Gooden’s Effort Worth 1,000 Victories

The New York Yankees were beating the Cleveland Indians long before Dwight Gooden ever began wearing pinstripes. And thanks to his pitching, they’re still doing it.

Behind Gooden, the Yankees defeated the Indians, 3-2, at New York on Friday and became the first AL team to beat an opponent 1,000 times.

New York is 1,000-804 against Cleveland since the teams began playing in 1903.

Gooden (3-0) has won all four of his starts against the Indians, including a victory last weekend at Jacobs Field. He held them to one run and five singles in seven innings, permitting just one runner past first base.

Gooden struck out four and walked none in his longest outing of the year, having made only four starts because of a two-month stint on the disabled list with a hernia. In his first game at Yankee Stadium this season, he defeated Orel Hershiser (7-4).

“A battle of the relics,” Hershiser said. “It’s always great to see Doc throw the ball, maybe not on the nights I’m pitching.”

Hershiser, 38, and Gooden, 32, both are former NL Cy Young winners. In this matchup, Paul O’Neill hit a two-run double in the first inning and scored on Cecil Fielder’s groundout, giving Gooden a lead he never lost.

Mike Stanton pitched a scoreless eighth. Mariano Rivera worked the ninth for his 26th save despite giving up Jim Thome’s solo homer with one out. Thome has 22 homers, 12 this month.

Hershiser was hurt by shaky defense as he pitched his first complete game since last July 17. He gave up seven hits and three runs--only one earned--in eight innings, striking out six and walking two.

Sandy Alomar extended his hitting streak to 24 games, longest by an Indians player since Dale Mitchell’s 27-game string in 1953.

Chicago 10, Minnesota 6--Albert Belle had a career-high five hits, including his 18th homer, as the White Sox won at Minneapolis to push their season-high winning streak to seven games.

Belle, who drove in two runs and scored four times, had three singles before his 407-foot solo drive off reliever Greg Swindell in the seventh. He added a two-out double in the ninth, helping to start a three-run inning.

Chicago starter Jaime Navarro (6-6) gave up six hits and four runs--three earned--in eight innings.

Detroit 2, Boston 1--The ball seemed to hang up just enough for Troy O’Leary to take a chance in the 11th inning at Boston. He shouldn’t have.

With Travis Fryman at first after a single, Clark hit a sinking liner to left field. Troy O’Leary dove, but the ball bounced in front of him and rolled to the wall, allowing Fryman to score.

Boston’s Tom Gordon was masterful in the top of the ninth when he didn’t give up a hit, but Boston committed two errors with no outs.

Bobby Higginson reached first on a wild throw by third baseman Jeff Frye. Fryman then hit the ball back to Gordon, but his high throw to second bounced off Valentin’s glove and Higginson reached third.

Clark hit a grounder to first baseman Stanley, whose throw forced Fryman at second as Higginson held third. Gordon then struck out Bob Hamelin and got Raul Casanova to fly out to center.

Kansas City 16, Milwaukee 3--Jay Bell hit a grand slam and Craig Paquette homered twice to lead the Royals at Kansas City.

Bell and Paquette drove in five runs each as the Royals scored their most runs since defeating the Angels, 18-3, last Aug. 10. Kansas City had 15 hits in all.

Kevin Appier (6-5), who had gotten an average of only 4.1 runs of support coming in, gave up one run and five hits in six innings. He improved to 7-2 against Milwaukee and lowered his ERA to 2.59.

Ben McDonald (6-5), winless in five starts, lasted three-plus innings and gave up eight hits and nine runs--matching his career high.

Toronto 2, Baltimore 1--The Orioles were having trouble with their bats, so Roberto Alomar tried to make something happen with his legs.

It didn’t work, and Baltimore’s lead in the East shrank to 6 1/2 games for the first time since May 26.

Robert Person and three relievers combined on a five-hitter as the visiting Blue Jays beat the punchless Orioles. The final out came when Alomar tagged up from second base on a fly ball and was cut down on a fine throw by right fielder Orlando Merced.

“We haven’t been scoring a lot of runs and we haven’t been hitting with men on base a lot,” Alomar said. “I was just trying to be aggressive and make something happen.”

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BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

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Player Team Performance Team’s Result Albert Belle Chicago 5 for 5, 4 runs, 18th homer Win Jay Bell Kansas City 2 for 3, grand slam, 5 RBI Win

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PITCHING

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Player Team Performance Team’s Result Dwight Gooden New York 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 run Win Orel Hershiser Cleveland 8 innings, 7 hits, 1 earned run Loss Tom Gordon Boston 9 innings, 5 hits, 1 run Loss Willie Blair Detroit 8 2/3 innings, 6 hits, 1 run Win

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