Kirk Gibson hit a three-run homer out of Tiger Stadium Sunday to lead the Tigers past the Chicago White Sox and struggling ace Jack McDowell, 8-5.
Gibson's towering homer in the third inning, his third, off McDowell (1-4) hit the right-field roof and bounced over to give Detroit a 6-1 lead.It was the 26th time a ball has been hit out of Tiger Stadium and the third time Gibson has done it.
McDowell, who won 22 games and the American League Cy Young Award last season, allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings.
John Doherty (2-2) scattered six hits over 7 2-3 innings.
Rangers 5, Indians 4
At Cleveland, Will Clark's sacrifice fly capped a two-run ninth inning as the Rangers won for the fifth time in six games.
The Indians took a 4-3 lead into the ninth, but their bullpen blew the save for the eighth time in 16 chances this year.
Oddibe McDowell's infield single off Jose Mesa (3-1) scored the inning's first run. McDowell took third on Jose Canseco's third hit, and Clark followed with the winning fly ball.
Cris Carpenter (1-0) got five outs, including a double play, for the win. Tom Henke got his fourth save.
Cleveland's Eddie Murray homered twice, and giving him 2,848 hits to tie Brooks Robinson for 32nd on the career list. The pair were teammates briefly in Baltimore in 1977, Murray's rookie year and Robinson's last.
Royals 6, Brewers 2, 1st game
At Kansas City, Mo., David Cone won his fourth straight start and Gary Gaetti and Felix Jose each had two RBIs to carry the Royals in the opener.
Cone (4-1), who did not win his fourth game until May 31 last season, gave up five hits and two runs in eight innings.
Cal Eldred (2-3) got rocked for four runs in the first. Gaetti's single brought in Brent Mayne and Brian McRae, and Jose's double plated Gaetti and Bob Hamelin to hand Cone a 4-0 lead.
Twins 7, Blue Jays 3
At Minneapolis, Scott Leius hit a key homer for the second straight game, this time a three-run shot to cap a four-run seventh inning.
Leius, whose two-run homer capped a five-run fourth in Saturday's 11-9 victory, has a team-high five home runs this season.
Carl Willis (1-1) allowed two runs in three innings in relief.
Chuck Knoblauch began Minnesota's seventh with a one-out single off Woody Williams (0-1). Alex Cole and Kirby Puckett walked to load the bases, and Dave Winfield gave the Twins a 3-2 lead with a sacrifice fly. Leius followed with his home run to left on a 1-2 pitch. Leuis' five homers match his career high set in 1991.
Royals 7, Brewers 3, 2nd game
At Kansas City, Mo., Mark Gubicza won as a starter Sunday for the first time in two years, getting home run support from Mike Macfarlane and Wally Joyner Sunday as the Kansas City Royals defeated Milwaukee 7-3 for a sweep of their doubleheader.
David Cone won his fourth straight start in the opener and Gary Gaetti and Felix Jose each had two RBIs.
Ted Higuera (1-2) lost to the Royals for the first time in eight career decisions. The righthander, still struggling to come back from rotator cuff surgery, lasted only 3 2-3 innings, giving up six runs and eight hits.
Gubicza (1-2), who underwent rotator cuff surgry in 1990, went five innings. He gave up seven hits and three runs, walked one and did not get a strikeout. It was his first win as a starter since June 19, 1992, a span of 13 starts.
After striking for four runs in the first inning of the opener, the Royals jumped on Higuera for three runs in their first at-bat of the second game.
Joyner's third home run was followed by Brian McRae's double. Macfarlane then lifted his fourth homer into the left-field bullpen for a 3-0 Kansas City lead.
Athletics 8, Yankees 1
At Oakland, Calif., Bobby Witt allowed one run over 7 2-3 innings in his best outing of the year as the Oakland Athletics ended a 12-game losing streak Sunday with an 8-1 victory over the New York Yankees.
Troy Neel drove in four runs with a pair of singles and Geronimo Berroa tripled and singled to drive in three runs, helping the A's snap their second-longest losing streak since coming to Oakland in 1968. The A's lost 14 straight from July 29-Aug.12, 1977.
Mike Bordick also had a run-scoring single as Oakland won for the first time since beating Minnesota 5-1 on April 17.
Witt (2-2), who pitched out of trouble in the sixth inning by striking out the side after giving up consecutive singles, took a shutout into the eighth before Paul O'Neill hit a run-scoring double with two outs. He walked three and struck out eight.
National League
Rockies 6, Cubs 2
At Chicago, the Chicago Cubs dropped to 0-10 at Wrigley Field this season, matching the longest home losing streak in team history, when they fell 6-2 Sunday to Howard Johnson and the Colorado Rockies.
The Cubs are the only club in the majors winless at home this year. The only other time they lost 10 in a row at Wrigley Field was in 1974 (July 27-31 and Aug. 9-13).
Anthony Young (0-2) took the loss, giving up four hits in 6 1-3 innings. Pinch-hitter Nelson Liriano and Mike Kingery each hit two-run singles during a four-run seventh.
Marvin Freeman (3-0) gave up five hits in six innings.
Pirates 4, Braves 1
At Pittsburgh, Paul Wagner completed Pittsburgh's three-game sweep of the slumping Atlanta Braves, pitching a three-hitter and hitting a two-run double.
The Pirates, 13-6 since their 0-4 start, swept Atlanta in a three-game series in Pittsburgh for the first time since Aug. 22-24, 1986, Jim Leyland's rookie season as manager. Wagner had a shutout until two outs in the ninth, when David Justice homered.
The Braves have lost eight of 10 since starting 13-1.
Wagner (2-2) struck out seven, walked three and allowed only two runners past second. Glavine (2-3) was 3-0 against the Pirates last season and is 13-6 against them in his career.
Phillies 6, Giants 4
At Philadelphia, Lenny Dykstra hit a leadoff home run in the first inning and later left with a back injury as the Philadelphia Phillies beat San Francisco.
Dykstra opened with his third home run of the season. He hurt himself diving in an attempt to catch Matt Williams' bases-loaded triple in the third, and came out in the bottom half with a bruised lower back.
Heathcliff Slocumb (3-0) was the winner and Doug Jones got his fourth save. Bill Swift (3-3) lost for the first time in six career decisions against the Phillies.
Williams also hit his 11th home run.
Marlins 9, Reds 4
At Miami, Gary Sheffield hit his 11th homer as Florida took a nine-run lead after two innings and beat Cincinnati, giving the Marlins a winning record for only the second time ever.
The Marlins are 13-12, their best record since a 1-0 mark following the first game in franchise history last year.
Pat Rapp (2-1) had a shutout until the seventh, when Kevin Mitchell hit his seventh homer and Bret Boone his first.
Sheffield hit a three-run homer in the second. He has homered in his past three games and eight of the past nine at Joe Robbie Stadium.
Tim Pugh (2-1), who pitched a five-hitter Wednesday against Chicago, gave up nine runs in 1 2-3 innings.
Mets 7, Dodgers 4
At New York, Todd Hundley hit two solo home runs and Jeromy Burnitz and Joe Orsulak also connected, leading the New York Mets over Los Angeles.
Burnitz hit a two-run in the sixth inning for a 6-4 lead. His third homer of the season came after Jose Vizcaino singled with one out off Roger McDowell (0-2).
Pete Smith (2-3) ended his three-game losing streak. He allowed all four runs and six hits in seven innings. John Franco pitched the ninth for his sixth save in six tries.
Expos 3, Padres 2, 11 innings
At Montreal, Mike Lansing atoned for a key error by singling home the winning run in the 11th inning, and the Montreal Expos beat the San Diego Padres for a three-game sweep.
Lansing's error at second base enabled the Padres to score twice in the eighth for a tie at 2.
In the 11th, Sean Berry doubled with one out off Tim Mauser (1-2) and pinch-hitter Randy Milligan walked. After a wild pitch advanced Berry, Lansing hit a hard grounder to third baseman Keith Lockhart that scored the run. The play was originally scored as an error, then changed to a hit after the game.
Jeff Shaw (2-1), the fifth Expos pitcher, worked two innings for the win.
Cardinals 6, Astros 5
At Houston, Bob Tewksbury became the first six-game winner in the majors when Gregg Jefferies singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, giving the St. Louis Cardinals a victory over Houston.
Ray Lankford homered on the first pitch of the game. He has led off three games with homers this year, including a shot as the first batter of the season.
Tewksbury (6-0) allowed five runs and nine hits in seven innings. He struck out five and walked none. He took a 5-2 lead into the sixth, but Luis Gonzalez tied it with a three-run homer.
Willie Smith got two outs in the ninth and Rob Murphy closed for his first save.
Lankford was hit by a pitch with two outs in the eighth by Mike Hampton (1-1), went to second on Luis Alicea's single and scored on Jefferies' single.