White Sox, Blue Jays Both Clinch : Baseball: Chicago wins AL West crown for the first time since 1983; Toronto wraps up third consecutive AL East title.

The Chicago White Sox clinched the American League West title by defeating the Seattle Mariners, 4-2, at Chicago Monday night, the same night the Toronto Blue Jays wrapped up the American League East by beating the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-0, at Milwaukee.

The American League playoffs begin next Tuesday night at Chicago.

The White Sox won their first division championship since 1983. The Blue Jays won their third in a row.

The hero for the White Sox Monday night, appropriately enough, was Bo Jackson, who hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning to snap a scoreless tie.

The homer, Jackson’s 15th and second in two days, was a towering fly to left that barely made it into the first row of the left-field bleachers.

It sent a Comiskey Park crowd of 42,116 white-socks waving fans into a frenzy. Fireworks lighted the sky after the game ended.

“I thought it was a pop fly and I slammed my bat down,” Jackson said. “Then the ball kept drifting and drifting. When the count went 3-0, I looked at the bench and they gave me the swing sign. This is the icing on the cake. Now we have to put the candles on against Toronto.”

The White Sox charged onto the field to celebrate when the final out was made and the fans kept on waving their socks in the seats.

Winner Wilson Alvarez (15-8) and loser Dave Fleming (11-5) were locked in a scoreless matchup of left-handers when Ellis Burks singled to open the sixth and Craig Grebeck beat out a bunt single.

After Frank Thomas and George Bell made outs, Jackson hit the 3-and-0 pitch high into the sky for what appeared to be a long out but the ball kept drifting until it made it the seats. The White Sox added a run in the seventh on Burks’ sacrifice fly.

“When Bo hit the homer everyone was jumping up and down,” Alvarez said. “I felt like we got it. I knew we were going to win the game.”

The win was the seventh in a row for Alvarez, who allowed two runs in 7 2/3 innings.

Kirk McCaskill got out of the jam in the eighth and finished for his second save. The victory was the 10th in the last 13 games for the White Sox.

Toronto 2, Milwaukee 0--Former Brewer Paul Molitor hit a home run in the second inning and Pat Hentgen (19-8) scattered seven hits in 6 2/3 innings at Milwaukee as the Blue Jays won for the 13th time in 15 games.

Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the third as Ed Sprague singled, Pat Borders doubled and Devon White hit a sacrifice fly.

The Blue Jays were supposed to have an easy ride on their way to the division title, but ended up hitting a lot of bumps in the road.

Entering September, they led the New York Yankees by 1 1/2 games, with Baltimore charging on an eight-game winning streak.

Toronto almost let things get away by losing six straight (Sept. 3-9) to the Angels and Oakland Athletics, but the Yankees and Orioles started bad streaks of their own and could do no better than stay close for a while.

Finally, the Blue Jays seized command with a nine-game winning streak.

New York 9, Baltimore 1--The Yankees did what they could to stay alive in the East by beating the lifeless Orioles at Baltimore, but it didn’t matter since the Blue Jays ended up clinching.

Jim Leyritz hit his second three-run homer in as many days, staking the Yankees to a 5-1 third-inning lead.

Scott Kamieniecki (10-7) pitched eight innings of six-hit ball, struck out five and walked four. He was 0-3 with one no-decision since Aug. 21. He is 2-16 in his last 26 road appearances, dating back to last year.

The Yankees turned four double plays and Don Mattingly had three hits.

Harold Baines homered for the Orioles, who have lost five straight and 10 of 13. Baltimore was mathematically eliminated from contention Sunday.

Kansas City 6, Cleveland 5--Jerry DiPoto hit Gary Gaetti on an 0-and-2 count with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth to give the Royals a victory at Kansas City.

Cleveland’s Albert Belle boosted his RBI total to 125 with a two-run homer.

George Brett, playing his next-to-last game at home, went 0 for 5 and received standing ovations in each at-bat.