THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, June 18, 1974 1 ยง~e SanMJs7a./ Kaline topples Texas; Horton as DH Hok saysno Birds blank Minnesota; John Kahler --f . . - - .... _ ... .L L -. THE MORE ONE looks at the Detroit Tigers, the more one has to question the tho'ght processes of manager Ralph Houk. The Tigers happen to be hot at the moment; going into last night's game with Texas, the Bengals had won seven of their last nine. But the moves of the Miracle Major remain mystifing to all. It is a well known fact that, for over a month now, Willie Horton has been playing in pain. The slugging outfielder has a pair of injured knees that have severely restricted his mobility in the outfield and totally eliminated what little speed he had on the basepaths. Friday night, Willie re-injured himself when he got trapped off second base in the opening inning, and had to make a belated slide back to the bag. He had to be lifted in the fourth inning for Ben Oglivie, and did not see any action on Saturday. It has been Houk's custom in recent games to pull Horton around the seventh inning for one of the Tiger's many defensive replacements. Unfortunately, the Tigers cannot afford to see Horton idling on the bench, since he possesses one of the few effective bats on the club. At last report, Willie was batting .304, easily leading the Tiger regulars, with 15 homers and 39 RBI's. When you consider that the nearest Tiger to Horton in the home run race is Ed Brinkman, the value of Horton in the lineup becomes obvious. Any other American League club possessing a slugger with aching knees would automatically make his the designated hitter. But Houk has not done so with Horton. Willie continues to play in the outfield, while Al Kaline is the Tiger DH. Kaline is reaching the end of a long and distinguished career with the Tigers. His goal this season is to reach' the 3,000 career hit mark, and barring any disasterous mishaps, he should make it. He became a DH in his quest for the 3,000 hit plateau. Playing' the outfield would have exposed Kaline to the assorted minor in- juries that have plagued him throughout his career, while be-s ing a designated hitter was a' safer way of reaching a cherish- ed goal. Horton But though his legs are aged, they are still in better shape than Horton's injured limbs. Kaline has always done what was necessary for the good of his team and would not complain if asked to return to outfield duty. So why hasn't Houk made the move? The Major insisted before spring training began that "Kaline is my DH." And Kaline has been his DH, except for a few occasions when Al has asked for a rest. Houk would appear to prefer having his best bat playing only half the game to changing his designated hitter. Such a move, he reckons, would be construed in some circles as a sign of panic. In this circle, Houk's failure to move is construed as being a sign of stupidity. Horton will continue to play in left field, suffering in silence, his knees restricting his defensive movement. Around the seventh inning, if the Tigers are ahead in the contest or hopelessly out of it, Dick Sharon or Ben Oglivie will take over in left with their somewhat feebler sticks. Tiger fans will continue to wonder why, but only Ralph Houk knows, and he isn't telling. Major Leaue Standings r. %a, rerry wins anot1er By The Associated Press ARLINGTON-Al Kaline belted a two-run homer with two out in the 10th inning, giving the Detroit Tigers a 6-4 victory over the Texas Rangers last night. Kaline's fourth homer of the baseball season followed a single by Mickey Stanley and pro- vided reliever .lohn Hiller, 7-4, with the victory. The Rangers tied the game at 4-4 with a four-run rally in the ninth inning. Jim Fregosi belted a three-run honier off Detroit starter Woodie Frymnan and Len Randle tied it with a solo blast. Ben Oglivie keyed a three-run second inning with a double to give the Tigers an early 3-0 lead. Jim Northrup opened the Tigers' second with a single and moved to third on a single by Freehan. Oglivie then doubled to make it 1-0. Aurelio Rodriguez' sacrifice fly gave Detroit a 2-0 lead and Ed Brinkman's single to tuft center one out later made it 3-0. Freehan hit his third homer of the season leading off the Detroit fourth to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead. Cuellar dazzles BALTIMORE - Baltimore's Mike Cuellar notched his ninth straight victory, winning a five-hit 1-0 decision over the Minnesota Twins on a sixth-inning home run by Bobby. Grich. Grich lined his eighth homer of the season into the left field bleachers just after loser Vic Albury, 2-6, had picked Mark Belanger off first base for the second out of the inning. Belanger opened the inning with Balti- more's third hit of the game. The first two were by Brooks Robinson-a single in the second and a double in the fifth. Cuellar, 9-3, permitted only three Twins to advance beyond first bace. Glenn Borgmann singled to open the Minnesota sixth and moved around to third on a sacrifice and an infield out. But Rod Carew, the American League's leading batter who entered the game with a .396 average, grounded out. Carew reached in the opening inning on a forceout after Jerry Terrell singled. He stole second but Cuellar retired Larry Hisle and Harmon Killebrew. Carew and Hisle singled with two out in the ninth but Killebrew flied out to end the game. Gaylord greases CLEVELAND - Cleveland's Gaylord Perry won his 12th straight game, beating the Chi- cago White Sox 4-3 on Jack Brohamer's run- scoring single in the ninth inning. Frank Duffy, who earlier scored two of Cleveland's runs, reached base on an error, was sacrificed to second and scored on Bro- hamer's hit off reliever Cy Acosta, 0-3. Perry, 12-1, who pitched a five-hitter and struck out nine batters, including Richie Allen four times, has not lost since Opening Day. A single by Joe Lis tied the score 3-3 in the eighth inning for the Indians. Earlier, Jorge Orta's two-run homer in the top of the eighth gave the White Sox a 3-2 lead. Orta hit his first homer of the baseball season following a single by Pat Kelly. Frank Duffy scored Cleveland's first two runs after base hits to give Perry a 2-1 cushion before Orta's blast. Pirates Dound PITTSBURGH - Richie Heber drove in three runs and KecuHrett hurled a seven-hitter as the Pittsburgh Pirates whinped the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-3 and posted a four-game winning streak for the first time this season. Both teams scored in the second inning but the Pirates broke the deadlock with four un- earned runs in the fourth off loser Don Sutton, 6-6. Manny Sanguillen reached on an error by shortstop Bill Russell, took second on an infield out and scored the lead run on a single by rookie Mario Mendoza. Mendoza took second on a single by Brett and scored on a double by Gene Clines. Both Brett and Clines came home when Richie Hebner's two-out pop fly to shallow center fell for a double behind Jim Wynn, who apparently lost the ball in the lights. The Dodgers scored two runs in the sixth to trim the lead to 5-3 but the Pirates scored twice in their half of the inning with the help of a sacrifice fly by Hebner and a passed ball by catcher Steve Yeager. Barr blanks ST. LOUIS - Gary Thomasson drove in two runs with singles and pitcher Jim Barr scat- tered eight hits, leading the San Francisco Giants to a 3-0 victory over the St. Louis Car- dinals. Barr, 4-3, scored one of the San Francisco runs during a two-run rally in the eighth that rapped up the game for the Giants. In the seventh, Barr worked a walk off John Curtis, 4-7, went to third on a double by Bob- by Bonds and scored on Curtis' wild pitch. Thomasson then lined a single to center to score Bonds. AMERICAN LEAIGUE East w L Pet. GB Boston 35 26 .574 - Cleveland 32 29 .525 3 Detroit 32 29 .525 3 Baltimore 31 30 .508 4 Milwaukee 29 29 .500 41' New York 32 32 .500 4', west Oakland 33 29 .532 - Texas 32 31 .508 1?, Kansas City 30 30 .500 2 Chicago 27 30 .474 3, California 27 36 .429 61, Minnesota 25 34 .424 6% Results Baltimore 1. Minnesota 0 Cleveland 4. Chicago 3 Detroit 6, Texas 4, 10 innings New York at California, inc. Boston at Oakland, Inc. Today's Games Kansas City (Splittorff 6-6 and Pattin 1-3) at Milwaukee (Travers 0-0 and Kobel 3-4). Chicago (Pitlock 2-1) at Cleve- land (Johnson 3-3). Minnesota (Decker 7-4) at Balti- more (Grimsley 6-7). Detroit( (LaGrow 5-5) at Texas (Bibby 9-8). Boston (Moret 0-1) at Oakland (Holtzman 7-7). New York (Tidrow 5-5) at Califor- ala (Ryan 7-6). NATIONAL LEAGUE East W L Pet. GB Philadelphia 34 29 .539 - St. Louis 31 30 .507 2 Montreal 28 28 .500 21/ Chicago 25 33 .431 6Yc Pittsburgh 25 34 .420 7 New York 24 37 .393 9 west Los Angeles 44 21 .681 -- Cincinnati 37 25 .590 6 Atlanta 34 27 .571 7 Houston 32 33 .494 12 San Francisco 32 35 .478 13 San Diego 27 42 .389 19 Results Cincinnati 12, Montreal 3 Philadelphia 7, Houston5 Atlanta 8, New York 1 San Diego 7, Chicago 5 San Francisco 3, St. Louis 0 Pittsburgh 7, Los Angeles 3 Today's Games San Diego (Freisleben 5-2) at Chi- cago (Bonham 4-9). (Los Angeles (John 10-1) at Pittsburgh (Demery 0-2). Houston (Osteen 5-6 or Roberts 5-7) at Philadelphia (Schueler 3-7). Montreal (McAnally 4-6) at Cin- cinnati (Kirby) 5-3). Atlatan(Harrison 5-7) at New York (Stone 2-4). San Francisco (Bryant 2-7) at St. Louis (Foster 1-5 or Thompson 0-2). Doily Photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI Horton takes a cut Willie Horton takes a powerful cut at a Bruce DalCanton knuckleball during action in last Sun- day's Tiger-Royals contest. The Motown slugger is currently tied for the league lead in homers with 15, and, if his knees hold up, stands a good chance of having his best season in the majors.