AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Boston’s Valentin Makes Solo Triple Play

Shortstop John Valentin made the 10th unassisted triple play in major league history and then touched off a three-home run outburst by the Red Sox as Boston defeated the Seattle Mariners, 4-3, Friday night at Boston.

With Seattle runners moving from first and second base in the top of the sixth, Valentin went to one knee to catch a line drive by Marc Newfield. He then stepped on second base to double off Mike Blowers and trotted a few steps to tag Keith Mitchell.

“The guy didn’t run, so I thought there was one out. I looked up to see the board and realized there was nobody out,” Valentin said. “So I tagged him.”

It was the first unassisted triple play since Mickey Morandini made one for Philadelphia against Pittsburgh on Sept. 20, 1992. The previous one in the American League was by Ron Hansen of the Washington Senators at Cleveland on July 30, 1968.

Valentin then led off the bottom of the inning with his sixth homer. Andre Dawson followed with a double to knock out starter Dave Fleming, and Tom Brunansky greeted reliever Bill Risley (6-5) with his sixth homer. Two outs later, Rich Rowland hit his fifth homer. All three homers went into the screen atop the left-field fence.

Alex Rodriguez, 18, the first choice in the June 1993 draft, became the youngest player to appear in the major leagues this season when he made his debut with the Mariners at shortstop. Rodriguez went hitless in three at-bats but made a diving stop in the hole on Tim Naehring’s grounder in the fifth.

Baltimore 13, Oakland 3--The Orioles ended Bobby Witt’s scoreless-inning streak at 28 and stopped the Athletics’ five-game winning streak with a rout at Baltimore.

Witt (7-8) had allowed only nine hits in throwing three consecutive shutouts. But after pitching a scoreless first inning, he gave up two unearned runs in the second and a three-run homer to Chris Hoiles in the third.

Mike Mussina (13-4) gave up a run and five hits in seven innings, walking one and striking out a season-high eight.

Chicago 9, Milwaukee 5--Julio Franco and Bob Zupcic homered and Norberto Martin drove in three runs as the White Sox moved into a tie for first in the Central Division at Milwaukee.

Tim Raines added two runs batted in for the White Sox, who with their 50th win moved into a tie with Cleveland for first. Jason Bere (9-2) got the victory after three consecutive no decisions as Chicago won for the 16th time in 20 games, including eight of nine on the road.

Detroit 7, Texas 3--Cecil Fielder and Junior Felix hit home runs to help the Tigers end a three-game losing streak with a victory over the Rangers at Detroit.

The Tigers, who lost four of five games to the Rangers last weekend in Texas, scored three runs in the fourth and two in the fifth.

Kansas City 6, Toronto 5--Vince Coleman’s run-scoring single capped a two-run rally in the ninth inning that gave the Blue Jays their seventh consecutive home loss.

Trailing, 5-4, Felix Jose singled leading off the ninth against Darren Hall (1-3), and stole second. With one out, Brent Mayne singled to center to bring in Jose with the tying run. Terry Shumpert’s single moved Mayne to second, and one out later, Coleman grounded a single to center.

Minnesota 8, Cleveland 6--Shane Mack hit the fourth grand slam of his career in the first inning and the Twins built a seven-run lead and held on at Minneapolis.

Kevin Tapani (9-5) controlled the Indians through five innings before running into trouble in the sixth, when he allowed a three-run homer to Carlos Baerga.