AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Brett’s 10th-Inning Hustle Leads the Royals, 5-4

The Kansas City Royals held onto first place Sunday by the legs of a 40-year-old future Hall of Famer.

George Brett hustled for a double in the 10th inning and scored on a two-out single by Kevin McReynolds as the Royals beat the Chicago White Sox at Kansas City, 5-4.

“I’ve played here a lot of games. The turf is hot. I know when the turf is hot, the ball will bounce,� said Brett, who slid into second ahead of the throw by Tim Raines after hitting a line drive to left-center. “I was hoping it was going to bounce over his head.�

It was the fourth hit of the day for Brett, who tied Carl Yastrzemski for eighth on the career list with 646 doubles. He moved past Ted Williams into 15th place on the career list with 4,885 total bases.

Chicago, which had been swept by the Royals in Chicago May 25-27, had taken the first two games of the series to move within a half-game of the Royals in the West. The Royals blew a 4-0 lead Sunday before winning.

Tom Gordon (4-1) pitched 2 1/3 innings. He gave up the tying run in the ninth when Lance Johnson walked with two out and Ron Karkovice tripled off the wall in center.

Oakland 7, Minnesota 6--Scott Hemond capped the first three-hit game of his career with a run-scoring double in the ninth inning at Minnesota as the Athletics ended a five-game losing streak.

With two out and the score 5-5, Mike Bordick got his fourth single. Hemond, who entered the game batting .163, then doubled off the left field wall. George Tsamis (1-1) was relieved by Carl Willis, who gave up a run-scoring single to Lance Blankenship.

Dennis Eckersley relieved Edwin Nunez (2-3) and gave up Shane Mack’s second homer of the game before getting the last three outs for his 11th save.

The bottom third of Oakland’s lineup--Bordick, Hemond and Blankenship--went 10 for 12 with three walks, five runs and four RBIs.

Boston 4, Baltimore 2--Roger Clemens ended Baltimore’s 10-game winning streak, striking out nine at Boston.

Clemens (7-5) gave up only two hits after the second inning. He has 22 strikeouts in two games against the Orioles this season. Jeff Russell pitched the ninth inning for his 14th save.

The Red Sox, who ended their seven-game losing streak, scored all their runs in the first. Fernando Valenzuela (2-6) gave up four hits in that inning, but did not yield a hit after that. Valenzuela struck out six in 7 1/3 innings.

Scott Cooper doubled in two runs for Boston.

Clemens has a career record of 96-32 when pitching the game after a Red Sox loss.

Toronto 13, Detroit 4--Tony Fernandez, in his second game back with the Blue Jays, homered and drove in a career-high five runs at Detroit to lead the Blue Jays.

Toronto avoided a four-game sweep, and moved back within three games of East-leading Detroit. Toronto overcame an early 3-0 deficit by scoring five runs in the third inning against Mark Leiter (6-2). Fernandez went three for six with a three-run homer and two RBI doubles. In his two games since being traded to Toronto by the New York Mets for Darrin Jackson, Fernandez is five for 10 with two doubles, a triple, a homer and six RBIs.

Texas 5, Cleveland 1--Roger Pavlik gave up only four hits over eight innings and Ivan Rodriguez hit a two-run homer and had three RBIs as the Rangers beat the Indians at Arlington, Tex.

Pavlik (3-2) struck out six and walked two as Texas ended a three-game losing streak.

New York 9, Milwaukee 5--Bernie Williams drove in three runs as the Yankees beat the Brewers at Milwaukee.

Jimmy Key (7-2), who has won four of his last five decisions, gave up seven hits over five innings.