A Right Turn on Road for Clemens, Yankees

It didn’t turn out to be so bad on the road for the New York Yankees after all.

The two-time defending World Series champions may have won only six of 13 games over the past two weeks, but they got back Roger Clemens and Orlando Hernandez and only lost a half-game in the standings while going through their most difficult stretch of the season.

Clemens (5-6) returned from the disabled list Sunday to pitch seven impressive innings in a 5-2 victory over Tampa Bay at St. Petersburg, Fla. Hernandez rejoined the rotation and stopped the Devil Rays on Saturday.

Suddenly, New York looks as if it’s back on solid footing.

“We really don’t focus on what the other teams are doing. If we win, we’ll be in a good position. You can’t sit here and start looking at the scoreboard,” shortstop Derek Jeter said after Sunday’s win moved the second-place Yankees within one game of American League East-leading Toronto.

David Justice drove in two runs for his first RBIs in a New York uniform and Scott Brosius hit a two-run homer off Steve Trachsel (6-8).

It was the pitching of Clemens, though, that gave the Yankees a lift.

The five-time Cy Young Award winner, sidelined nearly three weeks with a strained right groin, gave up one run and three hits. He struck out five and walked two to move ahead of Bob Gibson into 38th on the all-time list with 252 victories.

“I saw the aura in walking around the clubhouse early. You could just see he was stalking and just seemed very focused,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “He had his game face on and it just looked like he was anxious to get out there.”

Seattle 11, Texas 4--Edgar Martinez hit a two-run homer to raise his major league-leading RBI total to 84, and Mike Cameron had a two-run single in a seven-run seventh inning for the Mariners at Arlington, Texas.

Trailing 2-1, the Mariners loaded the bases with none out in the seventh against Matt Perisho (2-2) on John Olerud’s double, a walk to Jay Buhner and David Bell’s single.

Pinch-hitter Stan Javier hit a ground ball off reliever Tim Crabtree that nearly resulted in a double play, but Javier beat shortstop Scott Sheldon’s relay to first as Olerud scored the tying run.

Mark McLemore grounded to third, but rookie Mike Lamb threw the ball wildly to second for an error, allowing Buhner to score the go-ahead run.

Cameron’s two-run single, Alex Rodriguez’s run-scoring single and Martinez’s home run stretched Seattle’s lead to 8-2 in support of starter Aaron Sele. Sele (10-3) allowed two runs and six hits over seven innings, striking out five.

Baltimore 3, Toronto 2--Will Clark hit his third homer in three games, a tiebreaking 434-foot solo shot in the eighth inning for the Orioles at Baltimore.

Clark had two homers this season before hitting one Friday. The last time he homered in three consecutive games was in August 1995.

Mike Trombley (4-2) got out of a jam in the Toronto eighth and Alan Mills got three outs for his first save since joining the Orioles June 13.

Raul Mondesi hit his 20th home run for the Blue Jays, who dropped the opening two games of the series by a combined 20-8 score. Toronto had won 13 in a row against Baltimore before losing the first three of this series.

Cleveland 7, Minnesota 1--Chuck Finley pitched seven strong innings at Cleveland and the Indians ended a losing streak at four.

All 11 of the Indians’ hits were singles and they made the most of them. They hit eight in the first three innings to take a 5-0 lead off Joe Mays (4-10).

Cleveland won for only the seventh time in the last 22 games. It had scored a total of seven runs during its four-game slide.

Finley (7-5) allowed one run and six hits, striking out six. He walked one and got nine ground ball outs.

Detroit 2, Kansas City 0--Hideo Nomo outdueled countryman Mac Suzuki, allowing only three hits and striking out seven in pitching into the eighth inning as the Tigers completed a three-game sweep at Kansas City.

Nomo and Suzuki, who grew up in the same area of Western Japan and are close friends, matched each other almost inning-for-inning on the hot, humid afternoon until tiring in the eighth.

“I’m not sure [Nomo] couldn’t have pitched the eighth. He had them mystified,” Tiger Manager Phil Garner said. “But I didn’t want to take the chance.”

Suzuki (3-3) gave up only four hits and equaled his career-high with eight strikeouts.