American League Roundup : Gubicza Beats Yankees for 7th Straight Win

On a team with such celebrated performers as George Brett, Bo Jackson and Bret Saberhagen, pitcher Mark Gubicza often goes unnoticed.

However, his brilliance didn’t escape Minnesota’s Tom Kelly and the other American League managers when the Kansas City right-hander was selected for the All-Star Game.

Friday night, the 25-year-old Gubicza made a strong bid to earn the starting job in his first invitation to the annual game Tuesday night at Cincinnati.

Gubicza, the hottest pitcher in the league, pitched a four-hitter, and Jackson hit a three-run home run at New York to lead the Royals to a 4-0 victory.

It was the seventh consecutive win for Gubicza and improved his record to 12-5. In his last seven starts, he has not given up more than two earned runs in any outing.

As May wound down, Gubicza was 5-5 with an earned-run average of 3.54. He had no thought of an All-Star bid. He was just trying to get something going. Moreover, the Royals were 13 1/2 games behind.

Once Gubicza straightened out, he started carrying the Royals up the ladder with him. And the return of Jackson has the Royals thinking they can contend in the West. They are 7 1/2 games back.

Jackson’s three-run home run in the fifth broke up a scoreless tie between Gubicza and John Candelaria (9-5). Gubicza had an easy time the rest of the way, retiring the last 15 batters.

He struck out 6 and retired 15 Yankees on ground balls. The key to Gubicza’s success was his ability to handle the key Yankee hitters. The offensive catalyst, Rickey Henderson, was 0 for 4, and the three batters in the middle--Don Mattingly, Jack Clark and Dave Winfield--were a combined 0 for 10.

“I was beginning to be frustrated here in New York,” Gubicza said. “In my previous three games here I had given up one run, two runs and one run but didn’t win any of them. I figured a shutout would do it.”

Gubicza drew praise from Mattingly. “I thought he was a completely different pitcher tonight than he was in other games,” Mattingly said. “He was tough.”

Oakland 3, Detroit 2--To win these days, the Athletics need Mark McGwire to deliver with his bat. The slugging first baseman won consecutive games with 16th-inning home runs early in the week, then the leaders of the West lost four in a row.

McGwire hit his 16th home run and drove in another run with a ground-out at Detroit, and the Athletics ended their mild slump. With Minnesota losing, the A’s raised their lead to 4 1/2 games.

Storm Davis (6-4), who gave up 15 earned runs in his previous 31 innings, lasted until two were out in the seventh, and Greg Cadaret and Dennis Eckersley finished up. Eckersley pitched two scoreless innings forhis 26th save.

Despite the loss, the Tigers remained three games ahead in the East.

Milwaukee 5, Minnesota 3--Bill Wegman gave up home runs to Kent Hrbek and Steve Lombardozzi, but not much else at Minneapolis, to win his first road game of the season.

Wegman yielded 3 hits in 6 innings. Hrbek’s was a 443-foot blast into the upper deck at the Metrodome. Lombardozzi’s was an inside-the-park homer with a man on.

Robin Yount doubled home a run and scored another, and Paul Molitor had three hits for the Brewers.

All-Star selection Dan Plesac pitched the last 1 innings to get his 20th save.

Toronto 3, Seattle 2--Mike Flanagan finally made it official: He has won 150 games in the majors. His victory June 26 was mistakenly called his 150th.

In this game at Toronto, Flanagan (8-6) gave up seven hits in seven innings and picked two runners off base.

Chicago 6-7, Boston 5-10--Ellis Burks hit a pair of two-run home runs at Chicago to lead the Red Sox to victory in the second game of the doubleheader.

Harold Baines broke out of a 3-for-24 slump with a pair of long run-scoring doubles, and the White Sox won the opener.

The Red Sox rallied in the fifth inning of the nightcap after falling behind, 5-3. They scored seven times, getting nine consecutive hits.

Texas 8, Baltimore 5--Pete O’Brien drove in three runs at Baltimore, and Scott Fletcher had four hits to lead the Rangers.

Although it was one of his poorest outings in a long time, Jose Guzman lasted until two were out in the seventh to improve his record to 9-6. One of the hits off him was Eddie Murray’s 12th home run.