AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Tigers Take Another Trip to Roaring 20s

So, who needs Cecil Fielder?

For the second time in five days, the Detroit Tigers erupted for 20 runs, this time routing the Seattle Mariners, 20-3, Saturday at Detroit.

But in those two games, the man who has led the majors in runs batted in the past three years has driven in only two runs. And those came Saturday on a pop-fly single that fell between three outfielders.

Mickey Tettleton and Rob Deer each hit three-run homers.

“This team is more than one guy,” Tony Phillips said. “Why does that surprise everybody? Cecil drove in 124 runs last year. Right? How many did we score?”

The answer is 791 runs, tops in the majors. This year, Detroit again leads with 78 runs in 10 games.

The Tigers beat Oakland, 20-4, last Tuesday. This was the seventh time Detroit has scored at least 20 runs, and marked the first time the Tigers have done it twice in one season.

The modern major league record for 20-run games in a season is three. The Phillies did it in 1900, the Yankees in 1939 and the Red Sox in 1950.

“It looked more like Michigan beating Northwestern out there, instead of baseball,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “It was 36 degrees. We got to freeze our butts and get them kicked at the same time.”

The Tigers again came within one run of tying their single-game high. The 20 runs were the most given up in a game by the Mariners.

Milwaukee 6, Oakland 3--The Athletics fell below .500 for the first time in more than five seasons, losing to the Brewers at Milwaukee.

Kevin Seitzer homered twice for the A’s (4-5), who have not been below .500 since Sept. 29, 1987, when they were 78-79 en route to an 81-81 season.

Bill Wegman (1-2), supported by only three runs in his first two outings, gave up two runs on six hits in eight innings and was helped by the Brewers’ four-run first inning against Bob Welch (2-1).

Toronto 8, Cleveland 1--John Olerud hit a three-run homer during the first inning and Joe Carter also homered as the Blue Jays won at Cleveland.

Carter’s home run against Tom Kramer during the eighth was his fourth in the last seven games. He has hit safely in eight of nine games and is batting .387.

Pat Hentgen (1-1) pitched five scoreless innings in his fourth major league start. The right-hander limited Cleveland, which entered the game with a league-leading .338 team batting average, to three hits, striking out three and walking two.

Indian starter Mark Clark (1-1) yielded three runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Minnesota 8, Kansas City 2--Jim Deshaies, Minnesota’s bargain-basement pitching pickup, improved to 3-0 while Kansas City’s high-priced pitcher, David Cone, fell to 0-3 at Minneapolis.

Brian Harper got his first extra-base hit of the season, a three-run double during the first, and Kent Hrbek homered for the second consecutive day as Minnesota beat Kansas City for the fourth time in five games.

Boston 5, Chicago 1--Joe Hesketh gave up three hits over eight innings, repeatedly working out of jams caused by his wildness, to lead the Red Sox at Boston.

Mike Greenwell and Andre Dawson each had two RBIs for Boston, which remained in first place in the AL East.

Hesketh (2-0) walked six in the first four innings, but survived because of two double plays and timely strikeouts.

Kirk McCaskill (0-3) gave up five runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings for the White Sox.

Texas 9, New York 0--Kevin Brown, a 21-game winner last season, pitched a six-hitter to lead the Rangers at New York.

Brown (2-0) walked two and struck out three in matching his shutout total for all of last season. He was sidelined March 17 because of a rib stress fracture, and did not pitch again until April 11. Brown is 8-1 against the Yankees.

Doug Dascenzo singled in a run during the fifth and two more with a bases-loaded single during a four-run sixth against New York starter Jim Abbott (1-2).

Abbott gave up six runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.