American League Roundup : Seaver Exhausts Himself, Seattle

The Boston Red Sox recently dealt for Tom Seaver so the New York Yankees wouldn’t, and the 41-year-old right-hander might turn out to be an important cog in the Red Sox’ pennant drive.

Seaver followed up his shaky debut with the Red Sox, who are aiming for their first pennant in 11 years, by pitching seven innings Sunday at Boston to beat Seattle, 7-3, and increase the team’s lead in the American League East to eight games.

Seaver allowed four hits and an unearned run before the excessive heat wore him out. He struck out five and walked only one. He pitched much better than his debut on Tuesday, when he gave up nine hits and four runs, also in seven innings.

Seaver, who was traded from the Chicago White Sox, is now 2-0 with the Red Sox. He has 308 lifetime victories.

“I tired badly after throwing 96 pitches,” Seaver said. “I told (Manager) John (McNamara) to keep an eye on me after the sixth. My legs were wobbly. I didn’t throw that many pitches but I was fatigued.”

Seaver departed with a 4-1 lead, but Joe Sambito gave up a two-run home run to Jim Presley in the eighth and Bob Stanley had to come on to save the win for Seaver, who is 4-6 this season.

Backup catcher Marc Sullivan gave Stanley breathing room when he hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth.

“He (Seaver) did what he had to do and gave us what we wanted,” McNamara said. “There was no need for him to pitch any longer.”

Mark Langston (9-6) took the loss, ending his five-game winning streak. Langston had retired 12 batters in a row when he walked Rey Quinones, a rookie batting .200, to open the sixth inning. He forced in the go-ahead run when he walked Jim Rice later in the inning.

Cleveland 5, Kansas City 0--Would you believe it? Those amazing Indians have climbed into second place in the East. In this game at Cleveland, knuckleball specialist Tom Candiotti pitched a four-hitter for his seventh complete-game victory.

It was the seventh win in a row for the Indians and a club-record ninth straight loss for the world champion Royals. The Indians are now percentage points ahead of New York.

Tony Bernazard scored one run and doubled in another for the Indians. Dennis Leonard (6-8) got the loss.

Detroit 5, Texas 2--Seldom will there be a more contrasting pair of pitchers than the two who started this game in the sweltering weather at Arlington, Tex.

The Rangers sent rookie Bobby Witt out to face Frank Tanana. Tanana, who once threw a fastball at speeds of more than 90 m.p.h., now is a finesse pitcher. His pitches are usually between 55 and 78 m.p.h.

Although Witt struck out 14 Tigers in eight innings, he was beaten by Tanana (8-4), who slow-balled his way through 7 innings, giving up two runs and seven hits.

Oakland 6, Milwaukee 3--Second baseman Tony Phillips tied a major league record with 12 assists in this game at Milwaukee, as the A’s broke an eight-game losing streak.

Jose Rijo (3-7) settled down after giving up three runs in the third to end his personal five-game losing streak. Alfredo Griffin singled home a run in the seventh to break a 3-3 tie.

New Manager Tony LaRussa takes over the team today.

Baltimore 1, Minnesota 0--Wednesday, the Orioles’ Ken Dixon pitched a four-hitter against Milwaukee and lost his fourth in a row. Although he was pitching Sunday in a hitter’s paradise, the Metrodome, Dixon (7-7) held the home-run crazy Twins to three singles in 8 innings to end his losing streak.

Don Aase came on to get the last two outs to earn his 22nd save.

Fred Lynn’s 13th homer in the fifth inning was the only run and made a loser of Neal Heaton in his first start for the Twins.

Chicago 5, New York 2--Julio Cruz and John Cangelosi singled home runs in a three-run second inning rally at Chicago that enabled the White Sox to overcome Dave Winfield’s two-run homer in the first.

Floyd Bannister (5-4) went 5 innings in his second start since returning from arthroscopic knee surgery.