AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Bosio Is Injured in Mariner-Oriole Brawl

Seattle pitcher Chris Bosio sustained a collarbone injury and eight were ejected when the Mariners and Orioles engaged in a lengthy brawl Sunday at Baltimore.

The fighting began in the seventh inning of the Orioles’ 5-2 victory after Baltimore’s Mike Mussina hit Bill Haselman, who had homered earlier, in the left shoulder with a pitch. Haselman immediately charged the mound, and both benches and bullpens emptied.

The sea of players spilled from the mound to the third base line, then moved past the first base line. Baltimore reliever Alan Mills threw several punches, as did Seattle pitcher Norm Charlton.

Bosio, who had returned from the disabled list May 28 after recovering from a broken collarbone, may have sustained a similar injury during the fight.

Bosio will undergo X-rays to determine the extent of the damage, Mariners officials said.

“He rebroke his collarbone,” said Seattle Manager Lou Piniella, who was tossed from the game after arguing the ejections.

Baltimore catcher Jeff Tackett had a gash on his right cheek and Orioles reliever Mark Williamson, who had run in from the bullpen, had a cut on his nose.

Baltimore city police ran onto the field in an apparent attempt to restore order, but the umpires instructed them to simply keep the fans off the field. The brawl delayed the game for 20 minutes.

“You don’t expect fights to last that long. You just expect the one pileup, then that’s it,” Haselman said. “After the first pile, I thought it was done. Then I looked over and another fight broke out, and then another one.”

Mills, Rick Sutcliffe and David Segui were the Orioles ejected; Piniella, Haselman, Bosio, Charlton and outfielder Mackey Sasser were also tossed.

One inning before the incident, Bosio had thrown a few close pitches at the Orioles’ Harold Reynolds.

“Mussina told one of our players he was instructed to hit him,” Piniella said.

Mussina said he had no intention of hitting Haselman, who had earlier homered.

“I was just trying to pitch him in. I thought we could get him out by going inside,” Mussina said.

Texas 4, New York 3--The Rangers gave Kenny Rogers to yet another first-inning lead and the left-hander finally made it stand up at Arlington, Tex.

The Rangers had scored at least three runs in the first inning of Rogers’ last three starts, but Rogers (4-4) was unable to hold the lead each time. This time, Texas scored four runs in the first against Melido Perez (3-5) and the Yankees were unable to catch up.

Kansas City 8, Milwaukee 7-- Chris Gwynn doubled off the glove of left fielder Kevin Reimer, driving home the winning run with one out in the ninth inning to lift the Royals at Kansas City.

Hubie Brooks opened the inning with a single against James Austin (0-2). With one out and facing Jesse Orosco, Gwynn lifted a fly and Reimer got his glove on the ball, but it rolled behind him. Brooks, who had stopped at second, scored.

Oakland 10, Toronto 3--Ron Darling pitched eight innings to help the Athletics end the Blue Jays’ seven-game winning streak at Toronto.

Kevin Seitzer had three hits and Ruben Sierra hit a three-run homer as the Athletics ended their three-game losing streak.

Darling (1-3) won for the first time since last Sept. 21.

Chicago 4, Boston 3--Ron Karkovice’s two-run homer capped a three-run seventh inning to lead the White Sox at Chicago.

John Dopson, who shut out Chicago on three hits April 19, took a a 3-1 lead into the seventh before Lance Johnson hit a fly ball that right fielder Ivan Calderon misplayed into a triple.

Jose Melendez (1-1) relieved and Karkovice hit his eighth home run of the season.

Minnesota 5, Cleveland 4--Kirby Puckett hit his 150th career home run and Scott Erickson won for the first time in five starts to lift the Twins at Cleveland.

Erickson (3-6) gave up 12 hits but only two runs in 6 2/3 innings.