New York Deals Cleveland Rare Loss
American League
Bernie Williams drove in the tie-breaking run with a bases-loaded single in the ninth, his third hit of the game, as the New York Yankees cooled off the Cleveland Indians 4-2 Friday night at Cleveland.
New York has won four of its last six games and 12 of its last 13 meetings with Cleveland. The Indians, owners of baseball’s best record, lost for only the second time in their last 13 games.
Cleveland tied it 2-2 on Omar Vizquel’s RBI single in the eighth, but New York put runners on first and second with none out in the ninth when reliever Jim Poole walked Don Mattingly and Eric Plunk hit Jim Leyritz.
Tony Fernandez’s bunt advanced the runners, and after Dion James was walked intentionally, Williams greeted Paul Assenmacher with his RBI single, a bouncer that rolled between third base and shortstop.
Bob Wickman earned the win by getting Albert Belle to ground out in the eighth. John Wetteland pitched the ninth for his eighth save in 10 tries.
Brewers 4, Red Sox 3
Boston
Greg Vaughn broke a 3-for-29 slump with a tiebreaking single in the sixth inning and Milwaukee ruined Erik Hanson’s perfect record with a victory over Boston.
Hanson retired 12 of 13 batters between the second and sixth innings, but singles by Kevin Seitzer and John Jaha, who had three hits, set the stage for Vaughn’s line single to center that drove in the go-ahead run.
Tigers 5, Orioles 3
Detroit
Lou Whitaker and Cecil Fielder hit first-inning home runs and Detroit held on for a victory over Baltimore.
Rangers 7, Blue Jays 3
Toronto
Benji Gil drove in three runs and Mark McLemore hit a pair of run-scoring singles as Texas beat Toronto and sent Danny Darwin to his seventh straight loss.
Royals 3, Athletics 1 (13)
Oakland, Calif.
The Kansas City overcame 8 2/3 shutout innings and 15 strikeouts by Todd Stottlemyre to beat Oakland when two runs scored on Mark McGwire’s throwing error.
White Sox at Angels
Anaheim, Calif.
The game between Chicago and California was postponed due to rain.
Twin under scrutiny
Minnesota all-star second baseman Chuck Knoblauch declined comment on an incident that took place in front of the team hotel Thursday night that has the Seattle city attorney’s office investigating whether to file misdemeanor assault charges.
Knoblauch and his fiancee were returning to the Westin Crowne Plaza hotel here at about 10 p.m. when Knoblauch was approached by a handful of autograph seekers.
He declined to sign, and the incident ended with, the boy says, Knoblauch grabbing a 15-year-old boy by the shirt and scratching his neck. Knoblauch declined to discuss the incident before Friday night’s game. No charges have been filed.
Clearing the bases
New York pitchers have allowed at least one home run in 33 of 45 games this season… . Baltimore’s Cal Ripken grounded into a double play for the first time this season… . Cleveland may have to promote relief pitcher Gregg Olson from the minors this weekend to avoid losing him to another team. A clause in Olson’s contract allows him to leave the Indians if he gets an offer to join another bigleague roster, unless Cleveland calls him up. This week, he reportedly received an offer from Boston.