AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Brewers’ Vaughn Has 6 RBIs in 8-7 Victory

Chicago’s Tim Raines tied Brady Anderson’s American League record of 36 consecutive stolen bases in the first inning, but this night belonged to Milwaukee’s Greg Vaughn.

Vaughn hit a 444-foot homer and tied a career high with six runs batted in during the Brewers’ 8-7 victory over the White Sox Friday night at Milwaukee.

“I can’t get too high when things are going good because I know what things are like on the other side,” Vaughn said. “I dug myself a huge hole and now I’ve got to get myself out of it.”

Vaughn entered the series with the White Sox with a .190 batting average before going five for nine in two games to raise his average to .204.

Vaughn had a run-scoring groundout in the first, a three-run homer in the third and a two-run triple in the fifth.

Mike Fetters pitched the ninth for his 11th save in 11 chances, getting John Kruk on a grounder to short to end the game with the tying run at second.

After Raines’ record-tying steal in the first, he took third when Mike Matheny’s throw bounced into center field and scored on Frank Thomas’ fly to right.

Temperature at game time was 99 degrees, and there was a loud explosion in the first-deck hallway during the sixth inning. Team officials said they thought a beer keg exploded but there were no reports of injuries.

Cleveland 1-7, Oakland 0-6--Carlos Baerga drove in the only run in the first game with an infield single, then hit one of the Indians’ three home runs in the nightcap at Cleveland, giving the Indians 12 victories in their last 16 games and improving the best start in franchise history to 48-21.

Oakland has lost nine of 12 overall and eight straight against Cleveland. The A’s are 3-11 in one-run games this year.

The Indians’ Jose Mesa finished off both games, giving him 23 saves in 23 chances.

Toronto 5, Seattle 1--Juan Guzman pitched his best game of the season and the Blue Jays had 14 hits in beating the Mariners in Seattle.

Guzman (3-5) made his eighth start since coming off the disabled list June 4 because of a right shoulder muscle imbalance. He made the Mariners look off-kilter, yielding three hits in eight innings and striking out six to break a personal two-game losing streak and lower his earned-run average from 7.23 to 6.52.

Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar paced Toronto’s offense. Molitor went four for five with three doubles, and Alomar drove in three runs with two doubles and a single.

Minnesota 11, New York 4--The Twins had 17 hits at New York to more than compensate for an off night for Brad Radke.

Radke (6-7) gave up nine hits and four runs with one walk and no strikeouts over the first five innings.

“Our pitching was good enough,” said Twin Manager Tom Kelly, “because we got 11 runs. We don’t get 11 runs very often. I should have taken a picture of that [the scoreboard].”

Yankee third baseman Wade Boggs had his first error of the season in the first inning. His last error was July 5, 1994, a span of 78 games.

Boston 5, Texas 2--With Mo Vaughn nursing a swollen left eye suffered in a nightclub altercation, his replacement at first base, Chris Donnels, came through with a big game at Boston.

Donnels had two RBI singles and played flawlessly at first, which isn’t bad for a third baseman who had one hit in his first 28 at-bats after being traded from Houston on June 10.

Kansas City 7, Baltimore 2--Tom Gordon got his first victory in three weeks, pitching eight strong innings at Baltimore.

Gordon (6-5) was 0-3 in four starts since June 21 despite compiling a 2.81 ERA in the span. Friday night, he gave up seven hits but only one after the fifth inning.