American League Roundup : Henderson Trade Is Paying Off for A’s, Too

Rickey Henderson has moved above .300 and is leading the New York Yankees’ drive to get into the pennant race in the East. But history may yet show that they gave up too much for the speedy outfielder.

In the trade last December that sent the stolen-base record-holder to the Yankees, the Oakland A’s received a solid relief pitcher, Jay Howell, and some youngsters with bright futures.

The A’s collected a dividend from one of them Thursday. Tim Birtsas, a 24-year-old left-hander, won his first major league start, going six innings in a 4-2 victory over Baltimore at Oakland.

Birtsas gave up five hits and struck out five. Howell pitched the final 1 innings to register his 10th save. After being called up from the minors May 2, Birtsas pitched six innings of scoreless relief to get his chance to start.

“I was nervous, excited,” Birtsas said. “But as the game went on, I settled down.”

With two out in the bottom of the sixth, Baltimore rookie Ken Dixon was matching Birtsas pitch for pitch. But Mike Davis doubled, and Dave Kingman singled to drive in the tie-breaking run.

Dixon had given up only three hits before Davis started the winning rally.

In the eighth, the speed and daring of Dave Collins gave the A’s another run. Collins singled and stole second. On ball four to Carney Lansford, Collins stole third. He jarred the ball loose from third baseman Wayne Gross and continued home. Gross suffered a bloody nose on the play and had to leave the game.

Birtsas’ success may be only the beginning for the A’s. Two other pitchers who came in the trade, Jose Rijo and Eric Plunk, are pitching well in the minors, and outfielder Stan Javier is hitting .291 at Huntsville, Ala.

“I liked the way Birtsas looked,” A’s Manager Jackie Moore said. “He looked like he had been up here a long time instead of three weeks.”

Toronto 6, Cleveland 5--The Indians, holding a 5-4 lead, elected to pitch to Willie Upshaw with first base open and two out in the ninth inning at Cleveland. It became a mistake when Upshaw ripped a single to center to drive in two runs and give the Blue Jays their fourth win in a row.

Lloyd Moseby and George Bell led off the ninth with singles, but Moseby was out trying to score on Jesse Barfield’s grounder. Ron Shepherd grounded out, both runners moving up. A walk to Upshaw would have brought up Buck Martinez.

Bell hit a two-run home run in the sixth, ending a string of 58 innings in which Cleveland pitchers had not yielded a home run.

Texas 7, Boston 6--It was a good night for Gary Ward in this game at Arlington, Tex. He hit a grand slam in the first inning, threw out the potential go-ahead run at the plate in the top of the ninth and scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

With the bases loaded and two out, relief pitcher Bob Ojeda walked Curtis Wilkerson to force in Ward with the winning run.

The Red Sox tied the game with three in the seventh, chasing former Dodger Burt Hooton.

Seattle 6, New York 4--Ken Phelps hit his first major league grand slam, and Phil Bradley added a solo shot as the Mariners turned back the Yankees at Seattle.

Don Baylor hit two solo homers, and Don Mattingly added a solo homer and a run-scoring single off Jim Beattie (2-4).

Phil Niekro (5-3) took the loss.