American League Roundup : Yankees at Whitt’s End After Loss

Ernie Whitt has come out of a batting slump just in time to knock the New York Yankees almost out of the pennant race.

The Blue Jay catcher, who was 3 for 29 before he hit a game-winning single in the 10th inning Friday night at Toronto, bombed the Yankees into submission Saturday.

Whitt hit two home runs at Exhibition Stadium and drove in a career-high six runs in the Blue Jays’ 13-1 win, dropping the Yankees seven games behind in the American League East with only 21 games left.

With Milwaukee beating Detroit again, the Blue Jays took a one-game lead over the Tigers, and the Yankees dropped into fourth place behind the Brewers.

Whitt’s second homer came with two on in the eighth and was the first of three consecutive home runs by the Blue Jays off rookie Bill Fulton. After Whitt hit his 14th, Jesse Barfield got his 28th and Kelly Gruber his 12th. Pete Filson replaced Fulton, and Willie Upshaw’s drive hit the top of the fence in right field, just missing a fourth homer in a row.

A 19-hit barrage made it easy for Jimmy Key (16-6) to win his seventh straight game. Key gave up six hits before retiring after eight innings and lowered his league-leading ERA to 2.85.

The Blue Jays hammered Rick Rhoden (16-10), who is trying to pitch with a sore shoulder. He gave up seven hits and four runs in four innings.

“Nothing was there,” Rhoden said. “I’ve been getting treatments and I haven’t thrown between starts. It makes it a whole lot harder to get in the race when you lose to the teams you have to beat.”

With Ron Guidry also having arm problems, the Yankees are in serious trouble.

“I had to move up both Tommy John and Rick in the rotation when Ron went out,” Manager Lou Piniella said. “It didn’t help either one of them.

“We just haven’t won on the road. You can’t win a pennant with a 34-40 road record.”

Milwaukee 11, Detroit 2--Paul Molitor’s bat, which was the hottest in baseball last month, has come back to life just in time to deal a blow to Tiger pennant hopes.

Molitor had four hits, and B. J. Surhoff and Rob Deer each drove in three runs at Milwaukee as the Brewers knocked out Jack Morris (17-8) and beat the Tigers for the third game in a row.

Going into this series, Molitor was 9 for 57 after his 39-game hitting streak ended. But, he has matched the nine hits in just 12 at-bats in the last three games.

Molitor raised his average to .351. He needs just 59 plate appearances in the last 20 games to qualify for the batting title. He also needs a few more hits to catch Wade Boggs, who is hitting .367.

Morris gave up 7 runs (6 of them earned), 9 hits and 6 walks in 5 innings for one of his poorest performances of the season.

Cleveland 5, Minnesota 4--The Twins thought they had given Tom Kelly something to celebrate on his first anniversary as manager when they scored two runs in the eighth inning at Cleveland to take a 4-3 lead.

But Brook Jacoby tripled home the tying run for the Indians in the bottom of the ninth and Cory Snyder, who threw out two Minnesota baserunners from right field, hit a sacrifice fly to win it against Juan Berenguer (6-1).

Although their road record fell to 27-44, the Twins remained 3 1/2 games ahead in the West.

Snyder’s big defensive play was a throw that nailed pinch-runner Al Newman at the plate trying to score on Don Baylor’s fly in the ninth.

Kansas City 10, Oakland 7--Dave Stewart (19-10) failed in his first attempt to become the majors’ first 20-game winner. He gave up 8 hits and 8 runs in 4 innings at Oakland.

Charlie Leibrandt (15-10) wasn’t much better, but he survived rookie Mark McGwire’s 43rd home run and the Royals moved to within 4 1/2 games of Minnesota.

Steve Balboni of the Royals went 2 for 4, including a triple, and drove in three runs. In the last three games, he has driven in eight runs.

Boston 4, Baltimore 3--Wade Boggs singled home Ellis Burks with two out in the ninth inning at Boston for his 15th game-winning run batted in. It was the second time in three games that the Red Sox beat former Dodger reliever Tom Niedenfuer in their last at-bat.

Seattle 12, Chicago 2--Alvin Davis and Ken Phelps each hit two-run homers to pace a season-high 18-hit Mariner attack at Seattle.