American League Roundup : Henderson Returns but Blue Jays Spoil the Party, 4-2

The Toronto Blue Jays spoiled Rickey Henderson’s return to the Oakland Athletics with a come-from-behind 4-2 victory on Fred McGriff’s two-run homer in the 13th inning Thursday night at Oakland.

Henderson, acquired Wednesday in a trade with the New York Yankees, went two for six and scored a run.

George Bell singled with one out in the 13th, finishing A’s reliever Jim Corsi (0-1). McGriff hit his 15th home run of the season on a 1-1 pitch from Brian Snyder, who was making his first appearance since being called up from the minors Wednesday to take the place of Greg Cadaret, who went to New York in the Henderson deal.

“I was surprised it made it over the fence, it had so much top spin,” McGriff said. “I didn’t know anything about him (Snyder), and he didn’t know anything about me, so we were equal.”

Xavier Hernandez (1-0) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Dave Wells got two outs for his second save.

Toronto was trailing, 2-1, with one out in the ninth when pitcher Todd Burns threw away Nelson Liriano’s grounder for a three-base throwing error. Rick Honeycutt relieved and Junior Felix hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score.

“I just rushed the throw,” said Burns. “I didn’t have to rush, because Carney (Lansford, A’s third baseman) was right in my ear yelling, ‘You’ve got time, you’ve got time,’ ” said Burns, one of several pitchers who has tried to fill the void left by injured reliever Dennis Eckersley.

Matt Young, trying for his first victory since 1987, held Toronto to one run on six hits in 5 2/3 innings. Kelly Gruber homered with two out in the Blue Jays’ first.

New York 10, Chicago 7--Don Mattingly hit two home runs for the second time in 11 days as the Yankees won in New York.

Mattingly’s three-run homer in the second inning gave New York a 4-0 lead. After Jimmy Jones and new Yankee Cadaret squandered a 6-1 lead, Mattingly tied the score with a leadoff homer in the seventh off loser Shawn Hillegas (3-7).

Mattingly has 10 homers this season, all in Yankee Stadium. It was the 13th multiple-homer game of his career.

“I keep trying to keep the ball down,” joked Mattingly, who didn’t hit his first homer of the year until May 24. “It seems we’ve done a little bit better since I’ve been swinging the bat better. Our offense seems to have come around a little bit.”

Cadaret (1-0), was the beneficiary of Mattingly’s power, gaining his first victory since last Sept. 18.

Dave Righetti relieved at the start of the eighth and finished for his 12th save.

Milwaukee 3, Kansas City 2--Rob Deer’s two-run homer tied the game in the ninth and Greg Brock’s fielder’s choice in the 10th scored the winning run as the Brewers beat the Royals at Milwaukee.

Deer hit his homer off Kansas City relief ace Steve Farr (0-3).

Farr retired Brock to open the ninth, but Glenn Braggs doubled and Deer followed with his 17th homer.

“I knew I hit it pretty good but the way the wind was blowing in I just took off running,” Deer said. “I saw (Willie) Wilson go back to the fence and saw him jump for it and I said, ‘No, we’ve been out here too long.’ ”

In the 10th, Paul Molitor doubled to center with one out and Robin Yount was walked intentionally. When Gus Polidor singled to left to load the bases, the Royals put Bill Pecota into the lineup to give them a five-man infield.

Brock then hit a grounder to Frank White. The second baseman got Polidor on the force at second despite bobbling the ball, but shortstop Brad Wellman’s throw to first was not in time to get Brock as Molitor scored the winning run.

Chuck Crim (7-4), pitched the 10th inning, replacing Ted Higuera, who gave up six hits in nine innings. Higuera struck out six and walked three.

Texas 9, Boston 1--Rookie Kevin Brown pitched a five-hitter and Geno Petralli went two for three as the Rangers won their second straight at Boston.

Brown (6-4), struck out three and walked two in his fifth complete game in 15 starts. Mike Smithson (3-5), gave up six runs in 3 2/3 innings.

Petralli, who went 10 for 12 in the three-game series against the Red Sox, began the fourth inning with a double, Rick Leach walked and Cecil Espy, starting for the first time since pulling a rib cage muscle on June 12, singled home a run with two out.

Scott Fletcher followed with a two-run double high off the left-field wall and Rafael Palmeiro was hit by a pitch. Bob Stanley relieved and Ruben Sierra and Julio Franco hit run-scoring singles for a 6-0 lead.

Franco, who finished with three hits, Petralli and Leach hit singles off Lee Smith for a run in the ninth. Steve Buechele added a two-run single.

The Red Sox scored in their fourth on Rick Cerone’s run-scoring double with two outs.

Texas got a run in the third on a walk, Espy’s sacrifice and Palmeiro’s two-out single.

Minnesota 9, Cleveland 8--Dan Gladden’s sacrifice fly capped a two-run rally in the ninth inning to give the Twins their first three-game sweep in Cleveland since June, 1971.

The Twins trailed, 8-3, after six innings, but scored four runs in the seventh--three on Tim Laudner’s home run.

Laudner, who went three for four and raised his average to .209, was pleased to have an opportunity despite his recent slump.

“Nobody likes to get pinch hit for. I’m no different. When I got up there I swung to relax, see the ball and put my bat on it,” Laudner said.