American League Roundup : Yankees Knocked Out of First Place in 15-4 Loss to Tigers

Owner George Steinbrenner has vowed to stay away from his New York Yankees for the rest of the season. Maybe, just maybe, the reason is that his team, although it still has a good chance to win the American League East, has been embarrassing him.

The Yankees turned in another dreadful performance Sunday at Detroit, losing to the Tigers, 15-4, and falling half-a-game behind the Toronto Blue Jays. They are just one game ahead of the Tigers.

Darrell Evans walked and homered in a nine-run fourth inning that enabled the Tigers to hand the Yankees their third humiliating defeat in the four-game series. Only the two-hit gem by Tommy John Saturday saved the Yankees from total disgrace.

In addition to Sunday’s loss, the Yankees were beaten by the Tigers, 8-0 and 12-4. Already this month, the Yankees have also lost games by scores of 15-3 and 10-5. In the last 10 games, Yankee pitchers have given up 74 runs and 110 hits.

Steinbrenner seems convinced the Yankees can’t win the division. But Manager Lou Piniella, who, like his predecessors, is having trouble with the boss, disagrees.

“We’ve gotten blown out of a few games in the last week but we’ll get our pitching straightened out and we’ll be there,” he told United Press International.

Piniella started Dennis Rasmussen because the Tigers were 12-20 against left-handers. But Rasmussen was chased after giving up eight runs and eight hits in a little more than three innings.

Toronto 5, Cleveland 1--After acquiring veteran Phil Niekro and getting another fine performance from John Cerutti at Cleveland, the Blue Jays, leading the East once again, are feeling rather confident.

Jesse Barfield hit a two-run home run and Cecil Upshaw and Lloyd Moseby also homered to make Cerutti’s seventh win in a row an easy one. Cerutti (8-2) gave up seven hits but only one run in six innings and the bullpen duo of Mark Eichhorn and Tom Henke shut down the Indians the rest of the way.

“Niekro will be a starter,” Manager Jimy Williams said. “He’s a good pitcher and an outstanding competitor. We got some smooth pitching today and some timely hits. Cerutti seems to have matured.

“Niekro will be a big help to our young pitchers.”

Minnesota 7, Oakland 5--Although they decisively swept the Athletics in the four-game series at Minneapolis to take a strong grip on first place in the West, the Twins aren’t ready to claim anything yet.

Oakland entered the series in first place, but after Kent Hrbek, Tom Brunansky, Tim Laudner and Gary Gaeti hit home runs to enable Bert Blyleven to improve his record to 11-9, the Athletics trailed by four.

While Manager Tom Kelly wasn’t in a bragging mood, his counterpart with the Athletics, Tony LaRussa, was obviously down.

“I have a really bad feeling to come here and get beat four times,” he said. “We just got outplayed. I think the Twins got some momentum early in the series and it helped them get the sweep.”

Although the Metrodome is a good park for home-run hitters, Mark McGwire continued the slump that has plagued him since he hit his 37th home run July 29. He was 0 for 10 in the last three games of the series and 1 for 13 in the series.

Kansas City 8, Boston 3--Kevin Seitzer is getting to be quite a Sunday hitter. Last Sunday, he went 6 for 6. In this game at Boston, the brilliant rookie third baseman went 3 for 4, including his 10th home run, and drove in two runs.

Rookie John Davis pitched 6 scoreless innings of relief to gain his first major league victory. He took over in the third after the Red Sox pulled even, 3-3, and gave up just four hits the rest of the way.

The Royals had 17 hits, with Steve Balboni also getting three hits.

Baltimore 5, Texas 4--Ray Knight’s pinch single scored pinch-runner Al Wiggins from third base with two out in the ninth inning at Baltimore to beat Charlie Hough (11-8).

It was the Rangers’ eighth loss in the last 11 games and dropped them seven games behind Minnesota in the West.

Milwaukee 8, Chicago 4--Paul Molitor extended his hitting streak to 24 games at Chicago, and Greg Brock had two runs batted in to lead the Brewers.

Brock’s two-run single highlighted a four-run first inning. Molitor’s hit didn’t come until the ninth.

Chicago starter Neil Allen faced five batters and didn’t get anybody out as his record fell to 0-7.