Kingman Crushes Saberhagen’s One Mistake; A’s, 1-0

Kansas City’s Bret Saberhagen made one mistake Wednesday, and Dave Kingman made sure it cost him a game.

Saberhagen threw a 2-2 fastball up and in on Kingman in the second inning and the Oakland slugger ripped it into the stands to give the A’s a 1-0 victory at the Oakland Coliseum.

The homer was Kingman’s 15th of the season and proved to be enough, due to the four-hit pitching from Curt Young.

“It was an all-right pitch (he threw to Kingman),” said a dejected Saberhagen (4-7). “He (Kingman) hasn’t been going 15 for 15 against me but he has been getting his hits.”

Kansas City Manager Dick Howser said he was happy with Saberhagen’s performance.

“I thought the pitch he threw to Kingman was a good pitch,” Howser said. “He didn’t make too many mistakes today.”

Howser said the problem was a lack of offense, a subject Saberhagen knows something about. In his seven losses, Saberhagen has gotten just 10 runs in support.

“I think we’ve taken it just about as far as we can with pitching,” he said. “We need more hitting. We scored five runs in three games and came out of here with two victories. That’s pretty good.”

Young’s complete game was his best performance since 1984. It was Young’s first complete game since Aug. 15, 1984, at Baltimore and his first shutout since July 7, 1984, at Milwaukee.

“You just try to make up for your mistakes,” the A’s winner said. “Get the ground ball and get out of the inning.”

Young did just that as he allowed the lead off man in six innings reach base. The A’s pitcher did most of the damage with a newly-perfected changeup.

“I’m throwing a lot of changeups which seems to be helping everyone (the team’s defense,” Young said. “I threw about 40% changeups today.”

Kansas City catcher Jim Sundberg said he felt the changeup has made Young (5-3) a tougher pitcher.

“The difference in him has been the changeup,” the Royals catcher said. “Before he was just a two-pitch pitcher. He had the fastball and a curve. He doesn’t seem to throw as hard as he has in the past but when you have command of three pitches, you don’t have to throw hard.”

Milwaukee 3, Toronto 1--Mike Felder hit his first major league home run, a two-run shot in the third inning, to lift the Brewers to victory at Milwaukee.

The victory snapped Toronto’s four-game winning streak.

Ted Higuera (9-5) scattered eight hits, struck out eight and walked two in going the distance for the victory. It was his eighth complete game.