Indians Bury Royals Deeper

American League

Go back to the minors, the Cleveland Indians said, and get your act together.

So Mark Clark did. And hours after being recalled from Triple A Buffalo on Tuesday night, Clark allowed five hits over eight innings and the Indians beat host Kansas City 7-1, padding their A.L. Central lead to 7 1/2 games over the second-place Royals.

“Once he got out of the first inning, he got ahead of the hitters; he had a good split-fingered fastball,” Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove said of Clark (3-2), who struck out two and walked two. “As the game went on, he was throwing a good four-seam fastball away from hitters and freezing them. He kept them off-balance. Obviously, he’s done what we asked him to do.”

Eddie Murray, raising his hit total to 2,996, had a single and two doubles, including one he thought at first was a three-run homer.

With two on and two outs in the first, Murray, batting right-handed against Chris Haney (3-2), hit a deep fly to left. As Vince Coleman retreated to the fence, a fan wearing a glove reached over the railing and made a clean catch.

As Murray and Hargrove argued without success, umpire Al Clark ruled a ground-rule double.

White Sox 8, Twins 6

Minneapolis

Rookie Ray Durham hit a three-run triple as Chicago finally gave Jim Abbott run support in a victory over Minnesota.

Abbott (4-3) pitched six-plus innings - his shortest outing in his last six starts - allowing 10 hits. Chicago had scored 13 runs in Abbott’s previous five starts.

Yankees 7, Tigers 1

New York

Tony Fernandez hit a three-run homer and three bullpen pitchers worked the full nine innings for New York as the Yankees won their sixth straight game, beating Detroit.

Scott Bankhead, Bob McDonald (1-1) and Joe Ausanio allowed a combined seven hits. New York manager Buck Showalter decided to use his bullpen instead of starting Jack McDowell on three days’ rest.

Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 5 (11)

Boston

Bill Haselman hit a broken-bat home run with one out in the 11th inning to give Boston a victory over Toronto, the Blue Jays’ eighth consecutive loss.

Lee Tinsley, Mo Vaughn and Troy O’Leary also homered for Boston - all solo shots.

Rangers 10, Angels 6

Arlington, Texas

Mickey Tettleton homered twice and Ivan Rodriguez had three hits, including a two-run double that drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth, as Texas beat California.

With the victory, the Rangers pulled into a first-place tie with the Angels in the A.L. West.

Orioles 11, Brewers 3

Milwaukee

John DeSilva won his first major league start and rookie Manny Alexander drove in four runs as Baltimore routed Milwaukee.

Strawberry’s sour debut

A forgettable Gulf Coast League debut for a rusty Darryl Strawberry provided lasting memories for a minor-league rookie playing his first professional game at Lakeland, Fla.

Three weeks ago Strawberry was an unemployed outfielder serving the final month of a 60-day drug suspension and David Borkowski was pitching in the state playoffs for his high school team in Sterling Heights, Mich.

Both began what they hope will be a climb to the major leagues - Strawberry bidding for a speedy return via the New York Yankees and Borkowski just starting out with the Detroit Tigers organization.

Borkowski struck out Strawberry in the first inning and got him to pop out to end the third. Strawberry was 0 for 3.

Clearing the bases

Jimmy Key of the Yankees, still unable to throw without pain, may miss the rest of the season. Key had arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder last Oct. 19 and was placed on the disabled list May 20 after five starts. … Angel Miranda’s knee injury is more serious than first thought and the Milwaukee left-hander will undergo arthroscopic surgery. He will be out three to four weeks. … The Rangers put starter Darren Oliver and reliever Jeff Russell on the 15-day disabled list. Oliver was diagnosed with a partial tear in his left rotator cuff, and Russell has a herniated disk in his back.

, DataTimes