AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Broken Thumb Isn’t a Problem for Carter

Joe Carter, who suffered a broken right thumb when he was hit by a Scott Erickson pitch in spring training, used a slightly cut down version of his normal swing to hit a two-run home run and drive in three runs Saturday at SkyDome as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Minnesota Twins, 8-6, for their sixth consecutive victory.

The three runs batted in gave Carter a major league-leading 27 for the month, surpassing his club record of 25 set last April.

“If anything, Erickson might have done me a favor,” Carter said. “The broken thumb made me cut down my swing and forced me to be a bit more selective. I’m still not 100%. But at this rate, I’m not sure if I want to be.”

Carter, who homered against Erickson on Friday night, followed a bunt single by Paul Molitor in the sixth with his eighth home run, which tied him with teammate Carlos Delgado for the league lead.

“That wasn’t an easy pitch to get down,” Carter said of Molitor’s textbook bunt. “It was high and tight and he could have easily put it foul or sent it back to the pitcher. But he put it in a perfect spot.

“But that’s the thing about driving in runs with this club. With guys in front of me like (Devon) White, (Roberto) Alomar and Molitor, all it takes is a little hit here and there for the RBIs to build up.”

Baltimore 4, Seattle 3--Lee Smith pitched a perfect ninth inning at Baltimore to get his second save in two games.

Smith has nine saves in 16 games, breaking the record of nine in 20 games set by Dennis Eckersley in 1988 and matched by Mark Davis in 1989.

“I never look at things like that,” Smith said. “I’m not a big stat man. All I know is that things are going good right now.”

Smith has not yielded an earned run or a walk in eight innings. He has seven strikeouts.

With the score 3-3 in the eighth inning, Chris Hoiles led off with a single against Bobby Thigpen (0-2) and took second on a sacrifice. After a walk to Mark McLemore, Leo Gomez lined a single to left.

The Mariners have lost four in a row and are 1-9 on the road. Seattle’s 5-11 start matches the second-worst in franchise history.

New York 8, Oakland 6--Todd Van Poppel had trouble finding the plate at Yankee Stadium and the Yankees took advantage of his wildness to win their fourth consecutive game.

Van Poppel (0-2) got only two outs--on a drive back to the mound that he turned into a double play--and walked six in two-thirds of an inning. He gave up five runs and two hits.

Van Poppel, who came in averaging a walk per inning, walked Luis Polonia, Wade Boggs and Don Mattingly on 3-and-1 counts, then walked Danny Tartabull after going ahead 0-and-2. He started off with a ball--his 17th in 23 pitches--then gave up Paul O’Neill’s second career grand slam.

“It’s a situation where you get frustrated when you can’t put the ball across the plate,” said Van Poppel, who has walked 14 in 8 2/3 innings. “I know I can do it. I just have to put the ball across.”

Milwaukee 3, Kansas City 2--Bill Spiers, who struggled last season while recovering from back surgery, singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning at Milwaukee.

Spiers batted .283 with eight home runs and 54 RBIs as Milwaukee’s starting shortstop in 1991 but played in only 12 major league games in 1992 after off-season surgery to repair a herniated disk, losing the shortstop job to Pat Listach.

Spiers was moved to second base last season but eventually lost his starting job. He batted .238 with two home runs and 36 RBIs in 340 at-bats. With two hits Saturday, Spiers, who played third base, increased his average to .355.

Reliever Graeme Lloyd (1-1) got the last two outs in the eighth inning for the victory, despite yielding the tying run. Mike Fetters pitched the ninth inning for his first save.

Cleveland 10, Texas 9--Eddie Murray led off the ninth inning with a homer against Tom Henke, lifting the Indians at Arlington, Tex.

The Indians trailed, 9-6, but scored three runs in the eighth. Jim Thome hit a two-run homer and another run scored when Henke threw a wild pitch.

Ranger starter Kevin Brown gave up eight runs and 12 hits in 7 1/3 innings. Brown has yielded at least 10 hits in all five of his starts this season.

Chicago 9, Detroit 3--Lance Johnson’s bases-loaded triple highlighted a six-run first inning for the White Sox in Chicago.

The White Sox, who have won six of their last seven, scored all of their runs in the first with two out. They had a season-high 16 hits.

The Tigers were held to five hits by Wilson Alvarez (4-0) and Kirk McCaskill, who picked up his first save. He retired all eight he faced.