American League Roundup : Burris Baffles the Blue Jays, 4-1

Milwaukee pitcher Ray Burris didn’t have his good stuff Tuesday night, so he fooled the Toronto Blue Jays with an assortment of gadget pitches.

“I was using everything,” said Burris, after stopping the Blue Jays, 4-1, at Milwaukee. He described the assortment of junk he used to fire a seven-hitter as “Pac-Man, Donkey Kong stuff. Anything I could think of.”

Whatever the label, Toronto, losers of six straight, couldn’t hit it. Much to the dismay of Manager Bobby Cox.

“We haven’t hit anything here in two games,” said Cox, referring to Monday’s three-hit performance by Milwaukee’s Moose Haas. “And the wind’s been blowing out. We’re not going to win many games when we can’t score runs.”

The Blue Jays, who still hold a 2 1/2-game lead in the East, aren’t panicking, yet. Rance Mulliniks, whose error in the fourth led to two runs, expects things to get better in a hurry.

“This game is typical of the way things have been going,” he said. “We haven’t been putting it together. We’ll climb out of it. We’re too good a ballclub.”

Mulliniks may have spoken too soon. Since 1982, Milwaukee is 18-4 against the Blue Jays.

Burris walked one and struck out six in improving his record to 4-5. Luis Leal (3-5) took the loss.

Detroit 9, Boston 8--The Tigers, collected a season-high 17 hits, including a grand slam by Lance Parrish, and needed every one of them to hold off the Red Sox at Detroit.

Parrish’s slam capped a five-run sixth inning for the Tigers and brought them back from a 7-4 deficit.

Juan Berenguer (2-3) picked up the victory with two innings of relief. Aurelio Lopez, surrendered a run, but still got the last six outs for his fourth save. The Tigers also escaped numerous jams by turning four double plays.

The Red Sox, who saw their six-game winning streak come to an end, got three hits and three RBIs from Bill Buckner. Dwight Evans, who homered in the ninth to beat the Tigers Monday night, hit his eighth home run of the season in the fifth.

The defeat was only the third for the Red Sox in 20 games.

New York 6, Baltimore 4--Rickey Henderson, who went 5 for 5 Monday night, picked up where he left off with a double, two singles and three stolen bases to lead the Yankees past the Orioles at Baltimore.

Henderson, who had five singles and a walk in Monday night’s game and walked in his last plate appearance on Sunday, had reached base 10 consecutive times when he hit into a force play in the sixth inning.

Joe Cowley (5-3) allowed two singles over five innings but needed relief help from Dave Righetti, who gave up home runs to Eddie Murray and John Shelby, and Brian Fisher, who pitched the last inning for his second save.

Kansas City 10, Minnesota 1--Frank White rapped three singles, drove in a run and scored two others to lead the Royals to an easy win at Kansas City.

Mark Gubicza (4-4) scattered three singles, walked five and struck out two before departing after seven innings with a slight groin pull. Dan Quisenberry finished up.

Minnesota broke up Gubicza’s shutout bid in the seventh when Roy Smalley walked, took second on a groundout, third on a single by Mark Salas and came home on a groundout by Tim Teufel.

Chicago 4, Oakland 3--Harold Baines led off the 13th inning with his fifth home run of the season, lifting the Chicago White Sox past the A’s at Chicago.

Baines, who had three hits and drove in two runs, hit a 2-0 pitch from reliever Keith Atherton (3-2) into the right-field stands to give Chicago, leading the Western Division by one-half game over the Angels, its eighth victory in 10 games. The defeat stopped Oakland’s three-game winning streak.

Winner Gene Nelson (4-2) gave up just one hit in four innings of relief.

Texas 8, Seattle 5--At Arlington, Tex., the Rangers scored six runs in the first inning to help Frank Tanana (2-7) record his first victory since May 26.

The defeat snapped the Mariners’ three-game winning streak and their eight-game winning streak at Arlington Stadium.

Tanana was hardly a mystery, surrendering six hits, four runs and two walks in 5 innings. However, he got excellent relief help from Dave Rozema, who retired 11 of the 13 batters he faced.