AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Carter Hits One Out, Then Keeps One In

Jack Morris lost his no-hitter Sunday, but Joe Carter made sure the surging Toronto Blue Jays didn’t lose a game.

Carter hit a two-run homer to give the Blue Jays a 5-0 lead in the seventh, then made a leaping catch to rob Kevin Reimer of an extra-base hit in the eighth as the first-place Blue Jays beat the Brewers, 5-4, at Milwaukee. Toronto has won nine of its last 11.

“I don’t know if it was over the wall. It was high,” Carter said of his catch. “It took a big jar out of me. I hit my shoulder, then my jaw.”

Morris held the Brewers hitless for six innings before Milwaukee scored two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings.

Morris (5-7) lost his no-hitter in the seventh when B.J. Surhoff hit a short fly into right for a single. Three more singles--one in the infield and two more bloops--made it 5-1, and Tom Lampkin hit a sacrifice fly to chase Morris.

Greg Vaughn’s one-out double in the eighth made it 5-3 and put runners on second and third. Reimer followed with a long fly ball to right that Carter caught high against the wall. A run scored on the sacrifice fly, but Dickie Thon then grounded out to end the inning.

“It was a great play all the way around, one that won the game for them,” the Brewers’ Darryl Hamilton said. “In a clutch time, Joe came around for them.”

Boston 8, Detroit 2--The Tigers kept sinking at Boston, losing their sixth consecutive game, while the Red Sox won their sixth in a row behind John Dopson’s third victory in a row.

The Tigers dropped out of the American League East lead Saturday night for the first time in 65 days. They began the series with an average of 6.1 runs per game, but were outscored, 29-8, in Boston’s three-game sweep.

Andre Dawson’s two-run homer in the third inning and Bob Melvin’s run-scoring single in the fourth gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead against Bill Gullickson (4-4).

Dopson (6-5) gave up seven hits in 6 1/3 innings and benefited from three double plays in the first five innings.

Cleveland 3, Kansas City 2--Reggie Jefferson homered with one out in the ninth inning, lifting the Indians past David Cone at Cleveland.

The Indians swept the three-game series, extending Kansas City’s losing streak to three games.

Cone (5-8) struck out Paul Sorrento to start the ninth, but Jefferson hit the next pitch over the fence in right for his seventh home run.

Eric Plunk (3-2) got the win with two perfect innings in relief of Cliff Young.

Cone had blanked the Indians on two hits until the seventh, when they tied the game on pinch-hitter Thomas Howard’s two-run double.

Texas 4, Oakland 0--Kevin Brown pitched a five-hitter to end his three-game losing streak as Texas beat former Ranger Bobby Witt at Arlington, Tex.

Brown (6-6) struck out five and walked one to win for the first time since June 4. No A’s baserunner got past second until the ninth inning as Brown pitched his second shutout and seventh complete game of the season.

Witt, making his first Arlington Stadium appearance since he was traded to Oakland last August, gave up three solo homers and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings. It was the first time Witt gave up three homers in a game since 1986, when the Detroit Tigers hit three against him while he was with Texas.

New York 9, Baltimore 5--The Yankees hit four homers at Baltimore, three against rookie left-hander John O’Donoghue, and ended the Orioles’ six-game winning streak.

Jim Leyritz, Mike Stanley, Bernie Williams and Danny Tartabull homered for the Yankees, who scored 25 runs in the three-game series, but won only once. New York, which wasted leads of six and three runs in the first two games, let most of a three-run cushion evaporate in the finale before holding on.

Chicago 6, Seattle 4--Frank Thomas’ two-run homer and two run-scoring singles by Lance Johnson lifted Alex Fernandez and the first-place White Sox at Chicago.

Fernandez (8-4), who equaled his 1992 win total, gave up eight hits, walked one and struck out six in 7 2/3 innings. Roberto Hernandez pitched the ninth for his 14th save.

The White Sox scored three runs with two out in the first inning against Rich DeLucia (2-5), who was making his first start since last July 19.