American League Roundup : Rice Can’t Bunt, So He Hits Homer

It had been five years since Jim Rice had tried to sacrifice, but only a little more than 24 hours since he had last hit a home run.

So it is not really surprising that after failing twice to sacrifice with two men on and nobody out in the ninth inning Monday night at Boston, Rice hit a home run to give the Red Sox a 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Rice’s 12th home run came off veteran reliever Rollie Fingers, and landed in the screen above the Green Monster in left at Fenway Park to give the Red Sox their eighth win in a row.

Ted Higuera had retired 18 of the previous 19 batters and took a three-hitter and a 2-1 lead into the ninth. But Wade Boggs led off the inning with a single to left, and Bill Buckner got a hit on a bunt that apparently hit a pebble and skipped fair. In came Fingers.

Rice, who said he thought the last time he successfully sacrificed was in either 1976 or 1977, fouled off two bunt attempts then hit the home run off Fingers.

“When John (Manager McNamara) asked me if I minded bunting in that situation,” Rice said, “I told him I didn’t mind it at all.

“All I was concerned about with two strikes was not hitting into a double play. I didn’t know if the ball I hit was out or not. I hit it on the handle.”

The home run made a winner out of Bob Ojeda, who gave up a home run to Cecil Cooper with Charlie Moore on base in the third inning. Ojeda, in his third start since coming out of the bullpen, improved his record to 4-1.

New York 4, Toronto 2--Bob Shirley is no longer the forgotten man on the Yankee pitching staff. Shirley, who had not started a game since last September, came out of the bullpen and did the job in this game at New York.

Shirley held the heavy-hitting leaders of the East to six hits, three of them bloopers, in 6 innings to gain his first victory of the season. Yankee Manager Billy Martin reluctantly went with Shirley because Joe Cowley injured his back in his previous start.

While pointing out that the 30-year-old left-hander hadn’t clinched a spot in the rotation, Martin praised his performance.

“He kept us in the game,” Martin said. “He did more than that--he was outstanding. If Cowley can’t make his next start, we’ll make a decision then.”

Blue Jay Manager Bobby Cox said he didn’t mind facing regular starters, it was guys coming out of the bullpen who were hurting his club.

“The other day, (Detroit’s Doug) Bair started against us,” Cox said. “And, we couldn’t score off him. Tonight, Shirley does the same thing. Next, I guess they’ll start (Dave) Righetti.”

The third loss in a row cut the Blue Jays’ lead in the East to 5 1/2 games over the Detroit Tigers.

Detroit 8, Baltimore 7--At Detroit, Barbaro Garbey homered in the bottom of the 11th inning to tie the game, and the Tigers won the nearly four-hour battle later in the same inning on a single by Lance Parrish.

In the top of the 11th, Lee Lacy hit his second home run of the game and his third of the season to give the Orioles the lead. His first home run, leading off the game, stirred a controversy.

Lacy broke his bat hitting a Jack Morris pitch over the fence in left. The Tigers demanded that the bat be examined. The bat was found to be legal. There was no protest on the one he hit in the 11th.

Minnesota 6, Cleveland 4--Jamie Easterly made only one bad pitch in a brilliant 7 innings of relief at Cleveland, but the pitch resulted in a three-run home run by Tom Brunansky that capped a five-run second inning.

Brunansky’s 14th home run gave the Twins only their third win in 17 games. He was the first batter Easterly faced and he hit a high fastball. Easterly gave up only two singles the rest of the way, but the damage was done.

Frank Viola, given a 6-1 lead, survived with the help of Ron Davis and improved his record to 7-5. Davis got the last four outs for his sixth save.

Chicago 9, Seattle 4--Tom Paciorek, Greg Walker and Rudy Law stroked bases-loaded singles to lead the White Sox over the Mariners at Seattle.

Floyd Bannister (5-4) benefitted from an early 4-0 lead to post the victory. Bob James worked the final two innings to pick up his 13th save. Matt Young (4-8) took the loss.

Oakland 2, Kansas City 1--Mike Heath raced home from third on an error by second baseman Frank White in the 10th inning as the A’s beat the Royals at Oakland.

With two out, Heath singled off reliever Dan Quisenberry (3-4), and Alfredo Griffin singled Heath to third. Bruce Bochte hit a ground ball to White, who bobbled it for an error, making a winner of Jay Howell (5-3).

The A’s tied it at 1-1 in the eighth inning when, with one out, Dusty Baker reached on an infield single. One out later, Mickey Tettleton drew a walk, and Heath followed with a pinch-hit single to score Baker.

Royals starter Charlie Leibrandt went 7 innings, giving up seven hits and seven walks. He struck out six.

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in the third. Greg Pryor doubled to left to lead off against Tim Birtsas. Pryor moved to third when Jim Sundberg flied out to right and scored on Onix Concepcion’s RBI infield single.