AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : All-Star Cone Notches 12th Victory

David Cone became the American League’s third 12-game winner, giving up only four hits and striking out nine in seven innings of the Kansas City Royals’ 11-6 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday at Kansas City.

The 12 victories are one more than he had all last season, his first with the Royals, when he was 11-14.

He is 12-4 with a league-leading earned-run average of 2.68, and Sunday he was named an All-Star for the third time.

“This will be the best one because I’ll be wearing a Royals uniform and I grew up in this town,” said Cone, who represented the New York Mets in 1988 and ’92. “To start would be icing on the cake.”

The American League’s other 12-game winners are the Baltimore Orioles’ Mike Mussina and the New York Yankees’ Jimmy Key. Montreal’s Ken Hills became the National League’s only 12-game winner Saturday. Key or Cone probably will start for the American League.

Cone left Sunday’s game with a 9-1 lead in the eighth.

Greg Gagne and Mike Macfarlane homered for Kansas City, which sent Toronto to its 13th loss in 15 games. The Blue Jays have not won consecutive games since June 9-10.

Milwaukee 9, Chicago 2--On the day White Sox pitcher Wilson Alvarez was named to the All-Star team, he looked nothing like an All-Star, lasting only 2 1/3 innings against the Brewers at Chicago.

“It’s nice to be on the All-Star team,” Chicago Manager Gene Lamont said, “but he’s got to get it going.”

After starting the year 8-0, Alvarez (9-4) is 1-4 in his last seven starts. He gave up six hits and walked three against the Brewers in his shortest outing of the season.

Kevin Seitzer had three runs batted in, Jody Reed and Matt Mieske each hit two-run singles and Angel Miranda (1-0), making his second start since knee surgery in December, held the White Sox hitless until the fifth. Miranda gave up three hits, walking five and striking out three for his first victory since Sept. 18.

New York 5, Seattle 2--Paul O’Neill, angered by being continually brushed back, broke out of a two-for-23 slump with a three-run homer at New York.

The shot capped a five-run rally in the sixth inning as the Yankees ended a three-game losing streak.

“There’s a difference between the inside of the plate and my head,” said O’Neill, who was knocked down by several pitches during the three-game series.

Oakland 10, Boston 0--Bobby Witt extended his scoreless-innings streak to 27 with his third consecutive shutout. He limited the Red Sox to six hits at Boston as the Athletics won for the 17th time in 22 games.

In Witt’s two previous outings, he had a one-hitter against the Royals on June 23 and a two-hitter against the Angels on June 28.

Witt’s streak is the longest scoreless streak by an Oakland pitcher since Mike Torrez went 38 1/3 innings without allowing a run in 1976.

Cleveland 10, Minnesota 9--Second baseman Chuch Knoblauch’s first error since last September, a span of 85 games, set up the winning run in the 11th inning at Cleveland as the Indians won on Paul Sorrento’s two-out RBI single.

Knoblauch, who was four games away from tying the American League record for consecutive errorless games by a second baseman, let Alvaro Espinoza’s grounder go through his legs for a two-base error with one out in the 11th. One out later, Sorrento fourth hit of the game gave him his fourth RBI.

Texas 5, Detroit 3--The Tigers committed three errors, two that led to three unearned runs during a five-run third inning, as the Rangers won at Arlington, Tex. It was the Rangers’ fifth victory in seven games, and the Tigers have now lost nine of 11.

The sloppy fielding wasted another strong performance from Tiger starter Tim Belcher (6-9), who allowed six hits, five runs--two earned--in his second complete game this season.