Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 11

Baseball Tuesday, August 29, 1989 Reno Gazette-Journal 3B Brewers salvage series finale Esasky hit his 26th homer of the season and ninth this month as Boston beat Detroit for a sweep of a five-game series with the Tigers. With his three-run shot off Jeff Robinson, 3-4, in the first inning, Esasky took the American League lead with 93 RBIs, including 32 in August. I'm just trying to relax and swing the bat," said Esasky, acquired from Cincinnati last winter. "I've ben having a lot of fun lately. But I've been having fun all year." "Nick's a good hitter and he's in a groove," said Boston's Wade Boggs, who improved his average to .335 with three singles.

"He's one of the best and he's doing it all for us, not just with home runs but with other base hits." While handing the Tigers their ninth consecutive defeat, the Red Sox extended their longest winning streak of the year to seven games. And they didn't mind sweeping the lowly Tigers. "A win's a win," Boggs said. TWINS 5, MARINERS 4 at Minneapolis Seattle lost its club-record tying 12th straight game as Kirby Puckett doubled home Dan Gladden with two outs in the 10th inning to give Minnesota a victory over Seattle. The loss tied Seattle's 12-game losing streak set in August 1980.

Seattle last won on Aug. 15, a 2-0 victory over Texas. The Twins have won six straight. With one out in the 10th, Wally Backman singled and was forced at second on Gladden's grounder to third before Puckett doubled up the right-center field gap against reliever Mike Schooler, 1-5. Jeff Reardon, 5-3, who blew a save opportunity in the ninth, retired Seattle in order in the 10th inning for the victory.

American League East. The Brewers are in fourth place, six games out. "I don't get any special satisfaction from beating these guys," Filer, a former Blue Jay, said. "Tonight I was concerned with getting this team back on track." John Cerutti, 9-8, allowed four runs, one earned, and nine hits in 5 innings. "I feel good and I feel strong," Cerutti said.

"I'm just not putting the ball where I want to as consistently as in the past. But I've got to keep positive. This is not the first time that I've struggled as a pitcher. I've overcome a lot of obstacles and I feel like I have to continue to do that to get to where I want to go." Krueger's performance was nothing new. "I guess I feel like I'm still trying to prove myself after being up and down (in the minors) for so long.

But I figure if I keep throwing like tonight, I've probably seen my last bus ride." said Krueger, who has now retired 34 of his last 37 batters he's faced. RED SOX 6, TIGERS 3 at Boston Nick Esasky is enjoying a hitter's dream with his slugging in the month of August. r'-y Associated Press is out sliding home as Toronto catcher Associated Press SCRAMBLING: The Cubs' Jerome Walton, right, scrambles to Glenn Davis in the second inning of Monday's game at Wrig-his feet after the ball gets away from Houston first baseman ley Field. Loss drops Toronto 2V2 behind Orioles By The Associated Press TORONTO The Milwaukee Brewers left Toronto with a victory and their sanity. Robin Yount had three hits, including his 15th homer, and newcomer Ed Romero drove in two runs as the Brewers snapped a six-game losing streak, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 8-2 Monday night.

"There are very few rational things about the game of baseball," manager Tom Trebelhorn said. "But tonight, we played rational baseball if that's possible. We got some good nights out of some key people and Tom Filer contained things pretty well." Filer allowed two runs and four hits over five innings to improve to 5-2. Filer gave up all four hits in the fourth inning as the Brewers stopped Blue Jays' six-game winning streak. Bill Krueger allowed one hit over the final four innings for his third save.

"This game was critical to our sanity," Trebelhorn said. The loss dropped Toronto two games behind first-place Baltimore in the AL National League Phillies devastate Giants, 9-1 Wire service reports Giants pitcher Rick Reuschel couldn't get through the Hayes. When he left the game in the third inning, he was seeing double. Philadelphia's Von Hayes and Charlie Hayes hit two doubles each, and Reuschel gave up seven runs and seven hits all doubles in only 2V3 innings as the Phillies beat San Francisco 9-1 Monday night at Candlestick Park. "We were just on," Von Hayes said.

"He (Reuschel) just likes to flip the ball up there and hopes to keep it down. If you don't get to him early, he gets tough on you." Charlie Hayes, who also homered and combined with Von to score six runs, drove in more runs (four) in one game than he did in 14 games played with his former team, the Giants. "I think I played maybe 10 games on this field," he said. "It's nothing special. I was part of the Giants' organization, and they took care of me.

But I didn't play enough here to know this field very well." Hayes was traded to the Phillies along with pitchers Dennis Cook and Terry Mul-holland for reliever Steve Bedorsian ear-lir this season. "I think he's more concerned with just staying in the lineup," Phillies manager Nick Leyva said. The Giants have lost three of four and have been outscored 27-6 in the three losses. "You get 18 games over .500 and then run into something like this tonight," Giants manager Roger Craig said. "We get a chance to put Houston away and we can't do it.

We can't wait for other people to beat Houston for us." Reuschel, 15-6, gave up seven runs and seven hits in 2Va innings, his worst outing since giving up seven runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Oct. 1, 1987. He lost for the first time in three starts since returning from the disabled list. Ken Howell, 11-9, won his second straight game and has given up only two earned runs and six hits in his last 16 innings. He won for the first time in three starts against the Giants this season, allowing five hits in eight innings.

Charlie and Von, who are not related, had back-to-back doubles in both the second and third innings. Three other dou- Silver Sox win Wong's double in ninth makes a winner of Clark By Ward FarrellGazette-Joumai He may not have been the hero, but Reno Silver Sox pitcher Gary Clark will take the victory. After pitching nine innings, Clark did not stay around long enough to see Kaha Wong's game-winning double as the Silver Sox topped the Salinas Spurs, 2-1, before 889 fans Monday at Moana Municipal Staidum. Clark might have missed the best part of his victory, as he left after retiring the Spurs in the top of the ninth. Frank Dominguez doubled to left field to lead off the bottom of the ninth, Joe Kmak was intentionally walked and Wong sent a Yaki Kaseda fastball over the head of center fielder Yugi Yamaguchi for the game-winning hit.

"I was just waiting for a ball I could hit," Wong said of the 410-foot blast. "I didn't care what kind of ball I hit." The hit made Clark a winner as he pitched nine innings, allowed one run on eight hits, struck out eight and walked three. Clark, in his last start of the season, raised his record to 6-8. The victory come on the heels of an illness-shortened performance last week against San Bernardino, when Clark left the game in the third inning with flu-related dizziness. "I just mixed it up," Clark said.

"I just kept the ball around the plate and got the breaking pitch over early. I just kept them off balance from the start." Clark also got some key defensive help- OUT AT HOME: Milwaukee's Paul Molitor Ernie Whitt waits with the ball. time he has done it. Both homers came off Kevin Gross, 10-9, and marked the first time all season a Padre has hit two homers in a game. Clark has 20 homers for the season.

BRAVES 5, PIRATES 2 at Pittsburgh Pete Smith beat Pittsburgh for the first time in six career decisions, and Jeff Blauser hit his third home run in three games as Atlanta defeated the Pirates. Blauser hit his ninth homer of the season in the sixth. He had the first two-homer game of his career Saturday in Chicago. Smith, 4-13, came into the game 0-5 with an earned run average of 9.32 in five appearances against the Pirates. He pitched 6 innings, allowed five hits, struck out four and walked three.

CARDINALS 3, REDS 2 at St. Louis Pedro Guerrero's twoout, two-run single capped a three-run eighth inning, giving St. Louis a victory over Cincinnati, the Cardinals' 11th in their last 15 games. Guerrero drove in his 89th and 90th runs with a hit off Rob Dibble, 7-4, after Cincinnati rookie Scott Scudder carried a four-hitter and a 2-0 lead into the inning. Scudder left after Todd Zeile grounded out, and Denny Walling doubled pinch-hitting for John Costello, 3-2.

Todd Worrell pitched the final inning for his 20th save. Athletics From page 1B on all cylinders. Offense is a big one," La Russa said. "One way to win a game is jump on them early. If you want to get hot, playing 2-1, 3-2 all the time, you're too vulnerable." The Athletics' offense picked up Stewart on a night he said his fastball was so-so.

Stewart gave up three runs and nine hits in 6V3 innings for his 59th victory in the last three seasons. Relievers Rick Honeycut, Todd Burns, Matt Young and Dennis Eckersley shut out the Yankees on three hits in the fast 2 23 innings. Eckersley pitched the last two innings for his 28th save as he pitched at Yankee Stadium for the first time since suffering a strained rotator cuff muscle in New York May 27. He missed seven weeks with the injury. Stewart is two victories away from being the first American League pitcher to have 20 victories three seasons in a row since Baltimore's Jim Palmer had four 20-victory seasons from 1975 to 1978.

The Athletics staked Stewart to a 4-1 lead in the second inning. With Ron Hassey on third, after leading off with a double, Tony Phillips hit a chopping ball off Hawkins' glove for a two-out, run-scoring, infield single. Weiss followed with his third homer of the season and his first since April 5. "In the second inning, we should still be ahead 1-0," said Hawkins, insisting he should've made the play on Phillips' hit. "But even if I make that play they get a couple of hits (in the third).

Weiss goes deep of all people. You look at that lineup and you don't think of him hitting one out." Major League notes Rose feels betrayed by Giamatti Wire service reports CINCINNATI Pete Rose feels double crossed by A. Bartlett Giamatti because of the commissioner's public statement that he believes Rose bet on baseball. But Giamatti disagreed Monday, saying the agreement he reached under which he banned Rose from the sport does not prohibit Giamatti's stated personal opinion that he thinks Rose bet on baseball. Giamatti emphasized at a news conference Thursday in New York that the statement was his opinion, not an official finding of major league baseball.

"I was dumbfounded that he would say that," Rose told The Cincinnati Post in an interview published Monday. "Just; 12 hours earlier, we signed that agreement in good faith, and there he was saying he thinks I bet on baseball. "The only reason I signed that agreement was that it had no finding that I bet on baseball. We got what we wanted, and we didn't have to go another eight months and spend another three-quarters of a million dollars," Rose said during the interview at his suburban Cincinnati home. Giamatti said Monday that Rose appears to have been misinformed about the agreement.

1 "I'm saddened to hear this view I was very clear about the fact that I was not going to be constrained from saying what I thought was the case," Giamatti said by telephone from Edgartown, Mass. "I'm not going to change anything I said. "The agreement was reached to acquiesce in their desire to avoid a hearing In the absence of a hearing, there can be no formal finding. The document also says I have a formal basis for the sanction I imposed." Giamatti said he based his personal belief on the 225-page report by baseball investigator John M. Dowd about Rose's alleged baseball betting.

Giamatti banned Rose from baseball -for life, under an agreement stipulating that Rose did not admit having bet on baseball. The agreement allows Rose, whose five-year term as manager of the Cincinnati Reds ended Thursday, to apply in one year for reinstatement to baseball, but there are no guarantees his application will be accepted. The agreement was drafted between a top Giamatti aide, deputy baseball commissioner Francis T. Vincent and Rose's lawyer, Reuven J. Katz.

TIM BELCHER of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who pitched his major league-leading fifth shutout last week, was named National League Player of the Week for Aug. 21-27. Belcher had a 2-0 record during the week, allowing 12 hits and one earned run while striking out 15 and walking six in 17 innings. His ERA for the week was 0.53. Other nominees for the weekly award were Robert Alomar of San Diego, Pittsburgh's Gary Redus, and Cincinnati's Todd Benzinger and Rob Dibble.

RIGHT-HANDER BOB WELCH of the Oakland Athletics was named the American League Player of the Week for Aug. 21-27. Welch pitched 16 innings and didn't allow run in posting a 2-0 record. He gave up just 1J hits while walking two and striking out 12. He defeated Nolan Ryan and the Texas Rangers on the night when Ryan collected his career strikeout, and he beat the Kansas City Royals and rookie sensation Tom Gordon oh Sunday.

Welch has a 15-7 record this season with a 2.71 earned-run average. Others considered for the weekly award included Baltimore's Jeff Ballard and Kansas City's Bret Saberhagen, who each compiled 2-0 records; Cleveland's Jerry Browne, Boston's Ellis Burks and Mookie Wilson of Toronto. i MINNESOTA continued its youth movement Monday, trading 39-year-old Jim Dwyer to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later, i The Twins, who got wins from three straight rookie pitchers over the weekend, also called up seven young players from the minors include ing right-handers Tim Drummond and Kevin Tapani, the minor-league pitchers acquired front the New York Mets in last month's Frank Viola trade. "And I don't think we're through yet," Genera) Manager Andy MacPhail said. Dwyer, who was the Twins' oldest player, batted .316 with three home runs and 23 RBIs in 84 games as a designated hitter and pinch hitten He carried a good share of the toad in May, whet) Kent Hrbek was out with an bles by Len Dykstra in the first, Dickie Thon in the second and Ricky Jordan had in the third figured in the scoring.

The Phillies had eight doubles in the game. Despite the loss, San Francisco remained four games ahead of Houston in National League West. CUBS 6, ASTROS 1 at Chicago Greg Maddux doesn't like the term about getting the monkey off your back. Not for Chicago, which recently lost six of seven or for himself for his so-so finish last year after he had gone 15-3 at the All-Star break only to finish the season with an 18-8 record. "I think of those as tough periods," said Maddux, who pitched a strong six-hitter in leading the Cubs over Houston.

It was his sixth complete game and first by a Cub pitcher since Maddux went the distance against Montreal on August 7. "Greg Maddux did something that we really needed," said manager Don Zimmer. "He went nine innings and I didn't have to get a single guy up in the bullpen. I can't remember the last time that happened." Maddux, 15-10, has turned things completely around this season. He started out at 1-5 and has since gone 14-5 with 9 victories in his last 12 decisions.

"It helps when you have four runs to work close one from with," said Maddux. "You can tnrow strikes and hope the batter gets himself out. And you don't have to worry about someone hitting the ball out of the park. I kept the ball down today and caught some breaks." METS 1, DODGERS 0 at Los Angeles Frank Viola won baseball's first-ever duel of defending Cy Young Award winners, beating Orel Hershiser and Los Angeles with a three-hitter for his first complete game in the National League. The loss was the fourth straight for Hershiser, 14-10, for whom the Dodgers have scored only four runs in that span.

The game's only run came in on Gregg Jef-feries' third-inning single, a groundout and Howard Johnson's RBI single. The victory snapped a five-game losing streak by the Mets, who are 3V2 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL East. PADRES 9, EXPOS 4 at San Diego Jack Clark hit a pair of three-run homers and Andy Benes, 2-2, won his second straight start as San Diego defeated Montreal for its fifth straight victory. The winning streak tied San Diego's longest of the season and pulled the Padres within seven games of first-place San Francisco in the NL West. The third-place Expos fell three games behind the Chicago Cubs in the East.

Clark tied a career high with six RBIs, the third Salinas, 2-1 Joe Gosen Gazette-Journal Shelvin reached base on an infield single and scored on Kerry Shaw's double to the gap in right-center field. Shaw took third base when Reno second basemen Mike Westbrook threw a relay throw over the head of catcher Domin- guez. Reno tied the game in a wild seventh inning. Dominguez hit a ball through Ed Pimentel's legs and Joe Kmak double play grounder was botted into center field to put runners on first and second with one out. Wong grounded to first to move runners to second and third.

Kaseda struck out Bill Bluhm, but the ball got by Yoshida, allowing the run to score. LITTLE DICKENS: Reno's Mike Bosco awaits the throw as Dickens Benoit of Salinas slides safely back into second base Monday night at Moana Stadium. Calif ornia League from left fielder Gary Nails in the top of the eighth. After Clark allowed walks to Jim Shelvin and kerry Shaw, Greg Sparks singled to left for what appeared to be the go-ahead run. But Nails fielded the ball and gunned down pinch-runner Jeff Kaiser to keep the game tied.

Salinas' Kaseda, 10-8, took the hard-luck loss as he pitched eight innings, allowed one earned run on nine hits, walked two and struck out four. Salinas scored a run in the sixth inning to take a 1-0 lead..