Clemens Beats O’S For 12th Win

Roger Clemens pitched seven shutout innings and Joe Carter broke a scoreless tie with a two-run single in the eighth as the visiting Toronto Blue Jays ended a five-game losing streak by beating the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 Thursday night.

Clemens (12-2) struck out nine, walked two and allowed five hits in becoming the A.L.’s first 12-game winner.

Baltimore is 4-4 in its last four games; all of the losses have been shutouts.

Athletics 6, Rangers 3

Oakland, Calif.

Mark McGwire hit a first-inning grand slam, his 28th homer of the season, and Ariel Prieto pitched seven strong innings to lead Oakland over Texas.

McGwire set an Oakland record with his ninth career grand slam, breaking a tie with former teammate Terry Steinbach. He also tied the A’s franchise record, matching the marks of Jimmie Foxx and Sam Chapman.

Royals 4, Brewers 3

Kansas City, Mo.

Chili Davis hit a two-run homer to cap a four-run fourth inning as Kansas City rallied to beat Milwaukee and stop a three-game losing streak.

Ricky Bones, purchased from the Brewers’ minorleague system earlier in the day, contributed 2 innings of two-hit relief.

Tigers 10, Red Sox 6

Boston

With Boston’s Wilfredo Cordero benched while the club investigates new revelations about his past, Brian Hunter stole four bases to lead Detroit to victory.

Cordero, charged June 11 with assaulting his wife that morning, was a late scratch from the lineup after the Red Sox announced they had learned of unspecified allegations involving events from 1990 through 1993, when he was in the Montreal organization.

Hunter reached in all five plate appearances as the Tigers overcame solo homers by Mike Stanley, John Valentin and Shane Mack to stop Boston’s four-game winning streak.

White Sox 11, Twins 1

Minneapolis

James Baldwin allowed one run over seven innings and Frank Thomas and Harold Baines each had three RBIs as Chicago routed Minnesota for its sixth straight victory.

Baldwin (5-8) beat the Twins for the second time in six days.

All-Star coaches named

Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove and Texas manager Johnny Oates were picked Thursday to be coaches for the A.L. team at the All-Star game in Cleveland on July 8.

San Diego manager Bruce Bochy and San Francisco manager Dusty Baker were selected as coaches for the N.L. team.

New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, the manager of the A.L. team, also selected four of his own coaches for the game.

Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, head of the N.L. team, picked six of his own coaches.

Clearing the bases

Baltimore Orioles outfielder Eric Davis intends to play baseball again in 1997. For that reason, he is delaying a decision on whether to receive chemotherapy as follow-up treatment to colon cancer. Davis returned to Camden Yards Thursday, nearly two weeks after having a fist-sized cancerous tumor removed from his colon… . The New York Yankees said that Hideki Irabu will make his major league debut July 10 against Detroit.