American League Roundup : Snyder Hits Two Homers to Lead Indians, 11-6

Although he started long after the top two candidates for Rookie of the Year in the American League, Cory Snyder of the Cleveland Indians is moving rapidly into contention.

Wally Joyner of the Angels and Jose Canseco of Oakland were already sensations by the time the Indians brought Snyder up from the minors June 13. Moreover, Snyder got off to a terrible start.

Lately, neither Joyner nor Canseco has done more to help the cause than the versatile right-handed hitting newcomer. In addition to proving he can hit with power, Snyder has shown he can play shortstop, third base and the outfield acceptably.

The 23-year-old rookie hit two home runs and a single and drove in four runs to lead the Indians to an 11-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles Sunday at Cleveland. His three-run home run climaxed a six-run third that broke the game open.

Although he has been in the majors only two months, and was 3 for 22 at the start, Snyder has hit 16 home runs, driven in 40 runs and is batting .280 in 58 games.

Snyder, who was born in Canyon Country and starred at Canyon High and BYU, has come a long way since Manager Dick Williams of the Seattle Mariners ordered Julio Franco walked to pitch to Snyder some 10 days after his American League debut.

He doubled in three runs on that occasion to break open the game and prompted Manager Pat Corrales to predict that “someday people are going to dread facing him.”

That day may have arrived.

Two years ago Snyder was a star of the U.S. Olympic team. Six other members of that team are now in the majors. They are Oddibe McDowell and Bobby Witt (Texas), Will Clark (San Francisco), Scott Bankhead (Kansas City), Bill Swift (Seattle) and Barry Larkin (Cincinnati).

Snyder, whose three-run homer sent Mike Boddicker (14-7) down to defeat, impressed the Baltimore ace.

“He’s a good guess hitter for a kid,” Boddicker said. “As strong as he is, he can probably guess wrong and hit it out. He hits some fly balls that look 20 or 30 feet short off the fence and they carry over the fence. That’s strength.”

Another hot Indian, Pat Tabler, went 3 for 3. He has 35 hits in his last 82 at-bats to raise his average to .302.

Chicago 7, Milwaukee 4--When he was shelled in his American League debut Tuesday, Steve Carlton met with the media. But when he regained his pitching form to win his first game for the White Sox, he also returned to his National League form after the game--he didn’t talk.

Carlton, who needed help with one out in the eighth inning at Chicago, held the Brewers to three hits and four runs, walked four and struck out four.

His designated spokesman was catcher Ron Karkovice, who is not likely to forget his first starting assignment.

“When I found out it was Steve Carlton, I was a little shaky,” the rookie told the Associated Press. “He had his stuff. He hit the corners when he had to and he had a great curveball. He shook me off some signals early, but we kind of worked it out together as we went along.”

It was Carlton’s 320th victory and first since July 26, when he was with San Francisco. He departed after Paul Molitor singled in a run with one out in the eighth. Bobby Thigpen got the last four outs.

Toronto 8, Texas 7--Ernie Whitt hit the right-field foul pole for his 11th home run in the 11th inning at Toronto to give the Blue Jays a sweep of the three-game series.

The Blue Jays all but destroyed the Ranger pitching staff, which was already in a shambles when they opened the series. They hammered Ranger pitching for 27 runs and 33 hits.

Although Dale Mohorcic pitched in all three of the games against the Blue Jays to extend his pitching streak to 11 consecutive games, one wonders why.

In this game he faced five batters, got two of them out and the other three hit safely to account for two runs.

If he pitches in the next two Ranger games, Mohorcic will tie the major league record of 13 consecutive games set by Mike Marshall of the Dodgers in 1974.

If the game had lasted another hour, it would have had to be suspended and completed today, because Bill Cosby was putting on a concert Sunday night.

Kansas City 5, New York 0--Undoubtedly, it is too late to help the Royals get back into the race in the West, but Mark Gubicza has found his groove.

In this game at Kansas City, Gubicza (7-5) pitched a six-hitter and struck out 10 as the Royals beat Ron Guidry for the first time in more than two years.

George Brett, Frank White and Willie Wilson hit home runs off Guidry and the Royals dropped the Yankees five games behind in the East.

It was the fourth win in a row for Gubicza, who did not walk a batter.

Boston 7, Detroit 5--The Red Sox have a way of bouncing back just when the challengers in the East start closing in on them.

In winning two out of three from the Tigers at Boston, they moved seven games in front of the Tigers.

The Tigers blew the game in the sixth inning. The game was tied, 4-4, a man was on second with one out and they decided to give baseball’s leading hitter, Wade Boggs, an intentional walk. Marty Barrett then doubled in a run and Don Baylor doubled home two more.

Calvin Schiraldi pitched 3 inning of relief to post his first victory for the Red Sox.

Seattle 11, Minnesota 1--Alvin Davis homered in his third consecutive game at Seattle, and Ken Phelps and Scott Bradley each homered and drove in three runs. Mike Morgan (9-12) pitched a six-hitter and struck out seven to breeze.