American League Roundup : Yankees Share a 16-Run Inning but Win, 12-8

This may be remembered as the weekend of the big innings.

Saturday in Boston, the Kansas City Royals had an 11-run seventh inning. Sunday at Cleveland, the New York Yankees and the Indians scored 16 runs in the fifth inning.

The Yankees scored 10 runs in the top of the fifth and, despite six runs by the Indians in the home half, hung on for a 12-8 victory.

The teams sent 25 batters to the plate in the 63-minute inning and produced more runs than have ever been scored in the fifth inning of a major league game (the previous high was 14). Six pitchers gave up three homers, a triple, eight singles and five walks. There was also a sacrifice that was misplayed by Cleveland pitcher Phil Niekro and led to the downfall of the 47-year-old knuckleball specialist.

It was only the third win in the last 10 days for the Yankees, who, in desperation, were forced to start reliever Al Holland. The left-hander, who had made 266 relief appearances since he’d last started a game in 1982, will never blow a better opportunity to get a victory.

The 10-run outburst, highlighted by Rickey Henderson’s three-run home run, gave Holland a 12-1 cushion. All he had to do was retire three more batters to complete the five innings necessary for the victory, but he couldn’t do it. He struck out the first Cleveland batter in the fifth, then gave up a single, triple, single and Cory Snider’s two-run home run. Another single and a pop out brought Holland closer to victory. But Brook Jacoby homered to make it a six-run inning and bring Rod Scurry in. Scurry got the win.

Niekro, who pitched 2 innings of relief Friday to win the first game of a doubleheader, appeared to settle down after giving up two runs in the first inning Sunday. However, he walked Wayne Tolleson to open the fifth, and Don Mattingly singled. Niekro fumbled Mike Easler’s bunt, and the bases were loaded. After Niekro hit Claudell Washington to force in one run and walked Dave Winfield to force in another, the pitcher was gone. The bullpen didn’t do much better.

A consolation for the Indians was the attendance for the three weekend dates. A Sunday crowd of 45,356 made the total 153,491.

The Indians also won the respect of the Yankees, who are 4 1/2 games back of Boston and still two ahead of Cleveland after splitting the four games. “You score 10 runs in an inning and you think the other team is down,” Henderson said. “But they fought back.”

Chicago 10, Detroit 1--Russ Morman may never be as famous--or is it infamous?--as Billy Martin, but he made a similar debut.

Martin, playing for the New York Yankees on April 18, 1950, became the first player to get two hits in an inning in his first major league game.

In Sunday’s game at Chicago, Morman, brought up when Greg Walker was put on the disabled list, became the second to do it. Morman, who had been in a deep slump for a week at Buffalo, hit a home run and a single in a six-run fourth inning that enabled the White Sox to rout the Tigers.

“The first hit was a thrill,” said Morman, who had also singled in the second inning. “But the home run was a bigger thrill. After I got the second hit in the inning, I found out my parents had come in from Kansas City and had seen the homer.”

Boston 5, Kansas City 3--With runners on second and third and one out in the seventh inning of a tie game at Boston, Wade Boggs, trying to battle out of the worst slump of his career, fouled off a pitch and broke his last good bat.

He went to the bat rack, grabbed a batting-practice bat and grounded a single through a drawn-in infield to give Al Nipper (6-7) the victory.

In the first inning, Boggs, who had been 13 for 54, doubled and scored a run.

“I think I’ll stick with my new bat,” Boggs said.

Toronto 6, Baltimore 4--Baltimore Manager Earl Weaver is accustomed to seeing a shortstop hit home runs. Usually, it’s his own, Cal Ripken. But in this game at Toronto, Tony Fernandez, the Blue Jay shortstop, hit a tiebreaking, two-run home run in the seventh inning to beat the Orioles.

“Shortstops, huh!” Weaver said. “They’re worth their weight in gold when they can hit the ball over the fence. It was the last thing on my mind. I was thinking hit-and-run.”

It was the sixth home run for Fernandez. On Saturday, Ripken had hit his 17th, a three-run shot, to win the game.

Texas 7, Milwaukee 6--Hot-hitting Pete O’Brien drove in three runs with a home run and a double at Milwaukee to help the Rangers overcome two Rob Deer home runs and pull within two games of the Angels in the West.

The Rangers, with O’Brien leading the way, scored 30 runs in winning three of four games from the Brewers. In his last five games, O’Brien has hit three home runs and driven in 10 runs. Nine of the RBIs have come in the last three games.

Oakland 5, Minnesota 4--Jose Canseco, who in the fifth inning had hit his first home run in 17 games, doubled home Bruce Bochte with two out in the 11th inning at Minneapolis to end the A’s four-game losing streak.

Dave Kingman also homered for the A’s, his 23rd home run of the season. The A’s had been held to two hits in each of the two previous games with the Twins but had nine in this one.