Gooden Is a Headache to Oakland

Dwight Gooden pitched the Yankees past their first-inning problems before leaving with a migraine headache, and newcomer Graeme Lloyd provided late relief along with Mariano Rivera on Friday night in a 5-3 victory over Oakland at New York.

The Yankees had been outscored, 21-1, in the opening inning of their previous six games, and the Athletics almost added two runs to that total.

But Mark McGwire’s drive hit two feet from the top of the fence in left-center and went for a double, and Gooden retired Geronimo Berroa on a fly ball with runners on second and third to end the inning.

Cecil Fielder hit his 32nd homer and Wade Boggs had a two-run double as the Yankees won for only the fifth time in 14 games. Oakland has lost nine of 11 games.

Gooden (11-5) stopped his career-high streak of five consecutive no-decisions, leaving after the fifth because of a headache with a 4-2 lead.

Lloyd, who was acquired in a trade with Milwaukee before the game, struck out the only batter he faced and Rivera twice struck out Mark McGwire for his fifth save.

Seattle 6, Boston 4--Ken Griffey Jr. hit a three-run homer and Dan Wilson delivered a tie-breaking two-run single in the Mariners’ victory at Boston.

The Mariners were held without a hit for the first six innings by Boston starter Tom Gordon, but rallied from a 4-0 deficit. Thanks to a five-run eighth inning and Chris Bosio’s 1 1/3 hitless innings of relief, the Mariners gained their seventh victory in their last 20 games. The loss ended a four-game win streak for the Red Sox, who have lost only six of 23.

Milwaukee 6, Cleveland 5--Marc Newfield singled home the go-ahead run in the 11th inning to lift the Brewers over the Indians at Cleveland.

Newfield, who threw out Manny Ramirez at the plate in the eighth to keep the game tied, 5-5, hit a line drive to center off Jose Mesa (2-4) that landed just out of the reach of a diving Kenny Lofton.

John Jaha, who led off the inning with a single, scored from third.

Doug Jones (2-0) retired all four batters he faced, and Mike Fetters pitched the 11th for his 24th save.

Minnesota 9, Texas 2--Rick Aguilera gave up eight hits in pitching nine innings for the first time in seven years and struck out a career-high 10 for the Twins at Minneapolis.

Dave Hollins and Marty Cordova each had two-run doubles and Roberto Kelly had four hits for the Twins.

Toronto 4, Chicago 2--Pat Hentgen pitched his fourth consecutive complete game and won for the ninth time in 10 starts in the Blue Jays’ victory at Chicago, their sixth consecutive.

Hentgen (16-7) settled down after giving up five hits and two runs in the first two innings. He gave up only one more hit, walked none and struck out six.

Detroit 3, Kansas City 2--Travis Fryman, Bobby Higginson and Tony Clark homered off Kevin Appier in the seventh inning to lead the Tigers at Kansas City.

Appier (11-9) had given up only two singles entering the seventh when Fryman led off with a towering homer, his 18th, to give Detroit a 1-0 lead. One out later, Higginson hit his 20th home run and Clark followed with his 15th as Detroit won its fourth in a row and handed the Royals their sixth consecutive loss.

A.J. Sager (3-2) won for the first time since July 15, giving up seven hits and striking out a career-high six in 6 1/3 innings. Gregg Olson pitched the ninth for his eighth save.