American League Roundup : Shirley Pitches In as Yankees Win Again, 4-1

The New York Yankees were expected to set a record for 10-9 games this season. They were a fine hitting team with atrocious pitching.

The hitting is living up to expectations in the early going, but it is the pitching that has sent the team off to its best start in 38 years.

The pitching gets more remarkable each day. Bob Shirley came out of the bullpen Wednesday night at New York and beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-1, for the Yankees’ ninth victory in a row and a 12-3 start.

Last season, Shirley, a 32-year-old left-hander, started six games and was routed in all of them. He had an 0-4 record and a 5.04 earned-run average.

All of a sudden, he is brilliant. He gave up 4 hits and 1 run in 5 innings before the bullpen shut down the Tigers the rest of the way. In the last five games, the Yankee pitchers have given up only 3 earned runs.

Charlie Hudson, Tommy John, Rick Rhoden, Joe Niekro and Shirley were the starting pitchers in those five games. They are not a who’s who of pitching. True, Rhoden won 15 games for the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates last season, but the other five combined for a 21-27 record. It was no better than even money that any one of them would be pitching in the majors this season.

What happened? Yankee owner George Steinbrenner signed up almost an entire staff of former pitching stars to work with the 21 pitchers he brought into spring training.

The staff consisted of two Hall of Famers--Catfish Hunter and Whitey Ford--plus Eddie Lopat, Russ Meyer, Ken Rowe, Hoyt Wilhelm, Stan Williams, Bill Monbouquette and regular pitching coach Mark Connor.

Hunter and Ford supervised fundamental drills for all pitchers. The others were each assigned a group to work with.

For the moment, Steinbrenner appears to be a genius. There is success even beyond his fondest dreams. A staff, consisting mainly of discards, has blossomed into one of the most effective in the majors.

The last time Shirley won as a starter was June 1985. In two relief appearances this season, he gave up 4 runs in 6 innings.

But the Tigers, except for Terry Harper’s home run in the fourth, couldn’t do anything with him.

When Rickey Henderson hit a two-run home run off Frank Tanana in the third inning, the Yankees were on their way to another victory. In the fourth with one on and one out, Ron Kittle’s long drive to left-center caromed off left fielder Larry Herndon’s glove and over the fence for another home run.

The Yankees’ big test is ahead. They are 9-0 at home but play 22 of their next 29 games on the road.

Boston 1, Kansas City 0--It was an unusual night for veteran pitchers. Bob Stanley, who has been mostly a reliever in recent years, pitched an excellent game at Boston.

Stanley, a 32-year-old right-hander, gave up just four hits and pitched his first shutout in nearly seven years.

Of course, now that George Brett is injured and Bo Jackson is slumping, shutting out the Royals is not that tough. This was the fourth time in the last five games that the Royals have failed to score a run.

Dwight Evans singled Jim Rice home from third in the fourth inning to spoil a fine performance by Danny Jackson.

Baltimore 3, Texas 2--Ray Knight, now batting .437, has built something of a reputation as a hitter in his brief spell in the American League.

But there was no way reliever Greg Harris wanted to walk the Orioles’ new third baseman in the 10th inning at Arlington, Tex. The bases were loaded, and the walk, on a 3-and-1 pitch, gave the Orioles the victory to end a three-game losing streak.

Toronto 6, Cleveland 3--Steve Carlton does not appear to be the answer to the Indians’ bullpen woes.

They held a 3-1 lead over the Blue Jays at Cleveland, but Carlton couldn’t bail starter Ken Schrom out of trouble in the seventh, and Toronto tied the game.

Two hits (one a bunt), a sacrifice and a sacrifice fly beat Carlton (1-2) in the ninth. Two more runs scored when third baseman Brook Jacoby booted George Bell’s grounder.

Seattle 4, Minnesota 3--Trailing Bert Blyleven, 3-1, in the seventh inning at Minneapolis is not an enviable spot to be in.

But Harold Reynolds singled in a two-run seventh inning to knock out Blyleven, then singled in the winning run in the eighth.