Murray Hits 499th Home Run

Eddie Murray moved one step closer to joining one of baseball’s most exclusive clubs when the Baltimore Oriole slugger hit his 499th home run Friday night in a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Seattle.

Newly acquired Pete Incaviglia had a grand slam as the Orioles remained four games behind New York in the AL East.

Murray, homering for the first time since Aug. 16, gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning with his shot against Sterling Hitchcock (12-7). It was his 20th homer of the season and his eighth with the Orioles.

Murray, 40, is bidding to join Hank Aaron and Willie Mays as the only players with 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. He also is seeking to become the 16th player to hit 500 homers and the first since Mike Schmidt of Philadelphia did it in 1987.

Rookie Rocky Coppinger (8-5) went five innings for the victory.

Oakland 7, Boston 0--Mark McGwire hit his 45th homer and drove in three runs at Oakland as the Athletics ended Boston’s five-game winning streak.

McGwire, who singled in a run in Oakland’s three-run sixth, hit a towering two-run homer in the seventh to center field.

Dave Telgheder (2-5) gave up seven hits in eight scoreless innings.

Chicago 11, Blue Jays 2--Frank Thomas homered and drove in three runs at Toronto to lead the White Sox.

Thomas hit a two-run homer, his 29th, in the third and Harold Baines hit a solo shot in the fifth for the White Sox, who got 18 hits and won for only the third time in 10 games.

Kevin Tapani (12-8) gave up two runs and six hits in 7 1/3 innings.

Detroit 4, Kansas City 0--Todd Van Poppel (3-6) pitched a five-hitter at Detroit for his first career shutout and Tony Clark hit a two-run homer.

Clark’s 17th homer capped Detroit’s four-run first against Jose Rosado (5-4).

Texas 5, Cleveland 3--Juan Gonzalez homered twice at Arlington, Texas, and set a club record for RBIs in a season.

Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez homered in the first inning against Chad Ogea (7-5) as the Rangers beat the Indians for the seventh time in 10 games between the AL divisional leaders this season.

Gonzalez, who hit his 41st homer in the third inning, has 121 RBIs, breaking the club record of 119 set by Ruben Sierra in 1989.

Jim Thome hit his 32nd homer for the Indians.

Roger Pavlik (15-7) of Texas gave up four hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Milwaukee 5, Minnesota 4--Marc Newfield homered to lead off the bottom of the 12th inning at Milwaukee, giving the Brewers the victory.