Spring Training Roundup : Enatsu Impresses Brewers

Yutaka Enatsu recorded his first victory in America Monday and Rollie Fingers picked up his first save of the spring to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 4-2 exhibition victory over the Seattle Mariners at Sun City, Ariz.

Enatsu, 36, one of Japanese baseball’s all-time leading pitchers, gave up only one hit in two scoreless innings.

It was his second exhibition appearance and he has yet to give up a run in four innings.

“I think he’s got a good chance (of making the team),” Manager George Bamberger said. “He’s pitched as well as anybody else.”

Fingers, 39, who underwent back surgery Aug. 3, made his spring pitching debut, retiring the side in the ninth.

Seattle’s Donell Nixon broke his leg when he crashed into the fence in right center while chasing a fly ball. Nixon suffered a compound fracture of the lower left leg and was taken to the hospital.

Nixon, 23, who was scheduled to play for Seattle’s Class AAA farm club at Calgary, Canada, this summer, will be out an indefinite length of time.

Last season Nixon stole 102 bases while playing with the Mariners Class AA farm team at Chattanooga, Tenn. The year before that, while playing with the Mariners’ Class A team at Bakersfield, he stole 144, one shy of the professional record.

Cincinnati shortstop Dave Concepcion, the Reds’ team captain, is hitting a torrid .381 in seven spring training games, leading the team with six runs batted in while playing flawlessly in the field.

Concepcion says an adjustment in his batting stance has helped his hitting this spring.

“I’ve changed my style a little bit at the plate,” he said. “It’s almost the same, but I’m lifting my left foot up a little bit. It’s been working.

“I used to do it at the beginning of my career. I’m staying with the ball more. Last year they threw me a lot of curves, and my timing was off. This year I’m staying with it more.”

Manager Pete Rose has decided to drop Concepcion to sixth in the Reds’ batting order. The shortstop has occupied the third spot much of the last two years, when he hit .233 and .245.

National League MVP Ryne Sandberg went 3-for-4, including a home run, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 6-3, split-squad victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Mesa, Ariz.

Hitting only .222 in six previous games, Sandberg homered in the first inning off loser Pete Vuckovich, singled and scored the go-ahead run in the fifth, and singled home a run in the sixth.

Shortstop Andre Robertson, trying to make a comeback from a serious August, 1983 automobile accident, homered off reliever Ed Glynn’s first pitch to lead the New York Yankees to a 2-1 exhibition win over the Boston Red Sox at Winter Haven, Fla.

At St. Petersburg, Fla., Ron Jackson hit a two-run homer and Brian Harper added a solo home run, helping St. Louis beat Toronto, 3-1, to hand the Blue Jays their first exhibition loss after nine victories.