American League Roundup : Yankee Base-Running in 9th Helps Red Sox Hang On for 7-6 Win

The New York Yankees figured it was a glorious opportunity to close in on first place in the American League East. The Boston Red Sox, holding a 3 1/2-game lead, were coming into New York for a three-game series with a considerable portion of their machine missing.

Unable to play were Wade Boggs, baseball’s best hitter, and three good pitchers, Bruce Hurst, Al Nipper and Sammy Stewart. All were injured and Boggs, because of the tragic death of his mother, wasn’t even on hand.

But, with two-thirds of the series over, it is the Red Sox who are enjoying the situation. Monday night, they breezed behind their ace, Roger Clemens.

They jumped all over Yankee ace, Joe Niekro Tuesday night and, thanks to some strange base-running by the Yankees in the ninth, held on for a 7-6 victory and a 5 1/2-game lead.

Niekro (7-4) gave up all the runs and seven hits in 2 innings. Four of the runs were the result of two Dwight Evans home runs and Bill Buckner had a two-run home run.

The Yankees pecked away until they pulled within a run with two in the seventh. In the eighth, they loaded the bases, but Joe Sambito came on to strike out Mike Pagliarulo.

Sambito wasn’t much of a puzzle in the ninth, but the Yankees were. Butch Wynegar and Willie Randolph opened with singles. Dale Berra singled to left, but Wynegar was sent home by new third base coach Don Zimmer and was out. The Yankees couldn’t send in a runner for Wynegar because they had used all their reserves except Ken Griffey, who didn’t show up for the game.

Rickey Henderson, who earlier hit his 12th home run, walked to fill the bases. But the Yankees’ two clutch hitters, Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield, couldn’t get anyone home. Mattingly flied to short right, and Winfield grounded out. The Yankees stranded 15 runners.

“This was the important night,” Buckner said. “Imagine, they trailed by one run, had the bases loaded and one out and the toughest hitter they have (Mattingly) up. In fact, they had three potential Hall of Famers (Henderson, Mattingly and Winfield) up and they couldn’t even tie. It was out biggest win.”

Kansas City 2, Oakland 1--Manager Dick Howser has regained his faith in bullpen ace Dan Quisenberry and the world champion Royals are on the move.

The veteran sidearmer, who has been among the top relief pitchers throughout the 80s, fell out of favor recently when he began to give up hits in game-saving situations. Quisenbery, who had more than 170 saves in the previous four seasons, had only four saves this season in the club’s first 61 games.

When he worked out of a ninth-inning jam at Oakland, it was the third save in a row for Quisenberry. To do it, he had to get four outs. With two on and two out, Carney Lansford hit an easy grounder to Steve Balboni. Instead of a game-ending out, Balboni fumbled the ball and the bases were loaded. But Quisenberry got Jose Canseco to bounce back to the mound and it was over.

Toronto 2, Milwaukee 1--The Blue Jays are starting to win the tough games. In this game at Milwaukee, Jesse Barfield singled in the first run of the game in the top of the 10th, then doubled home the winner with one out in the 12th.

Toronto’s Jimmy Key and Milwaukee’s Danny Darwin each pitched nine shutout innings. Rob Deer’s 12th home run gave the Brewers the tying run in the bottom of the 10th, but that was their fourth and last hit of the night.

Barfield’s double came after Dan Plesac (4-4) walked Willie Upshaw.

Detroit 6, Baltimore 3--Kirk Gibson, who has been in a slump since coming off the disabled list two weeks ago, emerged with a bang at Baltimore.

Gibson hit his fifth home run and two singles, driving in three runs to help Randy O’Neal win his first game since last July. Willie Hernandez pitched the last 2 innings to get his 11th save.

Minnesota 4, Chicago 1--Kent Hrbek and Tom Brunansky hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning at Minneapolis and the Twins went on to win their third in a row. The Twins have hit 95 home runs in 63 games.

Mike Smithson (6-5) gave up 10 hits before Keith Atherton took over with one out in the seventh and pitched 2 hitless innings for his first save.

Seattle 5, Cleveland 2--It was a bad night for the Niekro brothers. At Cleveland, older brother Phil was bombed for a three-run home run by Gorman Thomas in the second inning and was shelled after giving up 10 hits in 4 innings.

Thomas was the designated hitter because Ken Phelps has an injured leg.