American League Roundup : Stieb: No Hits for 8 Innings, 2 Homers in 9th

The way this season has gone for Dave Stieb, it would not have been surprising if the Toronto Blue Jays had lost the game.

Stieb, who has had bad luck on a team that has had mostly good luck, took a no-hitter into the ninth inning Saturday night at Chicago and was fortunate to come out with a 6-3 victory.

His no-hit bid ended on a home run on the first pitch Stieb threw in the ninth inning. It wasn’t the league’s leading home run hitter, Carlton Fisk, who spoiled Stieb’s bid, nor was it another slugger of note, Ron Kittle. Instead, it was former Dodger Rudy Law, and it was only Law’s third of the season.

A couple of pitches later, Bryan Little hit his first home run of the season, and Stieb was gone. Gary Lavelle came to the rescue, and Harold Baines greeted him with the third homer of the inning. Before it was over, the Blue Jays’ new bullpen ace, Tom Henke, had to come in and get the final two outs for his sixth save. Henke extended his scoreless string 17 innings and has three wins plus the six saves since joining the club July 29.

Although his 2.34 is the best earned-run average among starting pitchers in the league, the near gem improved Stieb’s record to only 12-9. It seems that most of the time when he has pitched well, the Blue Jays haven’t done much hitting.

“I’ve had a few like that,” Stieb told the Associated Press. “I took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against Oakland once, and Tony Armas hit a home run.

“I was disappointed in not getting the no-hitter but not real disappointed. We won, and that’s what counts. Wins have been hard to come by. I didn’t have much left at the finish.”

In six of his defeats, the Blue Jays scored two or fewer runs.

George Bell broke up a scoreless battle between Stieb and Tom Seaver when he hit another mammoth home run in the sixth inning. This one, Bell’s 25th homer of the season, landed on the roof in left field at Comiskey Park. Friday night, Bell hit one into the distant center-field bleachers. Bell joined Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx, Richie Zisk and Richie Allen as the only players in the 75-year history of the park to perform both feats----reach the center-field bleachers and hit one onto the roof.

Seaver, who gave up two runs in the seventh and was chased in a three-run eighth, had one consolation. He had three strikeouts and passed Walter Johnson to take over third place in career strikeouts with 3,509. He isn’t likely to get any higher because Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton are far ahead of him.

Kansas City 8, Texas 2--George Brett went three for three, including a home run, and knocked in four runs at Kansas City to help Bret Saberhagen improve his record to 16-5 and move the Royals within 1 1/2 games of the Angels in the West.

It was the sixth win in a row for Saberhagen, who gave up eight hits but struck out seven in six innings.

The home run was Brett’s 19th, and he has driven in 16 runs against the Rangers this season. Brett raised his average to .357.

New York 4, Seattle 3--Don Mattingly drove in two runs at Seattle to lead the Yankees to their ninth win in the last 10 games and keep them four games behind Toronto.

Marty Bystrom gave up all three Seattle runs and six hits in six innings but improved his record as a Yankee to 3-1.

Don Baylor was hit by a pitch for the 189th time in his career to tie Minnie Minoso for the league record.

Minnesota 1, Boston 0--Mike Smithson credited a new pitch with helping him shut out the fading Red Sox at Boston.

Smithson held the Red Sox, losers of 13 of their last 15 games, to six hits and became a winner when Bruce Hurst made a wild pitch with two out in the fifth inning to allow Dave Engle to score from third with the only run of the game.

“My new pitch is a split-finger changeup,” Smithson told United Press International. “It keeps the hitters off balance because they swing at your arm motion, not the pitch. Last year, I was a two-pitch pitcher; this year, I have three.”

Hurst pitched a five-hitter but was beaten by the wild pitch. “I wanted to keep the ball down,” he said, “but it just came up short and took a wicked hop and took off.”

Baltimore 4, Oakland 3--John Shelby thought he had hit a routine grounder to first with two out in the top of the 11th inning at Oakland. But the ball went under the glove of first baseman Dusty Baker and out into right field as two runs scored to give the Orioles the victory.

“It was right at him (Baker),” Shelby said, “but it just shot under his glove. He was mad at himself for missing it when I got to first.”

Oakland Manager Jackie Moore thought Baker was screened on the grounder by the runner on first, Lee Lacy.