AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Detroit Slips Past Toronto

The Detroit Tigers’ specialty is the home run, but Manager Sparky Anderson knows it takes more to win.

The Tigers, with the help of a sacrifice bunt, took the lead for good in the eighth inning and went on to a 14-10 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday at Toronto.

“Power gets guys recognized, but the other guys are real ballplayers,” Anderson said. “We have 86 home runs and are in next-to-last place. Power is the least involved over a 162-game schedule.”

The Tigers hit one homer, below their average this season, in the 4 hour 1 minute game but still won a series for the first time at the SkyDome, taking two of three games from the Blue Jays.

Dan Gladden and Lou Whitaker started the eighth inning with singles off Mike Timlin (0-1). Travis Fryman, who drove in five runs earlier, was called on to sacrifice by Anderson and advanced the runners with a perfect bunt. Cecil Fielder drove home Gladden with a sacrifice fly to break a 10-10 tie.

“It didn’t matter what we threw out there. They were hitting everything,” Timlin said. “You don’t want to get into a slugfest with the Tigers.”

Mike Munoz (1-1) picked up his first major league victory, pitching one-third of an inning.

The Tigers blew 6-0 and 9-6 leads.

Detroit sent 10 men to the plate and scored six runs in the second inning, knocking Toronto starter Dave Stieb from the game. Stieb gave up six runs and four hits in 1 2/3 innings, his shortest outing this season.

Toronto scored six runs in the third inning to tie, 6-6, before falling behind, 9-6, in the fourth. Mark Leiter was chased in the third, giving up six runs on six hits and three walks.

New York 5, Boston 4--Melido Perez survived three walks and a wild pickoff throw that contributed to a 3-0 Boston lead in the first inning, but the Yankees salvaged the finale of the four-game series in Boston.

Perez (7-4) struck out the last five batters he faced before Steve Farr struck out two in a perfect ninth inning for his 10th save.

Perez got help from Mike Gallego, whose second homer of the season began a three-run seventh inning in which New York erased a 4-2 deficit.

Minnesota 3, Kansas City 1--Struggling Scott Erickson gave up a home run to Gregg Jefferies in the first inning, then did his best pitching of the season as the Twins defeated the Royals at Minneapolis.

Erickson (4-5) was 12-2 with a 1.39 earned-run average on June 24, 1991. Since then, he had an 11-11 record and a 5.37 ERA. He gave up seven hits against the Royals, striking out five and walking two in seven innings.

Rick Aguilera, the third Minnesota reliever, pitched the final 1 1/3 innings and got his 18th save.

Kent Hrbek, Shane Mack and Pedro Munoz hit home runs off Rick Reed (1-2), who gave up only two other hits in six-plus innings.

Kirby Puckett of the Twins had a bunt single and a triple, extending his hitting streak to 15 games. He is batting .396 in his last 36 games, raising his league-leading average to .349.

Seattle 5, Chicago 4--Harold Reynolds singled with the bases loaded in the 11th inning at Seattle to give the Mariners their first-ever four-game sweep of the White Sox.

Reynolds also had a two-run homer and triple as the Mariners became the last team in the majors to play an extra-inning game this season.

The White Sox lost their fifth consecutive game and 17th in the last 23.

Eric Gunderson (2-1), the sixth pitcher for the Mariners, worked a perfect 11th to get the victory. Wilson Alvarez (0-1), the fourth White Sox pitcher, took the loss after entering the game in the 10th inning.

Milwaukee 4, Cleveland 1--Bill Wegman pitched the first three-hitter of his career. Wegman (7-5) was perfect through four innings at Milwaukee before Albert Belle hit his 15th homer on Wegman’s first pitch of the fifth. The Indians’ only other hits were an infield single by Sandy Alomar in the sixth and a single by Belle in the seventh.

It was the Brewers’ fifth victory in six games.