Rookie’s Single Leads Toronto Over Boston
American League
Rookie Robert Perez hit a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 10th inning Sunday as the Toronto Blue Jays rallied for an 8-7 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Toronto.
Perez’s single helped pitcher Marty Janzen pick up the win in his major-league debut. Janzen, acquired by the Blue Jays in the trade that sent David Cone to the Yankees, gave up three hits in three innings of relief.
Carlos Delgado singled, his fourth hit, to open the 10th and Joe Carter walked to chase Heathcliff Slocumb. Stan Belinda came on and hit Ed Sprague to load the bases.
John Olerud, who tied a career-high with five RBIs, popped out to shallow left field, but Perez followed with a clean single to left that scored Delgado with the winning run.
The Blue Jays rallied from a 7-3 deficit after seven innings, scoring three runs in the eighth and one in the ninth to win the final game of the three-game series. All three games went into extra innings.
Yankees 9, White Sox 8
Chicago
Joe Girardi cleared the bases with a three-run double in the sixth inning and New York rallied from an 8-0 deficit to stun Chicago.
Trailing 8-4, New York scored five in the sixth, starting the spree when White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas failed to touch first on a grounder for his first error of the season.
An infield out and an RBI single by Tim Raines cut the White Sox’s lead to 8-5. Wade Boggs then singled to drive out starter Alex Fernandez and reliever Larry Thomas (1-3) surrendered an RBI double to Paul O’Neill.
Tino Martinez walked to load the bases and reliever Bill Simas replaced Thomas and struck out Ruben Sierra. But Girardi then drove his double to right center, his third hit of the game, to give the Yankees a 9-8 lead.
Girardi was 3 for 4 and is now on a 13-for-29 tear.
Indians 4, Angels 1
Anaheim, Calif.
Albert Belle led off the ninth with his 14th homer and Cleveland added two more solo shots in the inning for the victory over California.
Belle drilled an 0-2 pitch from Troy Percival (0-1) over the center-field fence. Belle’s homer broke a string of 24 consecutive batters retired by Percival and was the first run off the reliever since Sept. 19, a stretch of 20 innings.
Two outs after Belle connected, Sandy Alomar and Jim Thome hit back-to-back homers.
Tigers 5, Rangers 3
Arlington, Texas
Felipe Lira gave Detroit’s pitching staff a rare quality start and John Flaherty jump-started the offense with a three-run double as the Tigers beat Texas.
Lira gave up three runs and five hits over 6-1/3 innings for a staff that started the day with a 7.19 ERA, the worst in baseball. Lira struck out one and didn’t walk a batter.
Mike Myers got four outs for his second save and just Detroit’s fifth this season.
Athletics 8, Twins 3
Oakland, Calif.
Ernie Young homered for the fourth time in three games and Don Wengert got his first major-league win as a starter, leading Oakland past Minnesota for a sweep of the three-game series.
Young, who hit three home runs on Friday and now has five for the season, also had an RBI double in Oakland’s 14-hit attack. Teammate Jose Herrera went 3 for 4 and scored two runs.
Brewers 6, Orioles 4
Milwaukee
Dave Nilsson went 3 for 4 and drove in three runs as Milwaukee overcame a pair of two-run homers by Rafael Palmeiro to defeat Baltimore.
Palmeiro’s two-run shot in the first inning was the 200th of his career and gave Baltimore a 2-0 lead.
Clearing the bases
Boston pitchers combined to strike out 39 Toronto batters in the three-game series… . White Sox veteran Tony Phillips became the seventh active major leaguer to have 1,000 walks and 1,000 runs when he scored on Thomas’ bases-loaded single in the second… . The A’s scored 35 runs on 45 hits against the Twins, who have lost six straight games in Oakland… . Oakland’s Mark McGwire, who walked in the first, has reached base safely in 31 straight games dating back to 1995.