Sox, who had lost three of their previous four games, lead the AL West by 3 1/2 games.

Seattle 7, Milwaukee 3-- Randy Johnson struck out eight to increase his major league-leading total to 262 and scattered six hits in 7 2/3 innings as the Mariners beat the Brewers at Milwaukeee.

Johnson (16-8), who took a four-hit shutout into the eighth, allowed three runs and five walks before Brad Holman finished for his third save.

Cleveland 9, Boston 3--Jim Thome hit a two-run double and Candy Maldonado a two-run homer during a seven-run eighth inning as the Indians rallied to win at Cleveland.

The loss was Boston’s eighth in the last 11 games and dropped the Red Sox seven games behind first-place Toronto.

Texas 7, Minnesota 4--Rafael Palmeiro hit his 35th homer and drove in three runs at Arlington, Tex., as the Rangers won their sixth game in a row.

Texas matched its longest winning streak of the season and won for the 15th time in 20 games. The Rangers remained 3 1/2 games behind AL West-leading Chicago.