AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : An Improved Stottlemyre Haunts the Blue Jays

Todd Stottlemyre, making his first appearance against his former club, recovered from a slow start to strike out 10 in seven strong innings Wednesday as the Oakland Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-4, at Oakland.

“Today, maybe I had a slight edge against them because I wasn’t the four-pitch pitcher I am today when I was in Toronto,” Stottlemyre said of adding a curveball and changeup to his fastball and slider.

Stottlemyre (8-2) gave up three runs and six hits. He has 111 strikeouts this season, third-best in the American League.

Rickey Henderson scored three runs and drove in another with a double.

Geronimo Berroa drove in two runs for Oakland, with a run-scoring groundout and an RBI single, and Stan Javier and Ernie Young had RBI doubles. Mike Bordick added a sacrifice fly, and another run scored when Henderson raced home from second on catcher Angel Martinez’s errant toss back to the mound.

Dennis Eckersley, 2-0 with 11 saves in his last 13 outings, made his 502nd appearance in an A’s uniform, tying Rollie Fingers for the Oakland record.

Al Leiter (5-5) took the loss and has not won since June 14.

New York 9, Kansas City 1--Russ Davis sparked a six-run second inning with a three-run homer as the Yankees routed the Royals at New York.

Andy Pettitte (4-6) pitched 8 1/3 innings for the victory and at one point retired 16 of 17 Royals. Pettitte gave up six hits and struck out seven. He walked only one.

“That’s the first time we really faced this guy and he really spanked our butts,” said Gary Gaetti.

“He mixed it up real well and had us swinging at a lot of bad pitches,” added Phil Hiatt.

Davis homered off starter Chris Haney (3-4) with two out in the second, and the next four Yankees hit safely.

Jim Leyritz had four RBIs for the Yankees.

Chicago 8, Milwaukee 2--Ron Karkovice hit a three-run homer and Wilson Alvarez pitched seven strong innings at Chicago as the White Sox ended a four-game losing streak.

Karkovice, mired in a one-for-23 slump, homered against rookie knuckleballer Steve Sparks (5-4) to cap a four-run fourth inning. Lance Johnson also homered and Ray Durham drove in three runs with a triple and a single for the White Sox. Sparks gave up eight runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Alvarez (3-5) gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out six.

The game had none of the animosity that marked the teams’ previous meeting, June 29, when Rob Dibble’s brush-back pitch near the head of Milwaukee’s Pat Listach started a bench-clearing brawl and resulted in the league’s three-game suspension of Dibble.

Managers Terry Bevington of Chicago and Phil Garner of Milwaukee had a pregame meeting with the umpires, who said the league directed them to eject any pitcher who hit any batter Wednesday or during the four-game series at Milwaukee that starts today.