AMERICAN LEAGUE : Blue Jays Have to Look Uphill

There is a pattern set in the first six weeks of a season, and Paul Molitor doesn’t like what he sees for the Toronto Blue Jays, who are seeking their third consecutive American League pennant.

“After you’re 35 games into the season, you should be starting to build, but right now we’re going in the opposite direction,” Molitor said Friday night after the Blue Jays were beaten by the Red Sox’s Joe Hesketh and five relievers, 5-3, at Boston.

The loss was fourth-place Toronto’s fourth in a row and 13th in its last 18 games, in which the Blue Jays have been outscored, 100-70. Worse, it came against an AL East rival, perhaps a sign of the times. After a winning record against teams in the Central and West divisions, the Blue Jays are 0-4 against the East.

“It’s been a struggle for us. Our production has been down significantly since the early stages of the season,” said Molitor, who had a bases-empty homer. “It magnifies every mistake our pitching staff makes. We don’t want to get too far behind, because it’s tough enough to catch one team, let alone three.”

Hesketh (2-1) gave up two runs and six hits as he won at Fenway Park for the first time since April 17, 1993.

Then began a parade of relievers ending with Ken Ryan, who worked the ninth inning for his third save and Boston’s fourth consecutive victory.

Otis Nixon drove in two runs for the Red Sox with a bunt single and an infield hit. Carlos Rodriguez had an RBI double and made two diving catches at shortstop for the Red Sox, and Mike Greenwell and Billy Hatcher added run-scoring singles.

Minnesota 4, Baltimore 1--Kirby Puckett hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning at Minneapolis to hand Ben McDonald (7-1) his first loss of the season, even though McDonald carried a one-hitter into the sixth inning.

Puckett’s homer, his fifth, gave Twin starter Pat Mahomes (3-1) a 2-1 lead, and Puckett helped it stand up by scaling the right-center field fence to rob Chris Hoiles of an extra-base hit in the seventh inning.

Chuck Knoblauch’s ground-rule double in the sixth inning was the first hard-hit ball against McDonald. After Alex Cole struck out, Puckett lined a McDonald fastball over the center-field fence.

Cleveland 2, Detroit 0--Mark Clark pitched his first American League shutout and kept Tim Belcher winless in eight starts as the Indians won at home to stop a five-game losing streak.

Detroit lost the opener of a six-game trip after going 9-2 on its home stand. Cleveland returned home from a 1-7 trip.

Clark (3-1), who had lasted only 1 2/3 innings in his previous start, gave up six hits, walked five and struck out three in Cleveland’s first shutout of the season.

Belcher (0-7) gave up two runs and six hits but became the first Detroit pitcher to lose his first seven decisions in a season since Ted Gray lost nine in a row at the start of 1953.

Kansas City 16, Oakland 6--Mark Gubicza (2-3) went 7 2/3 innings at Kansas City in his longest outing in two years and Mike Macfarlane, Terry Shumpert and Gary Gaetti hit home runs for the Royals, who handed the Athletics their 21st loss in 23 games.

New York 10, Milwaukee 4--Bernie Williams, Pat Kelly and Luis Polonia each drove in two runs in the 12th inning at Milwaukee as the Yankees won their eighth game in a row and 18th in their last 22.

The Yankees, who improved their major league-best record to 24-10, are off to their best start since opening the 1958 season 25-8.

Texas 11, Chicago 7--Juan Gonzalez went four for five with four RBIs at Arlington, Tex., leading the Rangers past the White Sox.

Gonzalez hit a two-run triple in the first inning and added three singles for the eighth four-hit game of his career.

Oddibe McDowell went three for four with two steals for the Rangers, who banged out 14 hits.