American League Roundup : Twins Hold On as Viola Wins 13th

Frank Viola, the hottest pitcher in the American League for the last two months, has given much of the credit for his success to the Minnesota bullpen.

Viola has been crediting reliever Jeff Reardon, in particular. Reardon, however, wasn’t at his best Friday night at Milwaukee and he almost cost Viola his league-leading 13th victory. Viola gave up 7 hits in 8 innings and retired with a 5-2 lead. Reardon, who picked up his 21st save, yielded 2 runs before staggering to a 5-4 victory.

Paul Molitor, who hit a two-run home run off Viola in the eighth, singled home two more runs in the ninth off Reardon to cut the Twins’ lead to a run. But Reardon got Jim Gantner on a pop-up to end the game.

“The important thing is we won,” Viola said. “I couldn’t be disappointed in Jeff. He is a big reason why I’m 13-2.”

In his first four starts, Viola won only once and contributed to the slow start of the defending champions. But beginning with a victory over Baltimore April 26, he has been almost unbeatable.

In his last 13 starts, Viola, a winner of at least 16 games in each of the last four seasons, is 11-1. The Twins also won the game in which he didn’t get the decision.

When Molitor hit his fourth home run in the eighth, he ended Viola’s string of 24 innings without an earned run.

Gary Gaetti and Randy Bush each homered for the Twins, who remained five games behind Oakland in the West.

Chicago 2, New York 1--Ron Guidry’s return wasn’t exactly triumphant, but it wasn’t too bad.

In this game at Chicago, the 37-year-old left-hander made his first start since undergoing rotator cuff surgery last December.

It was decided that he would throw 90 pitches, and his 90th pitch came with two out in the fifth inning, after he had given up 1 run and 6 hits. He came out with the bases loaded. Steve Shields, the eventual loser, struck out Dan Pasqua to end the threat.

Yankee Manager Lou Piniella found himself with a problem in the ninth when the White Sox broke the 1-1 tie.

Fred Manrique singled to open the inning. Shields bobbled Ozzie Guillen’s bunt, and both runners were safe. Dave Righetti, who has regained his form since Billy Martin was fired, came on and struck out Darryl Boston.

Because Righetti had pitched 2 innings Thursday night, Piniella elected to bring in Cecilio Guante to pitch to right-handed hitting Gary Redus. However, Redus hit the right-hander’s first pitch for a single to score Manrique with the winning run.

“I was really pleased with Guidry,” Piniella said. “He threw the ball very well. I couldn’t be happier with Ronnie.”

Bobby Thigpen (5-5), one of the league’s solid relievers, pitched a scoreless ninth to get the victory.

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

Oakland 2, Toronto 1--A disputed hit-batsman call set the stage for Mark McGwire to emerge from a prolonged slump on Canada Day at Toronto.

McGwire, 15 for 88, delivered a two-run single with the bases loaded in the seventh inning to help Dave Stewart improve his record to 11-6.

The disputed call came on a pitch by Dave Stieb to Carney Lansford with runners on first and third. The Blue Jays argued that Lansford wasn’t hit, and the A’s third baseman tended to agree with them.

“It didn’t hit me physically,” Lansford said. “It may have grazed my shirt, I don’t know. If I’d been out there pitching, I’d be upset, too.”

Stieb (10-5) gave up six hits, three of them in the seventh inning, while pitching his third complete game and only Toronto’s fifth all season.

Stewart gave up five hits before giving way to Rick Honeycutt with one out in the eighth. Dennis Eckersley pitched the ninth for his 24th save.

Seattle 11, Cleveland 3--Mark Langston of the Mariners and Greg Swindell of the Indians swooned in June. It figured in this game at Cleveland that one of them would end his slump.

Langston (6-8) overcame wildness to last 5 innings and end his six-game losing streak. It was his first win since May 30.

Swindell was given a 3-0 lead but couldn’t hold it and lost his sixth in a row. He gave up 4 runs and 7 hits in 3 innings. Swindell, who was 10-1 after winning May 30, has an earned-run average of 7.34 during his losing streak.

The Mariners, who batted only .216 in June, opened July with 16 hits. Scott Bradley had four of them, while shortstop Mario Diaz, just brought up from the minors, had three hits.

Baltimore 7, Texas 1--Slowly, the Orioles are gaining some respect. Mike Boddicker gave up 10 hits at Arlington, Tex., but pitched his third complete game and improved his record to 4-10.

The Orioles have won four of their last seven games.

Fred Lynn hit his 14th home run in the first inning, and the Orioles went on to pound Jeff Russell (7-2) for 11 hits and 5 runs in 5 innings.

Kansas City 8, Boston 7--Apparently, no lead is safe for the Royals.

Wednesday at Kansas City, they built a 9-0 lead over the Chicago White Sox and barely lasted, 9-8.

In this game, they gave Bret Saberhagen a 6-0 lead in two innings. By the fifth inning, Saberhagen had not only blown the lead, he had fallen behind, 7-6.

The Royals rallied to score two in the sixth to win it. Kurt Stillwell’s double drove in the go-ahead run.

Dwight Evans led the Red Sox attack, going 4 for 5, including a triple and a double. He drove in three runs and scored another.