AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : McDowell Wins His 20th Game; Yankees’ Tartabull Has 9 RBIs

Jack McDowell became baseball’s first 20-game winner by pitching the White Sox past the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, Tuesday in the first game of a doubleheader at Chicago.

The White Sox won the second game when Tim Raines led off the eighth inning with a tiebreaking home run for a 4-3 victory.

McDowell (20-7) got his fifth victory in a row and became the first White Sox pitcher to win 20 since 1983, when LaMarr Hoyt won 24 and Richard Dotson 20. McDowell reached the milestone after falling behind, 2-0, before retiring a batter, thanks to Tony Phillips’ double and Lou Whitaker’s 17th home run to open the game.

After that, McDowell held the Tigers to one run in seven-plus innings despite walking six. Roberto Hernandez got the last two outs for his seventh save.

Both White Sox sweeps in 1992 have come against the Tigers.

New York 16, Baltimore 4--Danny Tartabull drove in nine runs and went five for five with two home runs and two doubles at Baltimore.

Tartabull set career highs for RBIs and hits in a game. He was two short of the AL record for RBIs, set by Tony Lazzeri in 1936, and three away from the major league mark established by Jim Bottomley in 1924.

He was taken out after the eighth inning. Dion James batted for Tartabull in the ninth with a runner on first and two out.

The last player to drive in nine runs was Chris James, who did it for Cleveland against Oakland last season.

Tartabull hit a run-scoring single in the first inning, a two-run homer in the third, an RBI double in the fifth and a two-run double in the sixth. He capped his night with a three-run homer in the eighth, his 21st.

Milwaukee 7, Cleveland 3--Robin Yount, greeted by standing ovations and the incessant pop of flashbulbs from all corners of County Stadium, moved within one of hit of 3,000 in the victory.

Yount singled in the first inning off Jack Armstrong for his 2,999th career hit, but was blanked in his final four appearances. He flied out in the second, grounded back to Armstrong in the fourth, flied out off Ted Power in the sixth and drew a walk from Eric Plunk in the eighth.

A spirited crowd of 39,650, full of anticipation, went home without witnessing history. When Plunk’s 3-2 pitch was high, the crowd booed loudly and then began to head quickly for the exits, and Yount’s teammates, who had been perched on the top step of the dugout, went back to the bench.

Yount is trying to become the 17th player to get 3,000 hits, and the first since Rod Carew in 1985. The Brewers are scheduled at home tonight against Cleveland--rain is in the forecast--and then have a seven-game trip.

Texas 6, Boston 1--Jose Canseco hit his first Ranger home run in the victory at Arlington, Tex., that also included Kevin Brown’s 19th victory.

Canseco, playing his fifth game since being traded from Oakland to Texas, hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning. It was his 23rd of the season.

Boston’s Matt Young (0-4) lasted only two-thirds of an inning, giving up three walks and two hits to seven batters before being relieved by Mike Gardiner. It was the shortest outing by a Red Sox starter this season.

Toronto 5, Kansas City 0--Jimmy Key broke a three-game losing streak with a four-hitter for his first victory since Aug. 18 and hot-hitting Joe Carter knocked in three runs to lead the Blue Jays at Kansas City.

Key (9-13) is 3-7 since the All-Star break.

It was the sixth consecutive start without a victory for Royal Luis Aquino, who dropped to 2-5.

Minnesota 8, Seattle 4--Mariner pitchers walked four batters and threw two wild pitches in the eighth inning at Minneapolis as Seattle lost its sixth in a row despite Ken Griffey Jr.’s grand slam, the fourth of his career.