AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Clemens Gets ‘Stronger’ as Orioles Weaken

Roger Clemens dropped Baltimore nine games out of first place Thursday night, and that was the least of the bad news for the struggling Orioles.

After their 4-1 loss to the first-place Boston Red Sox at Baltimore, the Orioles put injured pitchers Ben McDonald (sore shoulder) and Kevin Brown (dislocated finger) on the 15-day disabled list. Brown was injured trying to snare a second-inning line drive by Boston’s Troy O’Leary.

The Orioles called up right-hander relievers Jimmy Myers and Armando Benitez from triple-A Rochester to replace McDonald and Brown on the 25-man roster.

The Red Sox were active after the game, too. Boston sent outfielder Mark Whiten and pitcher Joe Hudson to the minors and brought up outfielder Matt Stairs and pitcher Frankie Rodriguez from triple-A Pawtucket.

Clemens, meanwhile, stymied Baltimore over 6 2/3 innings, his longest outing of the season. Clemens (2-1) gave up six hits and no earned runs in his fifth start since leaving the disabled list June 2. He struck out one, walked three and hit a batter.

“I felt stronger this time,” Clemens said. “I need to get to a point where my location is pretty consistent, but for the most part I felt pretty good.”

Rheal Cormier relieved Clemens in the seventh with the bases loaded and two outs and got Rafael Palmeiro to line out to end the inning. Stan Belinda pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for the save.

Milwaukee 9, Toronto 0--Rookie Steve Sparks (3-2) combined with Mike Ignasiak and Graeme Lloyd for a four-hit shutout, completing a three-game sweep of the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Darryl Hamilton and Greg Vaughn each homered and drove in three runs for the Brewers.

Danny Darwin (1-8) lost his eighth consecutive start since May 6. He gave up six runs--five in the second--and seven hits in six innings.

Seattle 3, Chicago 2--Dan Wilson’s first home run of the season broke a seventh-inning tie and Salomon Torres got his first American League victory as the Mariners won at Chicago.

Torres (1-3) gave up three hits over six innings to record his first victory since May 27, 1994, when he was with the San Francisco Giants. Bobby Ayala pitched 1 2/3 innings for his 11th save.

Jim Abbott (3-3) gave up 10 hits, including the two-out homer to Wilson, who was in a seven-for-46 slump, that broke a 2-2 tie.

The Mariners’ offense was led by a four-for-four performance by Gary Thurman, who was promoted from the minors this week.