Three Homers Make Strawberry’s Night

When Darryl Strawberry’s second homer finally touched down in the upper deck, it no longer was Cecil Fielder’s night.

Strawberry homered in his first three at-bats Tuesday, stealing the spotlight in Fielder’s home debut and lifting the New York Yankees over the Chicago White Sox, 9-2.

Strawberry, who came into the game hitless in 10 at-bats, homered in the second, fourth and fifth innings for the second three-homer game of his career and first since Aug. 5, 1985, when he was with the New York Mets.

“I know that when the Yankees signed me, they signed me to hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Strawberry said.

The crowd of 33,025 had come to cheer Fielder, playing for the first time in Yankee pinstripes after last week’s trade with Detroit. But it was Strawberry’s night.

Facing Kevin Tapani (10-6) in the second, Strawberry, batting seventh in the Yankees’ stacked order, lined his fourth homer of the season into the right-field seats. In the fourth, he unloaded a 409-foot shot into the upper deck in right, giving the Yankees a 4-1 lead.

Following Bernie Williams’ two-run triple in the fifth, Strawberry hit his third homer and fourth in consecutive Yankee Stadium at-bats to put New York ahead, 9-1.

Struggling of late, Strawberry took extra batting practice before the game and had worked with New York batting coach Chris Chambliss.

“I was over striding too much and trying to hit the ball too hard,” he said. “Chris and I talked about a lot of things and I think I realize I have to be much more patient.”

The crowd stood during his at-bat in the seventh inning as he tried to become the 13th player to hit four homers in a major league game. However, he flied out to left on a 3-1 pitch from left-hander Larry Thomas.

OTHER GAMES

The Royals’ Michael Tucker hit a two-run home run and Craig Paquette added a three-run shot to power Kansas City past Oakland, 9-2, sending the slumping Athletics to their ninth loss in 12 games, at Oakland. . . . The Orioles’ B.J. Surhoff went four for five, hit two solo home runs and scored three times to lead Baltimore over the Brewers, 13-3, at Milwaukee. . . . Mike Maddux, making his first start of the season, turned in a strong performance and Jeff Frye and Darren Bragg delivered run-scoring doubles as the Red Sox defeated Toronto, 3-2, at Boston. . . . Kevin Elster homered in his fourth consecutive game and Ivan Rodriguez hit a two-run shot to propel Texas to a 4-2 victory over the Tigers at Detroit. . . . Cleveland batted around during a four-run fifth inning, and Albie Lopez went 6 1/3 innings for the 4-3 victory over the Mariners at Seattle.