AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Canseco Making Red Sox Even Tougher

The Boston Red Sox took the lead in the American League East without much help from Jose Canseco. When they won five games in a row early this month, he was in a slump.

But Canseco started hitting and now the Red Sox lead the division by 10 games.

“He’s getting locked in,” Manager Kevin Kennedy said Wednesday after Canseco homered and then doubled in the tie-breaking run in the eighth inning to lead the Red Sox to a 7-4 victory over the New York Yankees at Boston.

“You’re seeing the Jose that we saw last year,” Kennedy said. “We missed him in the first half.”

Canseco had three hits, three runs and three runs batted in. He is 16 for 30 in seven games since snapping a one-for-17 slump, raising his average 32 points to .303.

Boston, which had a 12-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday, won two of three from the second-place Yankees.

Seattle 6, Minnesota 4--Vince Coleman, playing his first game for the Mariners, singled to start a five-run rally in the eighth inning that led to the victory at Minneapolis.

Coleman, acquired Tuesday in a trade with Kansas City, went two for five, scored two runs and stole a base.

Ken Griffey Jr. got the 1,000th hit of his career with a single in the Mariners’ first. At 25, he became the seventh-youngest player to reach the milestone.

Ron Coomer, traded from the Dodgers to the Twins in the Kevin Tapani deal, hit his first major league home run.

Milwaukee 15, Texas 6--John Jaha had a grand slam and five RBIs and Greg Vaughn and Joe Oliver added solo homers for the Brewers at Arlington, Tex., ending the Rangers’ three-game winning streak.

Jaha’s five RBIs were a career-high and his grand slam was his second of the year. He also hit one on opening day off Alex Fernandez of the White Sox.

Danny Darwin gave up all three homers in three-plus innings. In three games against the Brewers this season, he has allowed 20 earned runs in 15 innings.

The Rangers’ Juan Gonzalez, who had been on the disabled list with a bone spur in his neck, was activated and went two for four with a two-run homer. Gonzalez has been bothered by injuries all season.

Cleveland 8, Baltimore 5--Jose Mesa got the final three outs at Baltimore for his 35th consecutive save, one short of the record set by Dennis Eckersley in 1992.

Orel Hershiser (10-5) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out four to improve to 5-1 in his last seven starts.

Kevin Brown (5-8) fell to 0-6 since June 2. He gave up six runs and 10 hits in six-plus innings.

Kenny Lofton had a pair of triples among his three hits and Albert Belle hit three singles for the Indians, who took two of three from the slumping Orioles.

Oakland 8, Kansas City 4--Jason Giambi homered for the third consecutive game and scored three runs as the Athletics came back from an early four-run deficit at Kansas City, Mo.

Todd Stottlemyre (10-5) recovered after allowing four runs in the first inning and got his first victory in five starts.

Giambi, hitting .700 against the Royals this year, singled to lead off the fourth and later scored. With one out in the sixth, Giambi hit his fifth homer.

Toronto 7, Detroit 4--The Blue Jays rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to break the tie at Detroit, moving them a game closer to escaping the AL East cellar.

The fourth-place Tigers are a half-game ahead of the Blue Jays heading into the series finale tonight. If Toronto wins, it will be out of last place for the first time since June 21.