American League Roundup : Guidry Puts Some Fight Back in Yankees With a 5-4 Win Over Orioles

Ron Guidry, making a strong bid for comeback honors, became the first 20-game winner in the American League Sunday at Baltimore when he pitched the New York Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Orioles.

Guidry, only 10-11 last season, held the Orioles to one hit until Eddie Murray hit his 31st home run to open the seventh. When Floyd Rayford hit a two-run homer to open the ninth, Dave Righetti came in to get the last three outs.

The win came only 12 hours after Manager Billy Martin was involved in his second bar altercation in two nights. It enabled the Yankees, who have won two straight after losing eight in a row, to pull within 5 1/2 games of Toronto in the East.

“It was more important that we gain on Toronto than that I won 20,” Guidry told the Associated Press. “The race isn’t over. I wanted to show we’re still in it.

“After last season I had to prove I wasn’t over the hill. I did that long ago.”

Rickey Henderson and Ken Griffey hit home runs on consecutive pitches in the third inning to get Guidry off to an early lead. For the season Henderson is 20 for 36 against the Orioles.

Milwaukee 2, Toronto 1--Although he has a 13-12 record for the team with the best record in the majors, Dave Stieb has a 2.45 earned-run average, best among starting pitchers in the league.

It wasn’t just lack of hitting that beat Stieb in this game at Toronto. An error by rookie first baseman Cecil Fielder on a Stieb pickoff attempt in the seventh put the go-ahead run on second and Paul Molitor doubled it in to give rookie Ted Higuera his 14th victory.

Higuera, 14-7 on a team that is 65-83, pitched a five-hitter and solidified his bid for Rookie of the Year honors.

Minnesota 7, Kansas City 3--Mark Funderburk drove in three runs with three singles at Kansas City to enable Frank Viola (16-14) to knock the Royals out of first place in the West.

Funderburk drove in a run in each of the Twin rallies. The Twins hammered out 14 hits to salvage one victory in the three-game series.

The Royals have lost five of their last seven games and open a three-game series at Seattle Tuesday night. The Mariners beat them four times in a row last week at Kansas City.

Boston 6, Detroit 2--Wade Boggs had two more hits at Boston to help Oil Can Boyd improve his record to 15-11. It was the 69th game in which Boggs had two or more hits and raised his average to .374. Boggs has 225 hits with 13 games remaining.