American League Roundup : Mighty Mike Young Provides Power for Orioles

Earl Weaver has not been able to wave a magic wand and make instant winners of the Baltimore Orioles. But one of the first moves Weaver made upon his return as manager may be paying dividends for several years to come.

Weaver, a man who likes to be surrounded by home run hitters, installed Mike Young as a regular in the Orioles’ lineup.

The switch-hitting outfielder-designated hitter has just about the hottest bat in the American League.

Young hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning Friday night at Baltimore to lead the Orioles to a 4-2 victory over the slumping Texas Rangers. It was the fourth loss in a row for the Rangers and their 12th in the last 16.

On the other hand, the Orioles, behind the slugging of Young, are showing signs of waking up. They have won four in a row and six of the last seven.

The home run was Young’s 19th of the season and his eighth in the last 12 games. With the Rangers leading, 2-1, on Cliff Johnson’s home run in the top of the sixth, Young followed a single by Cal Ripken and a walk to Eddie Murray with a 390-foot drive over the left-field fence.

“I liked Young when I first saw him, and I always thought he had super power,” Weaver told UPI recently. “I wasn’t surprised last year when I would read in the paper that he had hit another home run.”

Young’s homer was the 26th in the last 13 games for the Orioles, who have hit 149 home runs in 113 games and hold a commanding lead in that department.

“We don’t tell our guys to go up there looking to hit home runs; that comes with their natural ability,” Weaver said.

“We’re scoring runs, and that’s got to help. It seems that when we’re hitting home runs, we start to do everything right.”

Young, who hit 17 home runs as a rookie last season, was off to a slow start this season. He batted only .216 in his first 40 games, had only four home runs and was sent to the bench.

Coinciding with the return of Weaver, Young has batted .320 in 50 games and has hit 15 home runs and driven in 37 runs.

“I’m just trying to be aggressive, patient and selective at the plate,” Young said. “I’m always anxious to get to the ballpark. It’s even better with Earl back, because I get to play.”

Young’s fifth game-winning run batted in enabled Dennis Martinez to improve his record to 9-7. Don Aase rescued Martinez with two outs in the seventh and earned his seventh save.

Kansas City 4, Toronto 2--Charlie Leibrandt went into this game at Toronto trying to end a three-game losing streak. Although he didn’t think he pitched all that well, Leibrandt missed by just one out of pitching a shutout and improved his record to 11-6.

Lloyd Moseby’s two-out, two-run home run in the ninth spoiled the shutout, but the Royals, chasing the Angels in the West, won for the seventh time in the last nine games.

“At times, it didn’t seem like I could throw anything over for a strike,” Leibrandt said after giving up eight hits, walking four and striking out seven. “I was kind of inconsistent. I really struggled my way through. I had to be lucky.”

Hal McRae drove in two runs with a pair of singles, and Lynn Jones had four singles to lead the Royal attack and hand Jimmy Key (9-5) the defeat.

Detroit 3, Cleveland 2--Rookie Nelson Simmons is doing everything he can to win a regular job with the Tigers. In this game at Detroit, Simmons drove in two runs, including the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.

Since returning to the majors Monday, Simmons has hit safely in all four games. He homered Wednesday in his second game back and hit two home runs Thursday night.

“I know I can hit,” Simmons said. “I’m hustling like I normally do and I’m hitting. That’s the way it’s been.”

Simmons, 8 for 16 since coming up from Nashville, helped Aurelio Lopez (3-7) gain the win in relief. Juan Berenguer made his first start since May 16, and Lopez took over with two out in the sixth and pitched hitless ball the rest of the way.

New York 5, Boston 4--Maybe, if Manager Billy Martin had followed the orders of owner George Steinbrenner and held the Thursday workout, the Yankees might have been too tired to pull out this game at New York.

But they rallied to tie in the ninth on Mike Pagliarulo’s single and won it when Red Sox reliever Bob Stanley walked Willie Randolph with two outs and the bases loaded in the 10th.

Rich Gedman hit two home runs for the Red Sox, the second in the seventh to give them a 4-2 lead. Pagliarulo’s home run cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the inning.

Seattle 6, Minnesota 5--Gorman Thomas singled in the tie-breaking run in the eighth inning at Minneapolis and scored on Jim Presley’s double as the Mariners rallied to beat Steve Howe.

The Mariners spotted the Twins a 3-0 lead in the first two innings, then battled back to win.

Howe, who won in relief in his first appearance for the Twins, pitched 2 innings in this game, giving up three runs and four hits.

Milwaukee 3, Chicago 2--Ben Oglivie doubled in the winning run to cap a two-run eighth inning at Milwaukee.

Ray Burris improved his record to 7-9, holding the White Sox to six hits and striking out seven. Joel Davis, in his second start for the White Sox, gave up only three hits in seven innings but departed when he walked Ed Romero to open the eighth.