Yankees, Clemens on a Roll With Shutout

The New York Yankees are starting to put everything together. And maybe Roger Clemens is too.

Clemens pitched an eight-hitter Tuesday night for his first shutout this season, leading New York to its seventh consecutive victory, 3-0, over the Detroit Tigers at New York.

“I don’t want to say I’m out of the woods by any means,” said Clemens, who won his second start in a row after losing two of three. “I got out of a couple of jams, I was able to keep the ball down [and] I was able to hit my spots.”

Derek Jeter and Shane Spencer homered as New York matched its longest winning streak of the season.

Clemens (8-2) didn’t appear to tire at all, striking out the side in the ninth. He walked one, struck out eight and threw 130 pitches.

“He seemed to get stronger as the game went on,” Detroit’s Bobby Higginson said.

It was Clemens’ first shutout since Aug. 30, when he blanked Minnesota while pitching for Toronto. Clemens has 45 shutouts and 115 complete games.

“He didn’t try to do anything else but pitch,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “I liked it because he didn’t have to have an overpowering fastball. He changed speeds enough.”

After winning consecutive Cy Young Awards with the Blue Jays, Clemens has been inconsistent in his first season with the World Series champions--except against Detroit.

Clemens is 20-9 lifetime against the Tigers, including 2-0 with 16 2/3 shutout innings this season. He lowered his earned-run average from 5.13 to 4.52.

Cleveland 5, Minnesota 4--Jim Thome’s run-scoring single with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning at Cleveland rallied the Indians to their 50th victory of the season.

One of Cleveland’s stated goals before the year was 100 regular-season wins, and the Indians are now halfway there after their 30th come-from-behind victory of the season, and their ninth in their last at-bat at home.

Thome and Manny Ramirez added homers as the Indians improved to 50-25 with the help of some stellar defense.

Ron Coomer and Torii Hunter homered for the Twins.

Trailing, 4-3, the Indians tied the score in the ninth against Mike Trombley (1-5) without hitting the ball out of the infield.

Steve Reed (4-0) got the victory in relief.

Cristian Guzman tripled and scored on Jacque Jones’ groundout in the eighth against Ricky Rincon to give the Twins a 4-3 lead.

Toronto 6, Baltimore 5--Shannon Stewart’s run-scoring single in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Blue Jays a victory at Toronto.

The hit extended Stewart’s hitting streak to 15 games. He was 0 for 5 before driving a two-out single down the third base line against Arthur Rhodes.

Rhodes (3-3) got the final out of the ninth, and gave up a leadoff walk to Tony Batista in the bottom of the 10th. After Jacob Brumfield’s sacrifice bunt moved Batista to second, Homer Bush grounded out to bring up Stewart.

John Frascatore (1-0) pitched the 10th for the win.

Rookie Billy Koch, who had 10 saves in 11 opportunities for Toronto and struck out the side in the eighth, allowed the tying run to score in the ninth.

Koch’s troubles started with a leadoff walk on five pitches to Brady Anderson. Then Mike Bordick’s sacrifice bunt moved Anderson to third and Bordick reached safely when first baseman Carlos Delgado dropped Koch’s throw. Two popouts later, Jeff Conine hit a run-scoring double to tie the score, 5-5.

The Orioles have lost six consecutive and nine in a row at Toronto.

Kansas City 7, Chicago 4--Joe Randa drove in three runs and scored twice at Kansas City, Mo., as the Royals recorded only their third victory in their last 19 home games against the White Sox.

Kevin Appier (7-6) went six innings and ended a personal losing streak at four games with his first victory since May 28, giving up three runs on eight hits, with three strikeouts and two walks. Three of his victories are against the White Sox, who are 22-7 in Kansas City since 1995.

Chicago got two runs on back-to-back homers by Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez in the fourth.

Jaime Navarro (6-6), who had won four of his last five decisions, fell behind 2-0 in the first when Randa hit a run-scoring double and scored on Jermaine Dye’s sacrifice fly.