American League Roundup : Slaught and Brewer Balks Give the Yankees All They Need

Jack Clark hasn’t even swung a bat for the New York Yankees this season and hitting star Don Mattingly might as well have not for all the good he has done. So how are the Yankees doing?

Well, with new hitting star Don Slaught, the Yankees are major league baseball’s only unbeaten team.

Slaught went 4 for 4, including a tie-breaking 2-run single in the eighth inning Sunday at New York as the Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6, for their first 5-0 start since 1933, a year they didn’t win the pennant.

The balk craze continued with a league-record six called in the game. Five were committed by the Brewers and two of them led to the tying run in the seventh. Another led to the eventual winning run in the eighth after Slaught’s single gave the Yankees a 6-4 lead. Milwaukee relief pitcher Dan Plesac then balked, allowing Roberto Kelly to score.

On a day when Tommy John couldn’t get out of the second inning, second-line pitchers Charles Hudson, Tim Stoddard and Cecilio Guante held the Brewers to 1 earned run in the last 7 innings.

While Slaught is 6 for 7 and has 3 runs batted in in the 2 games he has caught, Mattingly, a lifetime .331 hitter, is 2 for 17, has scored a run and driven in 2. Meanwhile, the injured Clark is just resuming workouts in Florida.

Eventually, maybe they’ll need them.

Brewer Manager Tim Trebelhorn, whose team was swept in three games, was upset by all the balks.

“We’re getting out of whack here; everybody wants a balk,” he said. “I could put another defender in the outfield and the umpires might not see it, they’re so busy watching for balks.”

Cleveland 6, Baltimore 3--Jay Bell’s two-run triple sparked a four-run fourth inning at Cleveland, enabling the Indians to improve their record to 5-1, their best beginning in 22 years.

The hapless Orioles are 0-5, but after getting only two runs in the first four innings, they “erupted” for nine hits and three runs.

The Indians finally needed their bullpen, and Dan Schatzeder, in his first appearance, pitched 2 shutout innings to save Rich Yett’s first victory.

Billy Ripken drove in all the Orioles’ runs with a single and a double. The Orioles, in their worst start since 1978, have been outscored, 36-5.

Seattle 7, Chicago 4--Rich Renteria, who was a Los Angeles City high school star at South Gate when Jerry Reuss starred for the Dodgers, ruined another comeback attempt by the 38-year-old left-hander.

Renteria had three hits, including a pair of doubles, and scored twice at Chicago to lead the assault on Reuss. Reuss gave up eight hits and four runs in five innings.

Minnesota 4, Toronto 2--Todd Stottlemyre took a one-hitter, six strikeouts and a 1-0 lead into the fifth inning in his first major-league start at Minneapolis.

But the son of former top pitcher Mel Stottlemyre gave up two hits and two walks to open the fifth and quickly became a loser.

Dan Gladden doubled in one run and Greg Gagne singled in two others in the four-run rally.

Frank Viola gave up 7 hits and 2 runs in 7 innings to even his record at 1-1 and give the Twins a 2-3 record.

Jeff Reardon pitched 1 scoreless innings to get his second save.

Kansas City 8, Detroit 1--Three doubles in the first inning at Kansas City helped the Royals forget the nightmarish seven-run seventh Saturday that wiped out their lead.

Kevin Seitzer, George Brett and Jim Eisenreich had doubles off Doyle Alexander to get Charlie Leibrant off to a winning start. Willie Wilson and Seitzer each had three hits in the game.

Texas 4, Boston 1--Paul Kilgus held the Red Sox to four hits in seven innings at Arlington, Tex., and the Rangers exploited Boston mistakes to win for the second time in six games.

A balk, three walks and an error helped the Rangers score three times in the fourth inning. Two of the runs were unearned.

It was a costly defeat for the Red Sox. Catcher Rich Gedman fouled a ball off his right foot, breaking his big toe.

Hot-hitting Pete O’Brien went 1 for 3 and scored twice for the Rangers. He is 14 for 22, but teammate Pete Incaviglia, who is being booed lustily by fans, is 0 for 15.