AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Yankees Will Be First on Aug. 12 Strike Date

The New York Yankees became the first team to assure themselves of being in first place on the players’ original Aug. 12 strike date, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1, on Wednesday night in a rain-shortened game at Milwaukee.

The game was called after 7 1/2 innings.

“I don’t think any of us looked at magic numbers for the strike date or anything else,” Don Mattingly said after the Yankees won their sixth in a row overall and eighth in a row on the road. “We’re just playing the best baseball we can day in and day out.”

The Yankees, 17-3 since the All-Star break, hold a nine-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East.

Sterling Hitchcock (4-1) pitched a strong game after escaping a jam in the Brewers’ fourth and protected a 2-1 lead through seven innings. Bob Wickman came out to start the eighth, but the downpour beat his first pitch.

After a 68-minute rain delay, the game was called. It was a move that irked the Brewers.

“They have a 2-1 lead, but we have two at-bats against them,” said Jody Reed, who had two of the five hits against Hitchcock. “We’re feeling pretty confident we can get something done against them and the game’s over.”

Kansas City 9, Oakland 5--The victory at Kansas City extended baseball’s longest winning streak of the season to 12 games.

Bob Hamelin broke Bo Jackson’s club rookie record with his 23rd homer for the Royals, whose only longer winning streak was a 16-game run in 1977.

Hamelin’s two-run homer chased Bobby Witt (8-10) in the fifth and broke the record Jackson set in 1987.

Cleveland 7, Detroit 4--The Indians, aided by an error on Tiger pitcher Tim Belcher, scratched out four runs in the fourth inning before Sandy Alomar’s eighth-inning homer clinched their victory at Cleveland.

Belcher (7-14) was charged with an error for missing the bag with his foot while covering first on Paul Sorrento’s grounder to Cecil Fielder. The error loaded the bases, and the Indians--who already had scored once in the inning on Manny Ramirez’s run-scoring single--added three more when Alomar was hit, Wayne Kirby grounded to second and Omar Vizquel hit a sacrifice fly for a 5-1 lead.

Charles Nagy (9-8) gave up four runs, one unearned, and 10 hits in seven innings.

Minnesota 4, Baltimore 3--Scott Leius capped a two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth at Minneapolis with a two-out RBI single against reliever Lee Smith as the Twins ended a six-game losing streak.

Alex Cole led off the ninth with a pinch-single against Smith (1-4) and moved to second when Kirby Puckett walked on four pitches. After Shane Mack sacrificed, pinch-hitter Chip Hale hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score. Kent Hrbek was walked intentionally and Leius followed with a single to left-center, scoring Puckett with the winning run.

Boston 7, Toronto 2--Tom Brunansky’s two-run homer capped a six-run fifth inning at Boston and Tim VanEgmond pitched 7 1/3 strong innings for his second major league victory.

Tim Naehring had three RBIs for the Red Sox, who sent 10 batters to the plate in the fifth.

VanEgmond (2-3) gave up two runs and eight hits in his seventh major league start.

Texas 11, Chicago 8--Jose Canseco homered twice for the Rangers and Rusty Greer brought in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh at Arlington, Tex.

Canseco’s 31st homer tied the score, 8-8, in the seventh. He had a two-run double in the eighth.

Frank Thomas hit his 37th homer for the White Sox.