AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Tigers Enjoy View, Stay Tied for Lead

The Detroit Tigers enjoyed the feeling that goes with being in first place so much, they were in no mood to give up their share of the top in the American League East.

After Dave Valle tagged Walt Terrell for a home run in the top of the ninth inning Sunday at Detroit to give Seattle a 3-2 lead, the Tigers did not despair.

A pinch-hit single by Tony Phillips drove in the tying run and, with two out, Lou Whitaker, who had hit a two-run home run, singled into right-center field to give the Tigers a 4-3 victory. With Toronto winning, the teams remained tied for first place.

Terrell (10-10) gave the Tigers another strong game. He pitched his sixth complete game, giving up nine hits. He gave up two runs in the first inning, then pitched extremely well until Valle, batting .149 going into the game and the No. 9 hitter, hit his sixth home run of the season.

Whitaker’s 20th home run after a walk to Milt Cuyler tied the game in the bottom of the first inning.

After Russ Swan retired the first Tiger in the ninth, the Mariners, who have lost six in a row, brought in Mike Schooler. Travis Fryman, Scott Livingstone and Phillips singled to tie it. Cuyler grounded into a force out and Rob Murphy, a left-hander was brought in to face the left-handed hitting Whitaker. Whitaker foiled the strategy with a liner into the gap.

“Actually, I fouled off a better pitch than I hit,” Whitaker said. “He threw me a good pitch, but I stayed with it and hit it hard.”

Toronto 11, New York 7--With Roberto Kelly driving in three runs with a home run and another one with a sacrifice fly, the Yankees built a 7-2 lead at Toronto.

But Tim Leary and Leo Guetterman couldn’t hold it. The Blue Jays scored three times in the seventh inning and six times in the eighth.

One of the key hits in the winning rally was a bases-loaded single by Pat Tabler, who is 42 for 85 with the bases loaded and has 102 runs batted in.

Baltimore 7, Minnesota 3--Scott Erickson gave up six hits and six runs in 4 1/3 innings at Baltimore and the Twins lost.

Since injuring his elbow June 29, Erickson (16-6) has been mostly ineffective. In his last nine starts he has made it into the seventh inning only twice.

“My elbow doesn’t hurt, but I think I was hurrying too much,” Erickson said. “I should have relaxed and tried to make good pitches.”

Joe Orsulak had two hits to extend his streak to 21 games. He is one game behind the Oriole record held by Eddie Murray and Doug DeCinces.

Milwaukee 8, Oakland 2--Greg Vaughn had the first four-hit game of his career and the Brewers won their third one-sided game in a row. In the three-game weekend series, the Brewers, who have won five in a row, outscored the fading Athletics, 28-6.

Vaughn hit home runs in each of the first two games of the series and this time had two doubles and two singles, driving in three runs. He has five home runs and 19 RBIs against Oakland this season.

The Athletics have lost 10 of 14 games, are seven games behind the Twins and show no signs they can contend.

The Brewers, who are 7 1/2 games out of first place in the East, jumped on Ron Darling for 13 hits and seven runs in 4 2/3 innings. Darling won his first three American League decisions and had an earned-run average of 1.69 before being hammered in his fifth start with the A’s.

Texas 8, Kansas City 4--Steve Buechele bounced a two-run single over shortstop Dave Howard in the 11th inning at Kansas City to trigger a four-run uprising.

The Royals jumped to a 3-0 lead, lost it, but led, 4-3, until the ninth when Brian Downing singled home the tying run with two out.

Cleveland 3, Chicago 0--Rod Nichols, who had a 1-10 record, pitched a three-hitter at Cleveland for his first career shutout.

The White Sox, who have lost six in a row, have gone 2-12 and lost six games in the standings since Wilson Alvarez pitched a no-hitter against Baltimore Aug. 11.

The game was interrupted often by swarms of insects.

Albert Belle had three hits and drove in two runs for the Indians.