Mcgwire Hits 2 To Pass 2 Yanks
Mark McGwire hit his 33rd and 34th homers, regaining the major league lead and moving past Joe DiMaggio on the career list, as the Oakland Athletics defeated the Kansas City Royals 11-3 Wednesday night.
McGwire’s three-run blast off reliever Mike Perez in the fourth inning tied him with Tino Martinez of the Yankees, who hit his 32nd and 33rd homers in New York’s 11-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.
McGwire broke that tie by homering again off Jeff Montgomery to lead off the eighth.
The two homers moved McGwire past DiMaggio into 42nd place on the career list with 363 home runs. Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr. is in 41st place with 364 career homers.
Yankees 11, White Sox 5
Chicago
Tino Martinez remained one behind the major-league lead in homers at 33 after a tie-breaking grand slam and a solo shot that led New York over Chicago.
Martinez hit his fourth career grand slam off Wilson Alvarez (8-7) on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh.
Martinez, who had 31 homers with Seattle in 1995, connected in the third to set a career high.
Angels 5, Tigers 3
Anaheim, Calif.
Todd Greene hit his first two home runs of the season in consecutive at-bats and Chuck Finley won his fourth straight start as Anaheim beat Detroit for its ninth consecutive win.
Red Sox 4, Orioles 1
Baltimore
Steve Avery won his first decision since April 22 and Mike Stanley hit a three-run homer off Jimmy Key as Boston beat Baltimore.
The Orioles’ Cal Ripken has been receiving treatment for back spasms this week, but the pain wasn’t enough to stop him from starting in his major-league record 2,407th consecutive game.
Rangers 6, Blue Jays 0
Arlington, Texas
Darren Oliver pitched his second career shutout and Will Clark doubled twice and drove in three runs to send Texas to a victory over Toronto.
Indians 4, Brewers 3
Milwaukee
Rookie Jaret Wright pitched six effective innings and Brian Giles homered to lift Cleveland past Milwaukee.
Clearing the bases
The Chicago White Sox announced that injured third baseman Robin Ventura (broken right ankle) will continue his rehabilitation at Class AA Birmingham. … Boston improved to 6-17 against left-handed starters. … The Baltimore-Boston game drew a sellout crowd of 47,712, pushing attendance over 2 million for 44 dates. It was the 25th straight sellout at Baltimore’s Camden Yards.