AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cleveland’s Nagy Wins Economically

Only two weeks ago, the Cleveland Indians were on a pace to lose more than 100 games for the second consecutive season.

Charles Nagy, a big right-hander, seems intent on seeing that it doesn’t happen.

Nagy pitched a five-hitter Friday night at Cleveland as the Indians beat the New York Yankees, 3-0, and pulled into a tie for sixth place in the American League East.

It was the fourth victory in a row for Nagy (8-3), whose victories represent almost one-third of the team’s 25. It was his fifth complete game. That represents the club’s total in that category.

The Indians are 7-4 in the last 11 games, and another factor in their improvement is the double play. They pulled off three to help Nagy and lead the majors with 73 in 60 games.

Carlos Baerga, Kenny Lofton and Paul Sorrento each hit run-scoring singles to lead the Indians to their third victory in a row. The Yankees, starting a 14-game trip, have lost four in a row.

Nagy, who had a 10-15 record as a rookie in 1991, learned to win consistently last season. Now he has learned to win quickly.

He needed only 90 pitches and exactly two hours to dispose of the Yankees. He threw strikes on the first two pitches to 10 Yankee batters.

“Ninety pitches? That must be the fewest I’ve ever thrown,” Nagy said. “I was getting ahead of hitters and getting some quick outs. When you fall behind hitters, that’s when you get hurt, because they know what’s coming. I don’t have the kind of fastball that I can just blow by the hitters.”

Nagy lowered his earned-run average to 2.22, did not walk a batter and struck out five.

Oakland 6, Texas 5--The front-runners in the West battled for more than five hours at Oakland before the first-place Athletics extended their division lead to two games when Lance Blankenship singled with two out in the 14th inning to score Willie Wilson with the winning run.

Harold Baines had a two-run home run in the third inning off Nolan Ryan to get the A’s to within 5-4. Kevin Reimer’s error in the sixth inning allowed Carney Lansford to tie the score at 5-5.

The A’s pushed across the winning run when Wilson walked and went to third on Walt Weiss’ two-out single before scoring on Blankenship’s single off Floyd Bannister (1-1). Jim Corsi (1-0) pitched the final two innings and recorded the victory.

Baltimore 6, Detroit 0--It was Tiger pitcher Scott Aldred’s 24th birthday and the 13th anniversary of Sparky Anderson’s appointment as manager. It was an unlucky 13th.

Leo Gomez hit his first grand slam and Chris Hoiles homered twice at Detroit to put the Orioles back on top in the East.

Mike Mussina (8-1) pitched a six-hitter, striking out six in his second complete game. Mussina, a 23-year-old right-hander, has blossomed into a star after going 4-5 as a rookie last season. In four starts against the Tigers, he has an ERA of 0.79.

It was a scoreless game until the fourth inning, when Gomez cleared them against Aldred (2-6) for his fifth home run of the season.

Hoiles, who was in a three-for-34 slump, hit the next pitch for his 12th home run. He homered off Walt Terrell in the sixth inning to complete the scoring.

Boston 5, Toronto 0--Wade Boggs hit a grand slam in the fifth inning at Toronto to knock the Blue Jays out of first place.

Boggs’ fifth home run of the season, and third in his career with the bases loaded, helped Frank Viola improve to 6-4.

Viola, only 6-13 against the Blue Jays, gave up six hits in 7 1/3 innings, and Danny Darwin came out of the bullpen to complete the shutout.

Minnesota 5, Chicago 1--Kirby Puckett hit a two-run home run to help John Smiley win at Minneapolis.

Smiley, who lost his first two decisions after being traded by Pittsburgh, has won six out of his last seven. He gave up seven hits, but needed Rick Aguilera to get the final out of the game.

Puckett, who leads the league with a .354 average, hit his 13th home run in the sixth inning. He also had a single and has 19 hits in his last 43 at-bats. Four of the hits were home runs.

Seattle 4, Milwaukee 1--Erik Hanson, who has struggled this season, celebrated the approval of the Mariners’ new ownership with a sharp performance at Seattle.

It was only Hanson’s third victory in 12 decisions. He gave up seven hits in seven innings.

Consecutive singles by Greg Briley, Harold Reynolds and Edgar Martinez and a sacrifice fly gave Hanson a 2-0 lead in the first inning.