McGwire Is Leader in Homers

Mark McGwire hit two home runs, taking over the major league lead with 33, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 9-6, at Arlington, Texas, Friday night for their fourth consecutive victory.

Oakland homered for the 15th game in a row, extending the team record. The A’s lead the majors with 154 home runs, and are on pace to break the major league record of 240 by the New York Yankees in 1961.

Juan Gonzalez homered for the third game in a row. He has 26 home runs and a 21-game hitting streak for Texas.

McGwire hit a two-run shot in the fourth inning as Oakland took a 5-3 lead. Jason Giambi hit his 17th, a two-run drive, and McGwire followed with another home run in the fifth inning for an 8-4 edge.

Carlos Reyes (6-10) got the win in relief of Oakland starter Doug Johns.

Detroit 8, Toronto 6--Cecil Fielder and Chad Curtis hit home runs as the Tigers rallied from an early three-run deficit to beat the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Tom Urbani (2-2) pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief for the win. Gregg Olson got his sixth save.

Fielder hit a three-run homer, his 22nd, that made it 4-4 in the third inning, and Brad Ausmus blooped a single with one out in the fourth before Curtis connected with two outs off Marty Janzen (4-5).

Milwaukee 7, New York 5--Cal Eldred, coming back from elbow trouble, won for the first time since April of 1995 as the Brewers defeated the AL East-leading Yankees at Milwaukee.

Greg Vaughn, who leads the majors with 92 RBIs, hit two run-scoring singles as Milwaukee took a 6-0 lead after two innings against Andy Pettitte (14-5).

Eldred (1-0) pitched five innings, giving up one run and six hits.

Boston 13, Baltimore 2--Mo Vaughn drove in five runs and Jamie Moyer scattered eight hits over eight innings to lead the Red Sox to a win in Boston.

Moyer (6-1), who is reportedly being offered to contenders seeking left-handed pitching, had a one-hitter through four innings. He lost his shutout when Baltimore scored two unearned runs in the eighth.

Leadoff hitter Jeff Frye scored five runs and Vaughn and Mike Stanley hit three-run homers for Boston. Vaughn’s homer was his 29th of the season.

Minnesota 3, Cleveland 2--Third baseman Jim Thome’s error keyed a three-run rally in the seventh inning as the Twins, despite getting only three hits, won at Cleveland.

Charles Nagy (11-3) was working on a two-hitter and had a 2-0 lead with two outs in the seventh before the Twins’ comeback. They combined four walks, only one hit, a wild pitch and Thome’s misplay.

Winning pitcher Frank Rodriguez (9-7) gave up a home run to Kenny Lofton on the third pitch of the game and another homer to Brian Giles in the sixth.

Kansas City 7, Chicago 4--Bob Hamelin homered to lead off the 10th inning and the Royals went on to beat the White Sox at Chicago.

Hamelin hit a 1-and-2 pitch from Roberto Hernandez (1-1) into the right-field bleachers for his sixth home run of the season.