BASEBALL - ORIOLES WIN , YANKEES LOSE .  BALTIMORE 1996-08-27  Cal Ripken 's bases-loaded walk scored Brady Anderson with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th as the Baltimore Orioles regained control of the top spot in the wild-card race with a wild 12-11 victory over the Oakland Athletics .  Trailing by a run entering the 11th , the Orioles rallied against Oakland reliever Mark Acre ( 0-2 ) with a walk and a triple by Brady Anderson to tie the game .  Then Oakland manager [START_ENT] Art Howe [END_ENT] decided to intentionally walk Rafael Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla to load the bases but Acre was nowhere near the plate to Ripken .  The decisive pitch nearly hit Ripken and gave the Orioles a one-half game lead over the Chicago White Sox in the wild-card race .  In Seattle , Jay Buhner 's eighth-inning single snapped a tie as the Seattle Mariners edged the New York Yankees 2-1 in the opener of a three-game series .  New York starter Jimmy Key left the game in the first inning after Seattle shortstop Alex Rodriguez lined a shot off his left elbow .  The Yankees have lost 12 of their last 19 games and their lead in the AL East over Baltimore fell to five games .  At California , Tim Wakefield pitched a six-hitter for his third complete game of the season and Mo Vaughn and Troy O'Leary hit solo home runs in the second inning as the surging Boston Red Sox won their third straight 4-1 over the California Angels .  Boston has won seven of eight and is 20-6 since August 2nd .  The Red Sox are two games over .500 for the first time this season .  In Chicago , Cal Eldred pitched 5-1/3 scoreless innings and John Jaha scored one run and doubled in another as the Milwaukee Brewers held off the slumping Chicago White Sox , 3-2 .  Eldred ( 6-5 ) walked one and struck out three .  Angel Miranda retired one batter and Bob Wickman retired the next four but loaded the bases in the eighth .  In Detroit , Jim Thome 's solo homer in the ninth inning snapped a tie and Charles Nagy pitched a three-hitter for his first win in over a month , leading the Cleveland Indians to their 11th straight victory over the Detroit Tigers , 2-1 .  With the score tied 1-1 in the ninth , Thome hit a 2-2 pitch from starter Felipe Lira ( 6-11 ) over the left-field fence for his 29th homer .  In Toronto , Juan Guzman allowed three runs over seven innings to make homers by Joe Carter and Carlos Delgado stand up as the surging Toronto Blue Jays held off the Minnesota Twins , 5-3 .  Toronto returned home from a 10-game road trip and won for the eighth time in nine games as Guzman ( 11-8 ) allowed nine hits and struck out eight without a walk .
Art Howe