Baseball Roundup : Blue Jays Beat Orioles in 10 Innings, 4-3

At the All-Star break, the Toronto Blue Jays led the American League East by 2 1/2 games. But, the consensus was that the Blue Jays wouldn’t hold on, and the old favorites--the Tigers, Orioles and Yankees would be there at the end. There may be playoff at Exhibition Stadium this year as the Blue Jays have the lowest magic number of any team in baseball with 63 games to play. They have won nine in a row and lead the second-place Yankees by seven games after defeating the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3, in 10 innings Monday night.

Again, an unknown player helped the Blue Jays to victory. Tom Henke, whose contract was purchased by Toronto from Syracuse of the International League on Monday, pitched scoreless ball in the ninth and 10th innings to get a victory in his first major league appearance. The Blue Jays brought up Henke when Jim Clancy was placed on the disabled list with tendinitis. Henke had an 0.87 earned-run average and pitched a string of 34 innings in which he did not allow an earned run.

Damaso Garcia was the hitting star in game at Baltimore, sending a Mike Boddicker pitch into the left-field bleachers in the top of the 10th. It was Garcia’s eighth game-winning RBI, tying him for the club lead. Toronto is now 10-1 in extra-inning games.

“I’m not a home run hitter and I don’t think I’ll ever be one so I don’t try,” Garcia told the Associated Press. “I can’t really lift the ball. That’s my problem.”

But the lift was there Monday night for Garcia, who hit his fourth homer. He leads the team in hits with 119 batting in the leadoff spot.

Manager Bobby Cox said: “You watch him (Garcia) in batting practice, and he can really juice the ball. He’s got power.”

Toronto grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second on a single by Al Oliver and home runs by Willie Upshaw, his 10th, and Ernie Whitt, his 13th.

The Orioles tied the score at 3-3 in the fifth when Floyd Rayford, who has had three consecutive three-hit games, led off by lining his fourth homer of the season. Fred Lynn hit his 17th homer of the season in the fourth inning.

Milwaukee 3, Texas 2--Ted Simmons hit a tie-breaking single in the eighth inning and rookie Ted Higuera pitched a five-hitter to lift the Brewers over the Rangers.

Higuera had a career-high 12 strikeouts in the win at Milwaukee.

Simmons’ single, hit off Charlie Hough, capped a two-run rally and made a winner of Higuera (8-6) who walked only one in completing his third game. Seven of Higuera’s eight victories have been over Western Division teams.

Kansas City 4, Detroit 2--The Royals and Tigers met in last year’s American League playoffs. But, surprisingly, the Royals are now the only ones with a good chance of making it back to the playoffs.

Hal McRae hit a two-out, two-run single in the third inning and Steve Balboni belted a two-run homer to give the Royals their eighth straight victory to pull within 2 1/2 games of the Angels. The Tigers fell to 9 1/2 games behind Toronto.

Bret Saberhagen (12-5) scattered seven hits and struck out seven to gain the the victory at Detroit.

The Royals scored twice off loser Dan Petry (11-10) in the third. Petry, who has faced Saberhagen the last four times he has pitched against Kansas City, hit Onix Concepcion with a pitch with one out. Willie Wilson then singled to left and took second when Barbaro Garbey’s throw was late to third. Lonnie Smith flied out to right and George Brett was walked intentionally to fill the open base.

McRae, making only his fifth start in 14 months against a right-handed pitcher, lined Petry’s first pitch to left to score two runs.

Balboni hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Royals’ final runs. It was Balboni’s 19th homer of the season.

New York 8, Cleveland 2--Mike Pagliarulo scored the tie-breaking run with two outs in the seventh inning at Cleveland when shortstop Julio Franco booted Dave Winfield’s ground ball and Dan Pasqua followed with a two-run single.

Ed Whitson (6-7), who seems to have his cut fastball back, picked up the victory which was the fifth in his last six decisions. He was replaced in the eighth inning by Dave Righetti, who picked up his 18th save.

With the score tied 2-2, Bert Blyleven (9-11) hit Pagliarulo with a pitch leading off the seventh. After Andre Robertson sacrificed, Rickey Henderson walked. Blyleven struck out Ken Griffey, but Don Mattingly walked to load the bases.

Winfield than hit a routine grounder directly at Franco, but the shortstop mishandled the ball for his 25th error of the season as Pagliarulo scored.

Winfield hit a two-run homer his 14th of the season in the ninth.

New York 3, Montreal 2--The Mets moved to within three games of idle St. Louis as they defeated the Expos at New York.

Rookie Rick Aguilera and Jesse Orosco combined on a five-hitter. Aguilera (4-3) walked two and struck out four, retiring 11 batters in a row at one point and allowing only Andre Dawson’s two-out single over the first seven innings.

Mets Manager Dave Johnson thinks that Aguilera has come along faster than any of his young pitchers with the exception of Dwight Gooden. “He’s at least a year ahead of schedule,” Johnson told AP. “Rick has more command of his pitches and better consistency than (Ron) Darling and (Sid) Fernandez.”

Orosco allowed a single to Dawson and Tim Wallach’s ninth homer in the ninth, but hung on to collect his 11th save.

The Mets took a 2-0 lead in the first off Bryn Smith (12-4). Len Dykstra led off with a double and moved to third when Smith mishandled Wally Backman’s sacrifice bunt. Keith Hernandez then doubled home both runners, his 16th game-winning RBI, which leads the major leagues.

Smith had his five-game winning streak snapped but didn’t walked any batters in seven innings to extend his string of innings without walks to 31 .

Seattle 8, Minnesota 6--Gorman Thomas hit two home runs and Dave Henderson broke a 5-5 tie with a three-run blast in the seventh inning at Seattle to lead the Mariners to their third straight win. The homers by Thomas, raising his season total to 22, gave him five in the last three games and eight since the All-Star break.