AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Red Sox Use Stairs, Climb Over Indians

When Matt Stairs came up as a pinch-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in the eighth inning Wednesday, he was carrying with him an 0-for-8 slump.

With one swing of the bat, Stairs got back in the hit column, kept his team in the win column and kept the Cleveland Indians in the loss column.

Stairs singled home the go-ahead run in a 9-5 Red Sox victory at Boston that enabled the Red Sox to sweep the two-game series between the division leaders.

It was the seventh straight victory for Boston and the third straight loss for the Cleveland, Erik Hanson (10-4) beating Eric Plunk (5-2).

Baltimore 7, New York 2--Cal Ripken Jr. had two doubles, a homer and four RBIs at New York and Jamie Moyer allowed only three hits--all to Wade Boggs--in the first eight innings as Baltimore won for just the third time in its last 10 games.

The Yankees, on the other hand, are 16-5 over their last 21 games even after the loss.

Moyer (7-4) settled down after allowing a homer to Boggs on the first pitch of the game to beat Scott Kamienicki (3-3).

Milwaukee 12, Toronto 7--The Brewers took advantage of 13 walks at Milwaukee and the shortest stint of Blue Jay pitcher Juan Guzman’s career to hand Toronto its sixth straight loss.

Six of the 13 Brewers who walked wound up scoring. The 13 walks were one shy of the Blue Jays’ club record for walks allowed, set on Sept. 9, 1979, at Cleveland. All nine Milwaukee starters walked at least once.

Experiencing soreness on the right side above the rib cage, Guzman (3-9) lasted just three batters, walking the bases full before giving way.

Texas 13, Detroit 5--Lou Frazier drove in four runs and Otis Nixon had three hits as the Rangers exploded for a season-high 17 hits at Arlington, Tex.

Kenny Rogers (11-5) got the victory, although he lasted only six innings. Reliever John Doherty (4-7) took the loss.

Oakland 6, Minnesota 3--The Athletics tied the game in the ninth at Minnesota on Craig Paquette’s sacrifice fly off loser Dave Stevens (3-1) and won in the 10th on a Geronimo Berroa RBI double.

The Twins were held hitless over the last six innings.

Mike Mohler (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth to get the victory and Dennis Eckersley worked the 10th for his 22nd save.

Having won the first two games of the series, the Twins were trying for their first three-game sweep against Oakland since June, 1989.

Seattle 11, Chicago 8--Mike Blowers and Jay Buhner each homered in the seven-run fourth inning as the Mariners won at Seattle.

Frank Thomas hit two homers for the White Sox, upping his total to 31.