American League Roundup : Welch Holds Up His End of Deal, Beats Tigers

For two of the teams, at least, the eight-player, three-team trade last winter may just be the deal that leadsthem to division titles.

Both Oakland and the Dodgers have healthy leads as the regular season heads into its last two months. The New York Mets made their move one for the future, getting three minor league pitchers they consider outstanding prospects.

The Dodgers got two pitchers to shore up an ailing bullpen, Jay Howell and Jesse Orosco, and shortstop Alfredo Griffin. Even though Griffin is hurt and has missed 60 games, all three have contributed to the Dodgers’ turnaround.

The Athletics’ main man was Dodger pitcher Bob Welch. He is the stopper, the key man in the Oakland starting staff.

Welch pitched a six-hitter and Walt Weiss doubled in the only run Sunday at Oakland as the Athletics beat Detroit, 1-0, to sweep the three-game series.

The victory kept the A’s 6 1/2 games ahead of Minnesota in the AL West, but it dropped the Tigers into a tie with the New York Yankees for the lead in the East.

The weary Tigers headed home after a 4-6 trip West.

Welch, who never won more than 16 games for the Dodgers, improved his record to 12-6. He struck out 8 and walked just 1. Last Tuesday he emerged from a brief slump to beat the Cleveland Indians in the first game of a doubleheader to start a 6-1 spurt by the A’s that has put heavy pressure on Minnesota.

Walt Terrell (4-8) lost for the fifth time in six decisions, but he pitched a strong five-hitter and went the distance.

In the fifth Carney Lansford, who has dropped from .402 on June 6 to .307, drew a walk. After a forceout, Weiss doubled into the alley in right-center for his 13th extra base hit of the season to drive in Terry Steinbach with the only run.

Welch retired the last eight batters to finish with a flourish.

“The guy (Welch) pitched great,” the Tigers’ Alan Trammell said. “We’ve seen him a couple of times now and location is the key for him. He was putting the ball where he wanted to today and had good speed.”

Boston 3, Chicago 2--Two weeks ago, Joe Morgan, approaching 58, was a coach earning $45,000 in his 37th year in professional baseball.

Now, he is performing miracles as a manager and will pickup an extra $60,000.

With a sweep of the four-game series at Boston, Morgan ran his record as a manager to 11-0 and his team moved to within 1 1/2 games of first place. When he replaced John McNamara they were nine games behind. How’s that for a miracle?

In this game, he sent Bruce Hurst, still weak from an illness, to the mound. Although he gave up 10 hits in five innings, Hurst (10-4) gained the victory because Dennis Lamp and Lee Smith were superb in relief.

Wade Boggs, who had three hits to raise his average to .363, singled in the first and scored on Mike Greenwell’s triple and the Red Sox were on their way.

New York 10, Kansas City 8--The Yankee pitching is so wretched, a 7-0 first inning lead didn’t even hold up at Kansas City.

They needed a three-run home run by Jack Clark in the sixth inning to overcome an 8-7 deficit. Clark started the game at first base with Don Mattingly going to the outfield for the first time since 1984.

Mattingly, playing left field, let a drive by Willie Wilson get over his head for a double and admitted he was uncomfortable out there.

The first seven Yankees to face Bret Saberhagen (10-10) scored. But Richard Dotson blew the lead by the fourth inning. Neil Allen pitched four innings to win it.

The wild four-game series drew a Royals’ record 161,019 fans and they were treated to 56 runs and 81 hits. The split moved the Yankees into a tie for first.

Minnesota 6, Baltimore 1--Saturday night Eddie Murray hit home runs in each of the first two innings at Minneapolis to lead the Orioles to victory.

But, in the second inning of this game the first baseman made a wild throw home that allowed two runs to score. When Randy Bush hit a three-run homer in the eighth, it made a winner of Allan Anderson (7-7).

“I’m just trying to think about ground balls,” Anderson said. “I went out and took it one inning at a time.”

After six scoreless innings, he gave up three hits and the Oriole run in the seventh.

Toronto 6, Seattle 0--Mike Flanagan pitched a four-hitter at Seattle for his first shutout in more than four years.

Cecil Fielder hit two home runs to make it easy for Flanagan to improve his record to 10-6.

Flanagan, who won 23 games in 1979 for Baltimore, had only 17 victories in the last three seasons.

Texas 6, Milwaukee 4--Paul Kilgus, a loser in his 4 previous starts, held the Brewers to 3 hits in 8 innings at Milwaukee and Pete Incaviglia and Geno Petralli hit home runs.

Kilgus (8-9) held a 6-1 lead, but when Jeffrey Leonard homered, Robin Yount walked and Greg Brock hit a two-run home run to open the ninth, Kilgus was gone.

MORGAN’S MAGIC

The Boston Red Sox are 11-0 since Joe Morgan became manager. All games played at Fenway Park:

Date Score July 15 Red Sox 3, Royals 1 Red Sox 7, Royals 4 July 16 Red Sox 7, Royals 6 July 17 Red Sox 10, Royals 8 July 18 Red Sox 6, Twins 5 July 19 Red Sox 5, Twins 0 July 20 Red Sox 9, Twins 7 (10 innings) July 21 Red Sox 6, White Sox 1 July 22 Red Sox 4, White Sox 3 July 23 Red Sox 11, White Sox 5 July 24 Red Sox 3, White Sox 2