AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Red Sox Ride Canseco’s Power, Wakefield’s Flutter

Jose Canseco’s three-run homer highlighted a five-run eighth inning, leading Tim Wakefield and the Boston Red Sox past the Royals, 6-5, on Tuesday at Kansas City.

Lee Tinsley had three hits and stole two bases as the AL East-leading Red Sox beat Mark Gubicza and handed the Royals their fourth consecutive loss and eighth in nine games.

Knuckleballer Wakefield (6-1), 5-15 at triple-A last year in the Pittsburgh system, gave up eight hits, walked two and struck out four in eight-plus innings.

Stan Belinda relieved in the ninth with a runner on first, no outs and a 6-3 lead. The Royals loaded the bases with one out, and Wally Joyner hit a sacrifice fly.

Belinda threw a wild pitch that allowed another run to score before getting his sixth save.

Minnesota 6, Baltimore 3--Scott Erickson gave up three hits in eight innings and the Twins, suffering through their worst season in years, beat the Orioles at Baltimore in a game delayed nearly three hours by rain.

Erickson (4-6) gave up one run, walked five and struck out two in his longest outing of the year. He was 0-1 since June 14.

Pedro Munoz hit a two-run homer shortly after the end of the rain delay.

Detroit 9, Seattle 8--John Flaherty singled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The victory, which came after a rain delay of 37 minutes in the top of the ninth in Detroit, moved the Tigers (33-32) over .500 for the first time since opening day.

Mike Christopher (1-0), a replacement player for the Tigers in spring training, won in his season debut. He pitched one scoreless inning after being called up from the minors Monday night.

New York 4, Chicago 1--Mariano Rivera, recalled earlier in the day from the minors, gave up two hits in eight shutout innings and struck out 11 at Chicago.

Frank Thomas lined a single to right in the first and grounded a single to left in the sixth, the only hits allowed by Rivera (2-2), who walked four in only his fifth major league start.

Rivera’s longest previous outing for the Yankees was 5 1/3 innings. He began the season at triple-A Columbus, was recalled on May 16 and then sent back on June 11.

Oakland 5, Milwaukee 3--Mark McGwire hit his 23rd homer and Terry Steinbach hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning, rallying the Athletics at Oakland.

With the A’s trailing, 3-2, Rickey Henderson led off the eighth with a walk and McGwire was hit by a pitch two outs later. Steinbach followed with his ninth homer, a drive off Mike Ignasiak (2-1).

Rick Honeycutt (4-1) got three outs. Dennis Eckersley, making his 500th appearance for Oakland--two short of Rollie Fingers’ club record--got three outs for his 18th save.

Texas 7, Cleveland 6--Mark McLemore hit a two-run double in the eighth inning as the Rangers, who had blown an early four-run lead, came back to beat the Indians at Cleveland.

Texas ended its three-game losing streak while handing the Indians their second loss in nine games.

Carlos Baerga, Jim Thome and Ruben Amaro homered during a six-run fourth inning that made Cleveland the first team to reach 100 home runs this season.