AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cleveland Is Never Too Late

Albert Belle’s two-out solo home run capped a two-run 14th inning as the Cleveland Indians won dramatically yet again, beating the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, at Cleveland.

The Indians improved to 10-0 in extra innings and won for the 23rd time in their last at-bat this season. They’ve ended home games abruptly with a home run eight times. It was their seventh consecutive victory.

The Blue Jays scored a run in the top of the 14th on Mike Huff’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Paul Assenmacher (6-2), but the Indians answered immediately with a sacrifice fly by Carlos Baerga and Belle’s homer off Tony Castillo (1-3).

Minnesota 6, Texas 2--Kirby Puckett and Marty Cordova homered during a five-run rally in the eighth inning at Minneapolis as the Twins sent the Rangers to their fourth consecutive loss.

The Twins completed their first three-game sweep of the season. Minnesota matched its longest winning streak of the year at three.

Kenny Rogers (12-7) left after two leadoff singles in the eighth. Puckett and Cordova both hit two-run homers off Roger McDowell.

Kansas City 2, Milwaukee 1--Mark Gubicza and Jeff Montgomery combined on a four-hitter and the Royals held off the Brewers at Kansas City.

Henry Mercedes hit a two-out, two-run double off rookie Scott Karl in the seventh inning as the Royals won for the sixth time in seven games.

Gubicza (10-11) beat the Brewers at home for the fifth consecutive time. Gubicza, the only remaining member of the Royals’ 1985 World Series championship team, tied Dennis Leonard for No. 2 on the team list with 302 starts. Karl (5-3) had a four-game winning streak snapped.

Boston 7, Seattle 6--Recently promoted Matt Stairs hit a three-run double, keying a five-run seventh inning and leading the Red Sox at Boston.

The victory by the East-leading Red Sox left the wild-card race tighter than ever. Seattle, Milwaukee and Kansas City are all half a game behind Texas.

Seattle lost starting pitcher Chris Bosio in the first inning when he was hit in the jaw by Mike Greenwell’s grounder. Bosio--who sustained a cut on his chin--was taken for X-rays, which were negative.

Oakland 7, Baltimore 2--Terry Steinbach homered, Brent Gates got three hits and rookie Doug Johns won his third consecutive start for the Athletics at Baltimore.

Cal Ripken, playing in his 2,124th consecutive game, doubled in the eighth inning--his 2,300th hit during the streak.

Chicago 10, Detroit 7--Ron Karkovice hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning and the White Sox rallied to beat the Tigers at Chicago.

Matt Karchner (2-1) pitched 1 2/3 innings for the win and Roberto Hernandez the ninth for his 24th save.

Detroit infielders Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell tied an American League record by appearing together in their 1,914th game.