AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Hold On, Mariners Are Coming

The Seattle Mariners are playing well enough to make the playoffs and not necessarily as a wild-card team.

And the Baltimore Orioles?

“We seem to play well enough to lose,” Manager Phil Regan declared after the Orioles lost their sixth consecutive home game, 4-3, Friday night.

Joey Cora hit a rare home run and Dan Wilson’s homer was almost as rare as the Mariners remained atop the AL wild-card race with their sixth victory in eight games. With the Angels losing in Boston, Seattle also got within 6 1/2 games of the AL West lead.

“I’m sure they’re thinking about it slightly more than we are,” winning pitcher Tim Belcher said. “They had such a big lead a couple of weeks ago, but 6 1/2 certainly isn’t insurmountable. It would be nice, nice to catch them.”

Coming into the game, Cora and Wilson had combined for 13 homers in 2,635 at-bats. They hit two in eight at-bats Friday.

Baltimore has lost four in a row after a 7-3 trip to fall six games behind in the wild-card race. The Orioles have lost 17 games by one run.

Belcher (9-9) gave up two runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings to break a three-game losing streak.

Mike Mussina (15-8) failed in his bid to become the first 16-game winner in the majors.

Chicago 5, Toronto 3--Frank Thomas and Lance Johnson had RBI doubles to lead the White Sox at home.

Rookie reliever Brian Keyser (4-6) gave up two hits over four innings after replacing starter Dave Righetti, who left after two innings because of soreness in his left elbow.

Cleveland 14, Detroit 4--Jim Thome and Sandy Alomar homered in a five-run fourth inning and Albert Belle hit a grand slam in the eighth at Detroit as the Indians extended their season-high winning streak to nine games.

The victory, Cleveland’s ninth in 10 games against Detroit, was also the Indians’ 40th achieved in coming from behind.

The loss was the third in a row for the Tigers, who are 10-36 since the All-Star break.

New York 8, Oakland 7--Mike Stanley’s bases-loaded infield single in the eighth inning gave the Yankees a victory at home.

Paul O’Neill, doubled with one out in the eighth inning against Mike Mohler (1-1). Don Wengert, the fourth Oakland pitcher, walked two to fill the bases with two out.

Stanley hit a hard one-hopper that was batted down by third baseman Craig Paquette, who could not hold it as O’Neill scored.

Minnesota 9, Milwaukee 5--Chuck Knoblauch hit a two-run homer and drove in a career-high four runs in Minneapolis for the Twins, who also got a homer from Kirby Puckett in winning for the fourth time in a row.

Milwaukee, which swept four games from the Twins last weekend, has not won in the five games since.

Kansas City 5, Texas 2--Gary Gaetti drove in two runs and Johnny Damon homered at Arlington, Tex., as the Royals won their sixth in a row.

Texas has lost five in a row.