American League Roundup : Blue Jay Rookie Has a Very Enjoyable Weekend in Boston

You talk about a weekend. Rookie Junior Felix of the Toronto Blue Jays is not likely to forget his. And for an entirely different reason, the Boston Red Sox won’t forget it, either.

It all happened in Boston. The climax came Sunday when the Red Sox, who had lost 11 straight to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park, built a 10-0 lead after six innings, then blew it when Felix hit a two-run homer in the 12th inning. The final score was 13-11.

Felix, yet another talented player from the Dominican Republic, was the hitting star of all three victories.

Friday night, Felix, 21, hit an inside-the-park grand slam in the ninth inning in a 7-2 victory. Saturday, he drove in four more runs with three hits. In the three games, Felix was eight for 16, drove in 11 runs and scored four.

Mike Smithson had the Blue Jays beaten, 10-0, but developed a blister on his foot and had to leave in the seventh. The Blue Jays went to work on the Red Sox bullpen. They scored two in the seventh, four in the eighth and five in the ninth as Ernie Whitt hit a grand slam to put them in front, 11-10. Jody Reed singled home Nick Esasky in the bottom of the ninth to send it into extra innings.

“Maybe this is the only park you can come back from a 10-run deficit,” Toronto Manager Cito Gaston said. “It was amazing.”

Felix didn’t even know the name of the pitcher he tagged for the winning homer. It was Dennis Lamp.

Oakland 4, Cleveland 0--The Indians figured out a way to get Dave Stewart out of the game at Oakland, but it was too late to prevent him from becoming the American League’s first 10-game winner.

Stewart (10-2) was ahead, 4-0, and pitching a three-hitter when he hit Cleveland catcher Andy Allanson with a pitch with two out in the seventh. As Allanson went to first, the two exchanged words, but were restrained by umpires.

When the inning ended, Allanson and Stewart met between second base and the pitching mound and began exchanging punches. Both benches emptied and Allanson and Stewart were ejected.

With bullpen ace Dennis Eckersley on the disabled list, that could have been costly to the Athletics. But Todd Burns pitched a scoreless eighth and Rick Honeycutt a perfect ninth.

In improving their record to 36-19 with a makeshift lineup caused mostly by injuries, the Athletics remained in a virtual tie with the Angels for first place in the West.

Luis Polonia singled in the first run in a three-run third inning and Dave Parker capped the uprising with a run-scoring double.

Baltimore 7, Detroit 4--Randy Milligan, after missing three games because of a sore left hand, hit a three-run home run at Detroit and the Orioles swept the four-game series and extended their winning streak to seven games.

Phil Bradley hit a two-run homer for the Orioles, who are 30-22. After 52 games last season they were 11-41 and in last place, 23 1/2 games out of first.

New York 12, Milwaukee 9--County Stadium in Milwaukee was another park where the ball was carrying well.

Football star Deion Sanders hit his first major league home run, and Jesse Barfield, who had two, Mel Hall and Steve Balboni also homered as the Yankees built a 10-0 lead after four innings. Five Milwaukee errors made six of the runs unearned.

Unlike the Red Sox, though, the Yankees didn’t blow the lead--not quite.

Before runing out of time, the Brewers fought back to make the score 11-9. But Lee Guetterman, stopped a rally in the eighth and went on to pick up his eighth save.

Seattle 2, Texas 1--Randy Johnson, the Mariners’ 6-10 left-hander, made a successful debut at the Kingdome. Ken Griffey Jr. hit a tie-breaking home run in the seventh to give Johnson a 2-0 record since being acquired from Montreal.

Chicago 2, Minnesota 1--After being sent to the bullpen a couple of weeks ago, Jerry Reuss was ineffective as a relief pitcher.

Manager Jeff Torborg, hampered by a shortage of starters because of injuries, put Reuss back into the rotation--at least for one game. Reuss responded by shutting out the Twins on three hits in six innings at Chicago and improved his record to 4-2.