AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Indians’ Bats Dry Up in 3-2 Loss to Detroit

All kinds of streaks ended in Detroit on Saturday night because the Cleveland Indians didn’t play like the Cleveland Indians.

There was their winning streak, which ended at nine games when John Flaherty’s RBI double in the sixth inning broke a 2-2 tie and gave the Tigers a 3-2 victory.

There was Orel Hershiser’s streak of four victories, dating back to July 25 when he lost to the Angels. Hershiser (12-6) gave up only two earned runs in seven innings, ordinarily no problem for a Cleveland attack that has scored runs in carload lots.

Friday night, the Indians had 21 hits and won, 14-4.

But Saturday?

“We’ve been playing so well for so long that sooner or later one of our starters was going to take the hit,” Hershiser said. “That’s just baseball.”

Cleveland had beaten the Tigers seven times in a row before Felipe Lira and John Doherty combined to stop them on five hits.

“You can’t expect it every single night,” Hershiser said. “They’ll come back and get them tomorrow.”

Lira (9-9) went six innings to win his first start since Aug. 15. He gave up two runs and four hits and earned praise--sort of--from Manager Sparky Anderson.

“He’s the only one in the starting staff whose ERA isn’t astronomical,” Anderson said.

Lira has an earned-run average of 4.13.

Doherty pitched one-hit ball over the last three innings for his fourth save.

Baltimore 3, Seattle 2--Jeff Huson’s two-run single in the sixth inning broke a tie, and the Orioles ended a six-game losing streak at home.

Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,127th consecutive game, going 0 for 3 with a walk.

The victory ended the Orioles’ four-game overall losing streak and was their first at home since Aug. 15.

Seattle lost for only the third time in nine games and remained 6 1/2 games behind the Angels in the AL West.

Edgar Martinez hit his 26th homer for the Mariners, who missed an opportunity to take the lead in the eighth inning when Jesse Orosco struck out Ken Griffey Jr. with the bases loaded and two out.

Chicago 10, Toronto 4--Lance Johnson had four hits, scored four runs and stole three bases for the White Sox, who won at home.

It was the sixth four-hit game of the season for Johnson, who tripled twice.

The victory was Chicago’s fourth in a row, the loss Toronto’s sixth in a row.

Wilson Alvarez (7-7) gave up three runs and eight hits and struck out seven in seven innings. He was the beneficiary of seven runs from the White Sox in the first two innings off Jeff Ware, 24, who was making his major league debut.

Texas 4, Kansas City 1--Roger Pavlik broke his three-game losing streak and Candy Maldonado homered in his second at-bat for the Rangers, who won at home to stop a five-game losing streak.

Kansas City’s 59-57 (.509) record is .001 ahead of the 60-58 records of the Rangers and Seattle.

Maldonado, acquired Thursday from Toronto, hit a 3-2 pitch from Kansas City starter Dave Fleming (1-6) into the Ranger bullpen leading off the fifth inning to give Texas a 2-1 lead.

Pavlik (7-9) hadn’t won since Aug. 6 but he was in command against the Royals, who had won six in a row. In seven innings, he gave up five hits and struck out a season-high nine.

New York 5, Oakland 0--Jack McDowell pitched two-hit ball for eight innings at New York, and the Yankees won their fifth in a row.

McDowell (12-10) struck out nine.

Rickey Henderson took a called third strike in the sixth inning and stood at home plate for a moment before getting into a shouting match with McDowell. The players began to move toward each other, and plate umpire Ed Hickox and Yankee catcher Mike Stanley stood between them.

Some players from both benches spilled on to the field briefly, but no blows were struck and no ejections were made.

Bob Wickman pitched a hitless ninth to complete the shutout.

Minnesota 6, Milwaukee 5--Kirby Puckett homered to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning at Minneapolis as the Twins sent the Brewers to their fifth loss in a row.

The Twins extended their season-best winning streak to five. The Brewers, hoping for a wild-card playoff spot, lost after overcoming a 5-0 deficit.

Puckett hit his 20th home run, connecting off Joe Slusarski (1-1).