Blue Jays’ Fernandez Is Injured : Shortstop Breaks Elbow During 4-3 Win Over Detroit

The Toronto Blue Jays moved 1 1/2 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers in the American League East Thursday night with a 4-3 victory in the opener of a four-game series and the first of seven games between the two teams during the last 11 days of the regular season.

It was big, important, significant, the stuff of cliches.

But they weren’t talking about the win in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse later.

They were talking about their loss --unhappy to have to do so and unhappy with the way it happened.

Loss?

Tony Fernandez, the American League’s All-Star shortstop and the No. 3 hitter in the Toronto batting order, will be unavailable for the remainder of the season--no matter how long it lasts.

Upended by Bill Madlock, who was attempting to break up a double play in the third inning, Fernandez suffered a broken right elbow when it hit squarely on a wooden strip that separates the artificial surface from the dirt sliding area.

He left the game immediately and was undergoing surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital as Tom Henke registered his 34th save by pitching a flawless ninth inning.

Aggressive or dirty? Toronto Manager Jimy Williams was asked about Madlock’s slide and said he would leave that to the media, but he definitely thought it was illegal.

“The runner can take out the fielder as long as he slides within a body’s length of the bag,” Williams said. “In my view of the replay, Madlock couldn’t have reached the bag. I’m not pleased. It was illegal.”

Toronto second baseman Nelson Liriano said it was more than that.

He said that it was a “dirty play” and that he will similarly attempt to sideline Detroit shortstop Alan Trammell if he gets the chance.

Said utilityman Garth Iorg: “There’s no doubt Madlock went after him. I don’t know if he tried to hurt him, but he did. It was unnecessary because Fernandez couldn’t have gotten the double play, anyway.”

Kirk Gibson had hit a soft grounder to Liriano, who flipped to Fernandez crossing the bag. The shortstop got off a futile throw just before Madlock rolled across his knees with a shoulder block.

A crowd of 42,436 booed as Madlock left the field and again when the replay was shown on the scoreboard. Jim McKean, chief of the umpiring crew, phoned the press box with orders to stop showing the replay.

Second-base umpire Tim McClelland could have called an automatic double play but said later that he thought Madlock had slid legally.

Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson said it was unfortunate that Fernandez had landed on the wood strip but it was the fault of the field and not Madlock.

“I can’t believe anyone would question it,” Madlock said of the slide. “If Pete Rose had come in with one of his blocks there would be total hysteria. I always thought you raised hell if a runner came in with his spikes high but that it’s part of the game when you try to break up a double play with a slide like that. Maybe we should go down there and kiss ‘em next time.”

Madlock suffered a bruised chest on the slide and left for a pinch hitter in the fifth inning. The ex-Dodger was unsure if he would be able to play tonight but said he would go after the shortstop in a similarly aggressive style when it was required and that he would be disappointed if the opposition didn’t follow suit. He said it is the way the game is played in the National League.

“I can understand Jimy Williams being upset,” Madlock said. “Fernandez is a big part of that team, but it was a freak thing. I feel badly that he was hurt, but what can I do. I was only trying to break up the double play and get us an extra out. As it was, we got the extra out and two runs because of it.”

The league’s premier defensive shortstop, Fernandez goes out with a .322 average and 67 RBIs. Replacement Manny Lee is hitting .279 with 6 RBIs in 86 at bats.

Said first baseman Willie Upshaw: “Manny can do the job defensively, but you don’t lose your No. 3 hitter without it hurting. It was an unfortunate accident we just didn’t need at this time, but we’ve come too far to let it all slip away. Maybe it will prove to be an emotional lift and pull us together that much more.”

Lee, ironically, made a leaping, acrobatic catch of a Larry Herndon line drive with two on and two out in the seventh to help preserve a victory in which the Blue Jays scored all of their runs off Jack Morris in the third.

Morris pitched tenaciously only to emerge with his 10th loss against 18 wins. A two run single by Ernie Whitt, an RBI double by Rance Mulliniks and a run producing wild pitch helped account for the four runs in the third.

The Tigers stranded six runners in the first three innings and four more in the sixth, seventh and eighth. Former Baltimore left-hander Mike Flanagan, now 3-1 with a 2.12 ERA since his Aug. 31 acquisition by the Blue Jays, yielded nine hits in 6 innings, but four were bloops, two never left the infield and two others grounded through it.

Lee’s catch restricted the last Tiger threat to a single run in the seventh after they had scored twice in the third, the inning in which Madlock put Fernandez out of service after reaching base only because George Bell misjudged his fly to left, then let it fall in front of him for a single.

Bell, who had three of the seven hits allowed by Morris, will probably win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award, but he is not a Gold Glove candidate. As the Blue Jays talked quietly later about the potentially damaging loss of Fernandez, most saying it was part of the game, Madlock was asked if he would call the hospitalized Toronto shortstop.

“Why should I give him a call?” he asked. “I’m not the welcome wagon.”

Tiger-Blue Jay Notes

George Bell, who leads the American League in home runs and RBIs and is batting .315 overall, is 27 for 65 in his last 17 games, a .415 average. First base was never open when Bell batted Thursday night or Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson would have probably walked him. “I always say never let the mauler do the mauling,” Anderson said before the game. . . . Bill Madlock on the play on which Tony Fernandez was hurt: “Most guys would have gotten out of the way, but he’s such a great shortstop that he figured he could still get the double play and stayed in there.” . . . The wild pitch on which Toronto’s winning run scored was the 22nd by Jack Morris this year, tying the American League record set by Bobby Witt of Texas last year. Morris, covering the plate on the pitch, had Ernie Whitt nailed, but his spikes caught and he couldn’t handle the throw from catcher Mike Heath as he fell backwards.