AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Sabo Gets His Message Across to Baltimore

Chris Sabo made his point.

Upset because he hasn’t been playing since being injured early in the season and losing his third-base job to Leo Gomez, Sabo has asked the Baltimore Orioles to trade him, though they signed him as a free agent only last winter.

Sabo has sat and talked to anybody who wanted to hear how unhappy he was. For the past eight days, he had little else to do.

So on Friday, the Orioles tried an experiment: Sabo, in the toughest left field in baseball, in front of Boston’s Green Monster.

Put up or shut up.

He put up, hitting a two-run homer in a three-run eighth inning that gave Baltimore a 10-7 victory.

Sabo, playing in the outfield for the first time in the major leagues, had an assist, throwing out Scott Cooper at the plate in the seventh inning. He also handled John Valentin’s one-hop shot off the wall in the first inning, fielding the ball with his bare hand and throwing a strike to second base, holding Valentin to a single.

“I’m just happy to play,” said Sabo. “I have no natural instincts in left field. I just picked up the ball and threw it.”

He added that nothing had changed in his quest to move to another club to play third base.

Toronto 7, New York 2--Todd Stottlemyre pitched a six-hitter and John Olerud became the first left-handed batter to hit a home run off Jim Abbott (6-5) since 1991 with a three-run shot in the third inning to lead the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Stottlemyre (5-3) has yielded only two earned runs in his last three starts.

The Yankees have lost four in a row and 10 of their last 12.

Minnesota 8, Chicago 6--Alex Cole hit a two-run homer to win the game in the 10th inning at Minneapolis after the Twins had rallied for five runs in the ninth to tie it.

Milwaukee 7, Cleveland 6--B.J. Surhoff hit a two-run double to cap the Brewers’ three-run rally in the ninth inning at Milwaukee.

The Indians’ Eddie Murray moved past Babe Ruth on the all-time hits list with a double in the sixth inning at Milwaukee. Murray has 2,874 hits.

Texas 3, Kansas City 2--Doug Strange’s single with two out in the seventh inning drove in the go-ahead run at Arlington, Tex., and the Rangers won their fourth game in a row.

In the seventh, Will Clark drew a leadoff walk against Kevin Appier (5-6) and Juan Gonzalez singled. With two outs, Strange hit a soft liner to score Clark.

Oakland 4, Seattle 3--The Athletics took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning, with closer Dennis Eckersley on the mound, but Tino Martinez homered and Luis Sojo singled in Eric Anthony to tie the score when this edition went to press.