American League Roundup : In the East, the Last Shall Be First

Before the season opened, it was generally agreed the hot race in baseball would be in the American League East.

Many thought Toronto would win it, others voted for the New York Yankees and some even figured it was time for the Cleveland Indians to take it all. There was considerable difference of opinion about who would win the division.

There was, however, almost complete accord on who would finish last. The first choice for last was Milwaukee.

For one thing, the Brewers finished sixth last season and the team behind them, Baltimore, made several moves to strengthen its club. For another, their manager, Tom Trebelhorn, was an unknown quantity, not a member of the establishment.

Well, Trebelhorn is making all the right moves, the Brewers are scoring runs in bunches and, they are the only unbeaten team in the league.

Rookie catcher B. J. Surhoff singled with the bases loaded and two out in the 12th inning at Arlington, Tex., Sunday to give the Brewers a 7-5 victory and a 6-0 start.

Surhoff, a non-roster player who made the club in spring training, has played only five major league games, but he has had the game-winning hit in two of them. Last Thursday at Milwaukee, his first home run came in the eighth inning and beat Boston, 12-11.

The Brewers arrived in Texas with smoking bats and they are still on fire. After pounding out 14 hits Thursday at home to get 12 runs, they had 37 in three games in Texas and they accounted for 26 runs.

Surhoff, a son of Dick Surhoff, who played a couple of seasons in the NBA with the New York Knicks and Milwaukee Hawks in the early 1950s, was a first-round draft pick of the Brewers out of North Carolina. In his second minor league season, he hit .308 with Vancouver of the PCL. When he made the Brewers this season, he became the 10th player from the 1984 U.S. Olympic team to reach the majors.

The Brewers appeared to have the game won in the 11th when Greg Brock’s single ignited a three-run rally. But the Rangers fought back to score three times. Oddibe McDowell’s run-scoring single sent the game into the 12th.

Minnesota 8, Seattle 5--Kirby Puckett, in his third major league season, established himself as a home run hitter last year. After hitting only four in his first 1,200 at-bats, he hit 31 last season.

The Twins’ center fielder is out to prove it wasn’t a fluke. In this game at Seattle, Puckett hit his fourth home run in six games and the Twins took over sole possession of first in the West.

Puckett also had a triple and a single to help Bert Blyleven gain his first victory. Puckett is hitting .520, second only to Ray Knight of Baltimore (.571) in the batting race. Puckett has scored seven runs and driven in eight and leads the league with 13 hits.

Blyleven gave up seven hits, including the first of two home runs by Ken Phelps, in six innings to give the Twins a 5-1 record.

Kansas City 8, New York 2--Bo Jackson who has had more experience running with a football than he has hitting major league pitching, had a pretty fair weekend against Yankee pitching at Kansas City.

As the Royals were taking two out of three, Jackson, the former Auburn All-American, went 8 for 12. He went 2 for 4 in the finale, scoring a run and driving in another.

The Royals, losers Saturday when the Yankees scored 12 runs in one inning, ruined Joe Niekro’s seasonal debut by erupting for six runs in the fifth.

Boston 8, Toronto 3--Don Baylor ended a 1-for-18 start with a bang at Boston and Bob Stanley won as a starter for the first time since June, 1980.

Baylor hit two home runs and drove in five runs to make it easy for Stanley, a reliever in recent years. Stanley gave up two runs and seven hits in a strong eight innings.

Jim Clancy, the loser, was shelled in the third.

Baltimore 7, Cleveland 1--Eddie Murray hit a three-run home run in a six-run fourth inning at Cleveland and rookies Eric Bell and Mark Williamson combined on a three-hitter.

Bell gave up the hits, including a home run by former Oriole Rick Dempsey in the sixth. Williamson retired the last eight batters, three of them on strikes.

Ray Knight, who has hit safely in all six games he has played in the American League, had two hits and drove in a run.

Detroit 7, Chicago 1--Tom Brookens drove in four runs with a triple and a single at Chicago and Jeff Robinson won his major-league debut.

Robinson, a 25-year-old right-hander, gave up six hits in seven innings.

Rookie Matt Nokes homered for the Tigers, who swept the three-game series.