American League Roundup : A Black Day for Royals Turns Out to Be a Dark One for Mariners, 9-1

The Seattle Mariners, who lead the American League with a .272 team batting average, were probably looking forward to Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Royals at Seattle.

That’s because Bud Black, who had only a 1-6 career record against the Mariners, was scheduled to start for the Royals.

But Black surprised the Mariners--and Royal Manager Billy Gardner--by limiting Seattle to no runs and only two hits over seven innings as Kansas City won, 9-1.

The victory helped Kansas City maintain its two-game lead over Minnesota in the American League West.

Black (3-2), who has been used infrequently as Kansas City’s fifth starter for the last month, impressed Gardner.

“He’s definitely back in our rotation now,” Gardner told the Associated Press.

Black got some help from Bo Jackson, Frank White and Danny Tartabull. Jackson had three hits, including two home runs to the opposite field. White had three RBIs and Tartabull, a former Mariner, had a pair of doubles and an RBI.

Jackson, 0 for 14 before he hit a fourth-inning single, hit a solo homer in the sixth and a two-run homer in the seventh to give him 11 on the year.

The Royals took advantage of errors by Seattle’s Harold Reynolds and Domingo Ramos to score three unearned runs in the fourth inning.

Mike Moore (2-8), off to his worst start in six years with the Mariners, took the loss.

Detroit 18, Boston 8--Matt Nokes hit two home runs and had four runs batted in as the Tigers routed the Red Sox at Boston.

Chet Lemon homered and also had four RBIs for Detroit, which had 21 hits. Lemon, former Dodger Bill Madlock, Darrell Evans and Lou Whitaker had three hits each.

Nokes, who has 11 homers on the year, hit a three-run homer off losing pitcher John Leister (0-1) in the third to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead.

Don Baylor’s two-run homer and Spike Owen’s three-run triple in the fourth cut Detroit’s lead to 6-5.

But the Tigers scored three times in the sixth, twice in the seventh and four times in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

Boston third baseman Wade Boggs had to leave the game in the sixth inning after Madlock slid into him. Boggs suffered a bruised shoulder and elbow and is questionable for tonight’s series opener at Baltimore.

In winning three times in the four-game series, the Tigers had 53 runs and 93 hits.

Toronto 3, Baltimore 2--Garth Iorg, hitting .158 going into the game, singled home Manny Lee from second with two outs in the ninth at Toronto to extend the Blue Jays’ winning streak to five games.

The win kept the Blue Jays a half game behind the Yankees in the American League East.

Iorg also made some excellent plays in the field. In the seventh, the second baseman took a run-scoring single away from Eddie Murray with a diving stop of his hard grounder. In the ninth, he made a diving stop of a ball off the bat of Mike Young.

Reliever Mike Eichhorn got the victory to improve his record to 7-2. Mike Boddicker (5-2) took the loss.

Ernie Whitt hit a controversial two-run homer in the first for Toronto. The Orioles believed Whitt’s curving drive to right field clearly landed foul.

Cal Ripken Jr. hits his 14th home run for the Orioles, who have lost four straight and eight of nine.

New York 5, Milwaukee 3--Claudell Washington’s two-run single in the sixth inning broke a 3-3 tie and gave the Yankees the win before 52,770 at Milwaukee.

Mike Pagliarulo singled and Dan Pasqua doubled with one out in the seventh off losing pitcher Chuck Crim (3-2). Chris Bosio replaced Crim and walked Joel Skinner to load the bases. Bosio struck out Wayne Tolleson, but Washington lined a pitch past second baseman Juan Castillo.

Reliver Rich Bordi (2-0) got the win and Pat Clements retired the final five Brewer batters for his first save.

Cleveland 12, Oakland 2--The A’s committed five errors in the first two innings and seven overall as the Indians won easily at Oakland.

Pat Tabler drove in four runs for Cleveland and Steve Carlton (4-4) allowed only four hits in seven innings to earn the 327th victory of his career.

Oakland left fielder Jose Canseco made two errors on one play in the first inning. He bobbled Tabler’s single to left, allowing Julio Franco to advance to third base. Franco then scored when Canseco overthrew third.

Joe Carter homered and Tony Bernazard had a three-run double for the Indians.

Dave Stewart (6-6) took the loss for the A’s.

Minnesota 7, Texas 4--Randy Bush broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI double in the seventh inning to lead the Twins past the Rangers at Minneapolis.

Bush’s third hit of the game, off losing pitcher Jeff Russell (0-1), drove him Al Newman from second base. Roy Smalley’s two-run single later in the inning increased Minnesota’s lead to 7-4.

The Rangers had scored a run in the top of the inning to tie the score, 4-4, on Scott Fletcher’s sacrifice fly.

Keith Atherton (4-1) pitched three innings of relief to get the win.

Sal Butera hit a three-run double to key a four-run Minnesota fifth. Gino Petralli had three hits, including his second home run, for Texas.