American League Roundup : Molitor Gets Three Hits in 14-2 Rout of Indians to Run His Streak to 35

Paul Molitor collected two doubles and a single to extend his hitting streak to 35 games, and Rob Deer became the first major leaguer in more than three years to hit grand slams in consecutive games Thursday night as the Milwaukee Brewers routed the Indians, 14-2, at Cleveland.

Molitor’s streak is the longest in the majors since Pete Rose of Cincinnati hit in 44 straight games in 1978. Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees set the major league record of 56 in a row in 1941.

Molitor, who went 3 for 5 with 3 RBIs and 1 walk, is hitting .423 (63 of 149) during the streak, with 38 runs scored and 32 RBIs. He is batting .372 for the season.

“The last two nights have been a lot better than we had seen the previous five or six ballgames,” he said. “Besides the streak, we put together a lot of offense and we got some nicely pitched games.”

Cleveland Manager Doc Edwards said he would be pulling for Molitor to continue the streak now that the Brewers are heading home to play Kansas City.

“When he’s out of town, I’m pulling for him,” Edwards said. “When he’s playing against our team, I’m hoping he’s out of town.”

Every Brewer starter hit safely and scored at least one run for the second straight game to help Ted Higuera (12-9). Ray Burris pitched two innings and Jay Aldrich hurled the ninth.

Deer, who has 26 homers, hit his grand slam in the sixth. The last major league player to hit grand slams in consecutive games was Greg Luzinski of the Chicago White Sox, who accomplished the feat June 8-9, 1984, against Minnesota.

Detroit 8, Minnesota 0--Doyle Alexander pitched a five-hitter over eight innings to gain his first win with the Tigers and Chet Lemon keyed a four-run fourth inning with a two-run double to lead the Tigers a three-game sweep between the division leaders at Detroit.

Detroit has won 5 straight, 8 of 9 and 23 of 33 since the All-Star break. In the three most recent games, the Tigers hit Minnesota pitchers for 27 hits and 22 runs.

Alexander, 1-0 after two starts with Detroit, was acquired earlier in the month from Atlanta. The veteran right-hander walked two and struck out four before Mike Henneman pitched the ninth.

Minnesota’s Joe Niekro (6-9), making his first start since serving a 10-game suspension for pitching a defaced ball, allowed six runs and seven hits in 3 innings.

“The way those guys are playing, I’m not sure anything would have helped,” Niekro said of the Tigers.

Niekro said the only thing in his pocket during this game was “a picture of my kids.”

The Twins had just one assist in the game, that coming in the eighth when John Grubb grounded to shortstop Greg Gagne for the final Detroit out.

Only one team in major league history has not had an assist in a nine-inning game, the Cleveland Indians against the New York Yankees on July 4, 1945.

“Who cares?” said Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly as the Twins’ record on the road dropped to 24-39.

Texas 5, Chicago 1--Jose Guzman turned in the best performance of his two-year American League career, yielding only three hits while pitching a complete game in 99-degree heat at Arlington, Tex.

“I wasn’t even tired,” said Guzman (10-11), who threw only 107 pitches. “I could have gone three more innings. This was definitely my best game in the major leagues. Everything I threw was a strike.”

Guzman took a two-hit shutout into the eighth, but Chicago’s Greg Walker led off with a walk, went to third on Steve Lyons’ single and scored on Fred Manrique’s sacrifice fly.

The Rangers scored three unearned runs in the third inning and made it 5-0 in the seventh.

Toronto 7, Oakland 6--Charlie Moore broke a 1-for-14 slump with an RBI ground-rule double in the ninth inning to tie the game and later scored the winning run on a fielder’s choice by Juan Beniquez at Oakland to keep the Blue Jays a half-game behind Detroit in the East.

“We were going to come back sooner or later,” said Toronto reliever Tom Henke, who pitched the ninth inning for his 29th save. “The Tigers aren’t going to let up, so we have to keep on plugging away.”

Beniquez, who starts mostly against left-handers, is batting .323 with 10 RBI in his 16 games with Toronto.

Gary Lavelle (2-3) got the win despite working just one-third of an inning.

Jose Canseco collected three doubles to tie an Oakland club record.

Seattle 4, New York 3--Harold Reynolds’ bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the 12th inning gave the Mariners the win at Seattle, snapping their six-game losing streak.

The defeat dropped the Yankees 3 1/2 games behind Detroit in the East.