AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Tapani’s Arm Is Enough for Twins

The Minnesota Twins scored 20 fewer runs than Friday but still had enough behind the strong pitching of Kevin Tapani to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0, Saturday at Minneapolis for their seventh consecutive victory.

“We’re on a roll,” Minnesota catcher Matt Walbeck said. “Our confidence is really high. We don’t think we’re going to win, we know we are. After winning by 19 runs, to come back and win a one-run game like this shows how good our confidence is.”

Tapani (4-2) allowed seven hits in 8 1/3 innings, walking three and striking out five as he outdueled Boston rookie Gar Finnvold (0-1), who worked seven innings and held the Twins to five hits--17 fewer than they had Friday when they set or tied eight team records in defeating the Red Sox, 21-2.

“We watched batting practice and it was pretty flat before the game, so we knew we were in for a rough go tonight,” said Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly. “We were fortunate to get one run. We pitched a tad better than they did, just a tad.”

Chuck Knoblauch’s fifth-inning single drove in the only run for the Twins, who had been 0-11 when scoring fewer than four runs.

Tapani, who had a 7.78 earned-run average after seven starts, has allowed only two runs in his last two games. He is 6-0 against Boston.

Chicago 6, Oakland 5--Lance Johnson broke a tie with a two-out, run-scoring single in the eighth inning and Robin Ventura had four runs batted for the White Sox, who rallied from a four-run deficit at Oakland.

Ventura hit a three-run homer and added a ninth-inning sacrifice fly to provide most of the offense for Chicago, which leads the majors with 265 runs.

Detroit 7, Milwaukee 6--Travis Fryman drove in three runs and Chad Kreuter became only the 18th player to hit a home run out of Tiger Stadium as the Brewers’ lost their 10th consecutive game.

The Brewers trailed, 7-2, going into the ninth inning, but scored four runs with two out against Mike Henneman when Dave Nilsson and Turner Ward hit consecutive homers. Henneman finally retired Brian Harper to end the game.

“We got close, but that doesn’t count,” Milwaukee Manager Phil Garner said. “I like the fact that we got something going, though. We haven’t had a lot of big innings in this stretch.”

Winner Mike Moore (4-3) allowed two runs on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. Loser Jamie Navarro (2-4) gave up five runs on 13 hits in six innings.

New York 5, Baltimore 4--Bob Melvin hit his first home run of the season, a three-run shot that capped a five-run first inning for the Yankees at New York.

Melido Perez (3-2) allowed six hits and three runs over five innings for the victory. Steve Howe picked up his third save.

Rafael Palmiero set an Oriole record by extending his hitting streak to 23 games with a run-scoring single in the first inning.

Toronto 9, Cleveland 7--Paul Molitor hit two home runs, singled twice and drove in four runs at Toronto.

Joe Carter drove in his major league-leading 52nd run as the Blue Jays opened an 8-1 lead in the third inning against Chris Nabholz (0-1).

Toronto’s Al Leiter (3-3) ended a three-game winless streak, allowing five runs and eight hits over six innings.

Seattle 13, Texas 2--Ken Griffey Jr. hit his major league-leading 19th home run and Luis Sojo hit his first grand slam as the Mariners pounded the Rangers for the second consecutive game.

Jay Buhner, Tino Martinez and Eric Anthony also homered for the Mariners, who hit five homers on Friday night in a 19-2 rout of Texas.

Griffey homered for the eighth time in 10 games, giving him 12 home runs in May, the most ever by a Seattle player in a month.