American League Roundup : Rangers Beat Carlton, 3-1, and Move Within Three Games of Angels

Steve Carlton had already announced his retirement before he learned that the American League was a great place for left-handed pitchers.

Shortly after Carlton resigned from the San Francisco Giants, he was persuaded to pitch in a league in which only four teams have winning records against left-handers.

It may be that the once-great Carlton, now 41, just doesn’t have it anymore. He’s having trouble winning in southpaw paradise.

Rookie Jose Guzman, a right-hander, outpitched the future Hall of Famer Saturday at Arlington, Tex., and the Rangers gained a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox to move within three games of the Angels in the West.

Third baseman Steve Buechele, batting only .176 in his previous 41 games, delivered a two-run single in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie and hand Carlton his second defeat in three American League starts.

Carlton gave up three runs and six hits in 6 innings. Unfortunately, he was pitching against one of the teams with a winning record against lefties. The Rangers are 22-14, Boston is 23-14, Baltimore is 19-15 and Toronto is 16-15 against left-handers.

Guzman (9-11) gave up seven hits before needing help from Mitch Williams in the eighth. He lost his shutout in the sixth when he gave up three consecutive singles with nobody out, but escaped with a double play.

Carlton, as usual had nothing to say. His spokesman, Manager Jim Fregosi, said: “Carlton pitched a good game. We couldn’t get any runs.”

Oakland 2, New York 1--The Yankees are a perfect example of futility against left-handers.

In this game at New York, Jose Canseco had to emerge from an 0-for-40 slump to do it, but A’s left-hander Curt Young improved his record to 3-0 against the Yankees, who are 16-28 against left-handers.

It was a 1-1 tie in the ninth, and Canseco, who had struck out three times against Ron Guidry, came up to face bullpen ace Dave Righetti with a runner on second and one out. Canseco lined a 1-0 pitch into the gap in right-center for a run-scoring double.

“I was saying, ‘This can’t be a hit,’ ” Canseco said. “That’s the way you think when you’re in the slump I’m in.”

The Yankees remained unable to gain ground on the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees have not gained ground on the Red Sox since Aug. 12 when they cut the lead in the East to 3 1/2 games. Every day since they have either lost ground or did whatever the Red Sox did.

Cleveland 5, Boston 4--One of the big reasons for the Red Sox lead in the East has been their ability to handle the Indians.

However, after beating them eight times in a row, the Red Sox missed a chance to add to their lead at Cleveland when Andre Thornton delivered a pinch single with the bases loaded in the ninth.

The winning run was set up when Boston right fielder Dwight Evans and first baseman Bill Buckner collided going after Joe Carter’s pop fly with one out. The ball bounced off Buckner’s glove to load the bases.

A crowd of 40,126 cheered on the Indians and increased the season’s attendance to 1,333,661, more than double last season’s total.

Detroit 14, Seattle 0--When Dick Williams was managing the Angels and Frank Tanana was one of his best pitchers, it was nothing for the hard-throwing left-hander to strike out 10 batters in a game. The zip has long since left Tanana’s arm, and he relies mostly on cunning.

But Tanana (10-6), faced with the prospects of going to the bullpen, fanned 10 Mariners and pitched a seven-hitter for his 28th career shutout. The pitcher-rich Tigers have seven potential starters, so Tanana couldn’t afford a third consecutive poor outing.

“He (Tanana) was having fun out there,” said Williams, who is now managing Seattle. “He knew how to pitch when he was 20. He and Nolan Ryan were the only pitchers I had.”

Mike Brown (4-3), who became eligible to join the Mariners Friday, made an inauspicious debut. He didn’t make it through the second inning, giving up five hits and six runs.

Darnell Coles drove in five runs, Kirk Gibson hit a two-run home run and John Grubb had three hits and drove in three runs to pace the Tiger attack.

Toronto 7, Minnesota 4--Lloyd Moseby’s home run was the first of a club-record eight consecutive hits by the Blue Jays in a six-run first inning at Minneapolis.

There were two out when Moseby hit his 18th home run. The Blue Jays finished two hits short of the American League record when Willie Upshaw flied out to end the inning.

Milwaukee 8, Kansas City 4--Robin Yount had three hits, and Rob Deer hit his 29th home run to pace a 16-hit Brewer attack at Milwaukee.

Dan Plesac (9-6) came to the rescue of Chris Bosio in the fifth and pitched 3 shutout innings to gain the victory.

Mike Gubicza, who shut out the Yankees in his previous start, was knocked out in the second inning by the Brewers.