t ) 1-7 IV . i... Is. Yankees trip Rangers NEW YORK - Mickey Rivers and Fred Stanley hom- ered and Graig Nettles drove in two runs with a double and a single, leading the New York Yankees to a 5-1 victory over the Texas Rangers last night. The triumph was the Yan- kees' sixth in the last seven games and kept them 912 games ahead of Baltimore in the American League East. The game was televised to most of thecountry astAB("skMonday night Game of the Week. New York ripped Gaylord Perry, 11-10, for 13 hits and all their runs before he was kayoed by Nettles' run-scor- ing single with one nit in the eighth. It was Nettles' third hit of the game. Thurman Munson and Chris Chambliss also had three hits apiece for the Yankees, who raked Perry for two homers and three doubles in the first five innings. Meanwhile, Catfish Hunter, 14-12, checked the Rangers on seven hits and blanked them until the ninth inning when they pushed across a run on Mike Hargrove's double, Jeff Bur- roughs' single and Roy How- ell's sacrifice fly. The Yankees started the scoring with one out in the second inning on consecutive doubles by Carlos May and Nettles. The Yankees increased their lead to 3-0 in the third inning with the help of the Texas out- field. With one out, Rivers hit a drive to the wall in right cen- ter. Center fielder Juan Beni- quez and right fielder Jeff Bur- roughs converged on the ball, but Burroughs backed off and it glanced off Beniquez' glove and rolled along the base of the fence while Rivers circled the bases with an inside-the-park home run. It was his eighth homer of the season. The Yankees scored again when Thurman singled with two nit and Chambliss doubled him home. Royals roll Poquette followed Hal Mc- Rae's single two outs later with a shot into the right field bullpen. Kansas City has managed on- ly 55 home runs all season but eight have come in the last seven games. Otis, who has 16, has socked four in that stretch. Reds rolled CINCINNATI-Atlanta's Carl Morton and Adrian Devine com- bined on a five-hitter to hand the Cincinnati Reds their third straight loss, snapping Fred Norman's five - game winning streak with a 4-3 victory last night. Morton, 3-0, allowed five hits in 7211 innings, overcoming the 10-strikeout pitching of Norman, 11-3, whose lifetime record at Riverfront Stadium dropped to 32-8. Trailing 4-1, the R e d s knocked out Morton in the eighth, scoringntvo runs as Pete Rose ignited the rally with his 2,700th career hit, a bunt single. Morton threw wild to first on the play, allowing, Mike Lum, who had walked, to reach third while Rose ended up at second. Ken Griffey's g r o u n d o u t scored Lum and Rose scored on Joe Morgan's sacrifice fly to deep right field. Devine came on after Morton gave up a two-out triple to George Foster. He then coaxed Tony Perez into ground- ing out and-retired the Reds in order in the ninth. KANSAS CITY - A m o s 4Otis and Tom Poquette pow- ered first inning home runs and the Kansas City Royals went on to whip the Cleveland Indians 6-1 last night. Royals starter Marty Pattin, 5-10, surrendered a solo home run to George Hendrick in the second inning but allowed the Indians only two other hits, both singles. Otis clipped Cleveland start- er Jackie Brown, 7-8, with a blast off the top of the left- center field fence after a McRae leadoff walk to Al Cowens. Rose 3 1j4011I eagavme StaEindings4 AMERICAN LEAGUE East w L Pet. Gil New York 70 45 .609 - Baltimore 60 54 .526 9' Cleveland 57 59 .491 13i> Detroit 55 60 .478 15 Boston 54 60 .474 15'. Milwaukee 51 61 .455 17'. west Kansas City 71 45 .612 - Oakland 64 54 .542 8 Minnesota 57 60 .487 14'. Texas 56 61 .479 15'1 California 50 68 .424 22 Chicago 49 67 .422 22 Yesterday's Games NewYork 5, Texas 1 Baltimore 8, Minnesota 4 Milwaukee 4, Oakland 3 Kansas City 6, Cleveland I Boston 12, Chicago 5 Only games scheduled Today's Games Texas Boggs 0-2 at New York Alexander 7-8, n California Tanana 14-8 at Detroit Fidrych 13-4, n Oakland Norris 4-3 at Milwaukee Augustine 5-8, n Cleveland Dobson 11-11 at Kan- sas City Bird 10-5, n Baltimore R. May 8-9 at Minne- sota Bare 4-4, n Boston Cleveland 6-6 at Chicago Odom 2-1, n NATIONAL LEAGUE East w L Pet. GB Philadelphia 75 40 .652 - Pittsburgh 64 52 .552 11'. New York 61 58 .513 16 Chicago 55 66 .455 23 St. Louis 49 65 .430 25!/ Montreal 41 71 .366 32' whest Cincinnati 76 43 .639 - Los Angeles 63 54 .538 12 San Diego 60 62 .492 17'., Houston 58 64 .475 19?. Atlanta 55 64 .462 21 San Francisco 51 69 .425 25'., Yesterday's Games Atlanta 4, Cincinnati 3 San Diego 11, St. Louis 7 Chicago 5, Houston 3 Only gamesscheduled Today's Games Montreal Fryman 10-8 at Philadel- phia Underwood 7-3, n Atlanta LaCorte 1-6 at Cincinnati Alcala 10-3, n San Diego Strom 10-12 or Freis- leben 1-10 at St. Louis Denny 6-6, Chicago Stone 3-4 at Houston Richard 13-12, n Pittsburgh Kison 9-7 at San Francisco D'Asquisto 3-7, n New York Matlack 12-6 at Los Angeles Rhoden 10-1, n Connors captures clay championship INDIANAPOLIS 01 - Jimmy Connors, scoring repeatedly with his powerful two-fisted backhand shot, overwhelmed Poland's Wojtek Fibak 6-2, 6-4 last night and won his second U. S. Clay Court tennis Championship and a first prize of $25,000. Connors, the tournament's No. 1 seed from Belleville, Ill., took the lead in the opening game when he broke Fibak's serve. He was never seriously challenged after that. Fibak, losing his second tournament finale in two weeks, won only the third and fifth games of the first set. Connors won the sixth game, then broke Fibak again in the seventh on a series of overhand smashes off lob shots from his strug- gling opponent. Connors, who won here in 1974, wrapped up the first set on the next game, holding his own serve and forcing Fibak, as he had done early in the match, repeatedly into the net. The second set began like the first as Connors broke Fibak's serve-this time at love. Both players the 'ld service the rest the way. Fibak came to the net more than in the opening set, but still with little success. The Polish ace managed to win the third, fifth, seventh and ninth, games, but not very easily. Two of the games went to deuce before the 11th-seeded Fibak could capture the winning point. JIMMY CONNORS smashes a backhand against Poland's Wojtek in the finals of the U.S. Clay Court tennis championship last night. Connors won, 6-2, 6-4.