Pinch Him: McGwire Homers

Everything Mark McGwire hits seems to fly out of the ballpark these days.

McGwire homered for the fourth straight game, tying the score in the eighth with his major league-leading 38th home run, and Ernie Young hit a two-run homer in the ninth as the Oakland Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-3, Friday at Toronto.

“The individual stuff is nice,” McGwire said. “But it’s not the reason I play baseball. It never was and it never will be.”

McGwire, who has played only 80 games, has seven homers in his last eight games.

“He’s something, isn’t he,” A’s Manager Art Howe said. “The instant he hit it, we all knew it was gone. He picked us up. He’s our leader. We’re all on the edge of our seats whenever he comes up, just like the fans.”

McGwire didn’t start because he is 0 for 11 against Juan Guzman with five strikeouts. He batted for Rafael Bournigal and tied the score at 3 against Paul Quantrill with his first pinch homer since Oct. 1, 1991 and fourth of his career.

Terry Steinbach led off the ninth with a single off Tony Castillo (2-2). One out later, Young hit his 14th homer.

New York 15, Kansas City 1--Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez and Gerald Williams each drove in three runs and the Yankees had 21 hits in routing the Royals at Yankee Stadium.

Joe Girardi and Mariano Duncan each had four hits for the Yankees, who had their most hits since they had 23 on Aug. 25, 1984, at Seattle.

New York scored five runs in the first off Royal starter Chris Haney (8-9). The Yankees added two more in the second, one in the third, six more in the fourth and one in the fifth.

Jimmy Key (8-7) scattered three hits in seven innings.

Cleveland 14, Baltimore 9--Albert Belle went four for five with a three-run homer, and the Indians had 20 hits in routing the Orioles at Baltimore in a game that featured seven home runs.

Baltimore fell under .500 (50-51) for the first time this season and fell a season-high 11 games behind league-leading New York in the East.

Chicago 6, Texas 2--Wilson Alvarez struck out 11 in eight innings, scattering four hits as the White Sox defeated the Rangers at Chicago and stopped a four-game losing streak.

Alvarez (13-5) walked none and improved his record at Comiskey Park to 7-1 this season. The strikeouts were one short of his season high.

Minnesota 5, Boston 1--Brad Radke outpitched Roger Clemens for only his third victory in 3 1/2 months, and the Twins earned their fifth straight victory at Minneapolis. The Twins’ winning streak ties a season high, which they set June 1-5.

Radke (6-13) hadn’t won since July 3 at Chicago. He ended Boston’s team-record string of 19 straight games with a home run.

Seattle 6, Detroit 4--Jay Buhner drove in three runs and Joey Cora hit a two-run single at Seattle.

Sterling Hitchcock (10-4) gave up four runs and eight hits in six-plus innings. Rafael Carmona pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the seventh, only giving up a bloop RBI single to Brad Ausmus.