American League Roundup : Indians Rebound and Rout Orioles

The Cleveland Indians had their best day of the season Thursday when they hammered out 17 hits and drubbed the Baltimore Orioles, 11-5, at Cleveland, but they still didn’t put Manager Pat Corrales in a good mood.

The manager ripped the Indians after Wednesday’s game when sloppy defensive play contributed to their sixth loss in seven games this season.

After the Indians won their second game, he said: “I just hope the players videotaped this in their thick heads. It’s a lesson to the team--play as a team, and you’ll win.”

Although Bert Blyleven couldn’t hold a five-run lead and the Indians used four pitchers to stop the Orioles, everything else should have brought joy to a manager.

Julio Franco, the league’s leading hitter with a .556 average, went 4 for 5 and scored twice, Pat Tabler drove in four runs, and Joe Carter broke out of a 3-for-24 slump with a single, double and home run.

Rick Dempsey hit two home runs, including a three-run smash in the fifth to get the Orioles even, 5-5, but two errors by usually reliable shortstop Cal Ripken in the sixth allowed the Indians to break the game open.

“True,” Ripken said, “the Indians had 17 hits, but I opened the doors for the Joe Carters, the Pat Tablers and the Julio Francos. My glove betrayed us.”

Three hits and an RBI did not compensate for Ripken’s bad day in the field. Nor did it help the Orioles that their other big gun, Eddie Murray, was absent. Murray was in Los Angeles because of the death of his sister.

Franco, who has failed to hit safely in only one game, is 15 for 27 and has scored 9 runs and driven in 6 for his best start in three seasons with the Indians.

New York 3, Chicago 2--Ken Griffey, mostly a disappointment in his first three seasons as a Yankee, is on his way to becoming a success at 35.

Never known as a great glove man, Griffey has made a critical catch to save each of the last two games.

Tuesday, Griffey, who has driven pitchers wild with his poor defense, saved the Yankees’ home opener with a leaping, twisting one-handed catch in left to rob Ron Kittle of a home run that would have tied the game in the ninth. He called that the greatest catch of his career.

Thursday, after turning a brilliant running catch into a double play in the sixth, when the White Sox were threatening to break the game open, he singled in the winning run in the eighth inning, while raising his average to .391.

“When I was younger, I used to be able to run the ball down,” Griffey said. “Now, I have to get a good jump because the legs aren’t quite as strong as they used to be.”

Toronto 4, Texas 2--Lloyd Moseby hit a two-run home run in the third inning at Toronto to get Dave Stieb off to a good start in quest of his first victory of the season, but the center fielder wasn’t exactly pleased.

“I got picked off base and struck out with a guy on third,” he said. “I haven’t been playing well. My game’s just not on stride yet.

“I look at my mistakes after a game because that’s the only way I can improve.”

Stieb, a loser to Baltimore in his first start, gave up six hits and two runs in 6 innings. Bill Caudill, who has already won three games, picked up his first save.

Boston 4, Kansas City 3--Jim Rice hammered a long home run off Mike Jones in the 14th inning to enable the Red Sox to salvage one victory in the three-game series at Kansas City.

It was estimated that Rice’s blast over the center-field fence carried at least 440 feet. In the bottom of the inning, after Pat Sheridan’s two-out double, Rice saved the victory for Bob Ojeda when he made a diving catch of George Brett’s drive to left to end the game.

The Red Sox, shut out in the first two games with the Royals, had only one run against Bud Black until the eighth. An error by second baseman Frank White allowed the Red Sox to tie it, and singles by Mike Easler and Tony Armas off Dan Quisenberry put the Red Sox in front.

In the bottom of the inning, Steve Balboni singled in the tying run.