AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Blue Jays’ Fall Now Complete

Bob Hamelin homered leading off the 10th inning Tuesday night at Kansas City, giving the Royals a wild 9-8 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays and eliminating the defending World Series champions from the East race.

Toronto, which began the day 24 1/2 games behind Boston, won consecutive World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. The Blue Jays were out of contention when the players’ strike stopped last season.

“We’ve had a lot of great times, some good ballclubs,” Toronto Manager Cito Gaston said. “These times are not so great. But a lot of people never get to experience what we’ve experienced. Maybe next year it will be fun for us again.”

Kansas City, which had led 7-0, fell behind, 8-7, when Joe Carter hit a three-run homer in the ninth off Jeff Montgomery.

Wally Joyner tied the score in the bottom half of the inning with a home run off Ken Robinson (1-1), the longest homer this season at Kauffman Stadium.

Gregg Olson (3-1) pitched a perfect 10th inning for Kansas City, which won for the ninth time in 11 games.

Carlos Delgado led off the Toronto ninth with a home run off Billy Brewer. Robert Perez singled off Jim Converse, and Thomas Perez singled off Montgomery. Roberto Alomar’s sacrifice moved up the runners, Paul Molitor flied out and Carter hit his 21st homer, stopping an 0-for-15 slide.

Boston 7, Oakland 4--Jose Canseco hit a three-run homer in the 14th inning for the Red Sox at Boston.

Canseco hit his 22nd homer on a 1-0 pitch off Carlos Reyes (3-5) with two outs after Troy O’Leary singled and Mo Vaughn walked. Rick Aguilera (3-2) pitched one inning for the win.

It was the fifth time this season that Boston had won a home game with a home run.

The Red Sox won for the 26th time in their last 32 games and increased their AL East lead to 15 1/2 games over New York, which lost to Seattle.

Chicago 2, Texas 1--Mike LaValliere homered for the first time in more than a year, a two-out drive in the 11th inning that led the White Sox past the Rangers at Arlington, Tex.

LaValliere’s 18th career home run helped Chicago extend its winning streak to seven games. Matt Karchner (3-1) pitched two innings for his third victory in four decisions.

Juan Gonzalez hit a 423-foot home run in the second, the Rangers’ only run off Alex Fernandez. Gonzalez’s 22nd homer ended a 16-inning scoreless streak for Fernandez.

Cleveland 7, Milwaukee 3--Eddie Murray had four hits and drove in four runs as the Indians defeated the Brewers at Milwaukee for their 14th victory in 18 games.

Dennis Martinez (10-4) scattered seven hits in seven innings and won for the first time since July 21.

Martinez struck out seven and walked one in his eighth bid for victory No. 10. He began the season with a career-best nine consecutive victories.

Milwaukee lost for the eighth time in nine games, falling 3 1/2 games behind Kansas City in the wild-card race.

Seattle 6, New York 5--Jay Buhner’s three-run homer capped a four-run fifth inning, carrying the Mariners at New York.

Seattle built a 6-0 lead before the Yankees made the score close against Mariner starter Bob Wolcott (3-1), making only his fifth major league start.

In the ninth, the Yankees closed within a run on Don Mattingly’s sixth homer with one out. But Norm Charlton, the fifth Seattle pitcher, closed out the game for his sixth save.

Detroit 6, Minnesota 4--Rookie C.J. Nitkowski pitched five innings to gain his first American League victory as the Tigers beat the Twins at Minneapolis for their first two-game winning streak in more than a month.

The Tigers, who defeated Cleveland on Monday, hadn’t won two consecutive games since beating Oakland on July 25 and 26.

Phil Nevin drove in two runs for the Tigers, including the go-ahead run in the sixth.

Nitkowski (1-2) gave up five hits and two walks while striking out three in five innings, only the third time he has lasted that long in seven starts with the Tigers. He was 1-3 with Cincinnati before coming to Detroit in the David Wells trade.