American League Roundup : Rest Cures Fisk’s Slump: 2 Home Runs, 7 RBIs

Carlton Fisk has had a tremendous season, but playing almost every game had taken a toll on the 37-year-old catcher. He had gone 7 for 56 and had hit only one home run in 20 games.

It took just one day off and another game in which he only had to worry about being a designated hitter to bring the Chicago White Sox slugger roaring out of his slump.

Fisk hit two three-run home runs to take over the major league lead with 35 homers Friday night at Arlington, Tex., and lead the White Sox to a 12-1 rout of the Texas Rangers.

Fisk, whose average had dipped below .225, went 4 for 5 and singled in another run to tie his career-high one-game best of seven runs batted in. His performance made it easy for Britt Burns to improve his record to 16-8.

No catcher has ever led the American League in home runs, but Fisk is now five ahead of his closest pursuers.

“Who knows why I had a night like this?” Fisk said. “Maybe it was the heat. I made some pretty good swings.”

Fisk has hit 31 of his home runs while catching and needs only two more to break Lance Parrish’s American League record.

Kansas City 4-7, Milwaukee 3-1--The Royals took over first place in the West by sweeping the doubleheader at Kansas City.

After pulling out the opener by scoring two runs in the bottom of the 11th, the Royals breezed to victory in the second game and received a big boost to their morale.

Dennis Leonard, three times a 20-game winner for the Royals, pitched a scoreless ninth inning in the second game in his first appearance in more than two years. Leonard suffered a broken tendon in the left leg while pitching to Cal Ripken of Baltimore on May 23, 1983. It has taken him more than two years of rehabilitation to recover. Leonard received a standing ovation from the crowd of 26,403. He gave up a single but that’s all.

Bullpen ace Dan Quisenberry greased into a victory in the opener. Bill Schroeder singled in the go-ahead run for the Brewers in the top of the 11th off Quisenberry. But in the bottom of the 11th, Steve Balboni tied it with his second home run of the game. A single by Darryl Motley and John Wathan’s one-out double won it.

Motley homered in the second inning of the second game. Lonnie Smith, who missed three games while testifying in the Pittsburgh drug trial, singled in a run in the first and later scored to get the Royals off to a 2-0 lead.

Steve Farr, making his second start of the season, went five innings to earn his first victory.

Toronto 8, Minnesota 3--This is the time of the year when veterans are supposed to step forward to lead the pennant drive. But the Blue Jays have been getting much mileage out of a banner crop of rookies.

Cecil Fielder, a basketball and baseball star a few years ago at Nogales High School in La Puente, is the most recent rookie to come through.

Fielder, brought up July 18 from Knoxville in the Southern League, drove in five runs with a two-run home run and a bases-loaded double to help another rookie, Steve Davis, win his second start. Davis, also up from Knoxville, went five innings, giving up three runs and six hits. Then the ample Toronto bullpen took over to keep the Blue Jays 2 1/2 in front of the Yankees in the East.

“They didn’t bring us up here to sit on the bench,” Fielder said after getting his third game-winning hit. “They brought us up to see what we could do. Down the line, I want them to say: ‘That guy came up and gave us a pretty good lift.’ ”

New York 8, Oakland 4--When Don Mattingly stepped to the plate in the fifth inning at Yankee Stadium with two on and the Yankees trailing, 3-2, the crowd of 22,519 chanted: “MVP, MVP.”

The American League’s leading candidate for Most Valuable Player honors, responded with a three-run home run to put the Yankees in front and give Mattingly his 18th game-winning hit.

Later in the inning, Dan Pasqua also hit a three-run home run to make it a seven-run inning and keep the Yankees 2 1/2 games behind Toronto.

“I heard them,” Mattingly said, “but I can’t think about that. I don’t think there is any player on this club who is thinking about any individual award. All we are concerned about is winning the pennant.”

Bob Shirley, who took over for Joe Cowley with two out in the second, gave up five hits in the last 7 innings.

Seattle 8, Detroit 4--Mike Moore was bothered as much by a swarm of gnats at Detroit as he was by the Tiger hitters as he improved his record to 13-8.

Alvin Davis hit a two-run home run and drove in another run to back the eight-hit pitching of Moore.

Moore pitched his ninth complete game. Since coming off the disabled list June 21 following a shoulder injury, he is 9-4. He struck out six and walked two in outpitching Walt Terrell, also 13-8.