Belanger's Slick Defence Seals Big Win for Baltimore

American League:
Boston 2 at Baltimore 3
-The Orioles gain a split of the two games to vault back ahead of the Red Sox. Ken Singleton entered the season with a .369 avg and .484 OBP but was 0 for his first 8 in the series. Getting him out nine times in a row proved to be too much to ask as he laced the go-ahead single in the 8^th off former Oriole Dick Drago to give the O’s a 3-2 lead. Jim Rice would single to lead the 9^th and eventually get to 3^rd base but the game would end on a slick defensive play by SS Mark Belanger on a Dave Rader grounder.
Milwaukee  0 at New York 1
-Doc Medich (4-1, 2.65) outduels Bill Travers (3-13, 5.01) as Ken Griffey’s RBI double in the 1^st holds up
Cleveland 6 at Detroit 7 (12)
-Johnny Knox (.303) had five hits including the game winning RBI in the 12^th as the Tigers outlast the Tribe. Bill Madlock also had four hits for the Tigers including his 27^th home run
Chicago 3 at Kansas City 6
-The Royals rally for four runs in the 8^th inning, including George Brett’s go-ahead sacrifice fly. Former White Sox hurler Bruce Dal Canton (7-4, 4.05) pitched eight innings for the spot start victory.
Minnesota 2 at California 3
-Fred Lynn had three hits and scored two runs and Dave Goltz (17-5, 3.12) didn’t allow an earned run in the complete game victory
Texas 2 at Oakland 9
-Joe Rudi (22) and Billy Williams (27) homered and Claudell Washington drove in three runs as the A’s send Texas to their fifth straight defeat

AL East: The Orioles are back in first by a half game over the Red Sox
AL West:  The Royals have clinched the division crown

National League
Philadelphia 2 at Montreal 4
-Rusty Staub’s 24^th home run of the season with two outs in the 9^th turned a loss into a dramatic win for the Expos. Tug McGraw (4-7, 2.63) was the victim of Staub’s heroics..
Chicago 3 at New York 1 (10)
-Both games in this series go ten innings as this time the Cubs prevail. Goose Gossage (8-6, 3.83) and Ramon Hernandez (7Sv, 3.63) struck out four in three combined perfect innings of relief.
St. Louis 7 at Pittsburgh 11
-Another walk-off winner as Willie Stargell’s 29^th of the season was the game winning grand slam to cap a six run Pirate 9^th. The home run was off of Lerrin LaGrow, but five of the runs and the loss was charged to Mark Littell (8-8, 2.78)
San Diego 8 at Atlanta 9
-Yet another NL game today where the visitor led going into the bottom of the 9^th only to lose on a home run. Here it was Pete Varney’s 8^th of the year off of Rollie Fingers (5-4, 2.97) that turned the trick
Los Angeles 12 at Cincinnati 4
-Billy North had four hits and Bill Buckner drove in four to pace the Dodgers attack as they deal a critical blow to the Reds with this blowout win at Riverfront. Gary Nolan (13-15, 3.83) took the loss for the Reds
San Francisco 4 at Houston 5
-Nolan Ryan (20-9, 2.90) is the first NL pitcher to reach the 20-win plateau as he strikes out seven in seven innings. Davey Lopes had three hits including the game winning RBI and Ken Forsch recorded his 35^th save.

NL East: The Pirates have won the division for the second straight season
NL West: The Astros lead the Reds by 6 games and have a magic number of 4

Baltimore 3, Boston 2

9/23/1976, BOS76-BAL76, Memorial Stadium
 
                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP
1976 Boston            0  1  1  0  0  0  0  0  0     2  5  0     5  1
1976 Baltimore         0  2  0  0  0  0  0  1  x     3  8  0     4  0
 
Boston               AB  R  H BI   AVG    Baltimore            AB  R  H BI   AVG
Remy              2b  4  0  1  0  .308    Harper            lf  4  1  2  0  .272
Burleson          ss  3  1  1  0  .266    Maddox            cf  3  0  2  0  .307
Fisk              c   4  0  1  1  .279    Singleton         rf  4  0  1  1  .364
Rice              rf  4  0  1  0  .326    Grich             2b  4  0  1  0  .254
Watson            1b  3  1  1  0  .290    May,L             1b  3  0  0  0  .267
Yastrzemski       lf  4  0  0  0  .284    Hendricks         c   3  1  1  0  .241
Dillard           3b  3  0  0  1  .269    DeCinces          3b  3  1  1  2  .227
 Rader            ph  1  0  0  0  .278     Luebber          p   0  0  0  0  .056
Miller,R          cf  2  0  0  0  .256     Miller,D         p   0  0  0  0  .000
Jenkins           p   3  0  0  0  .182    Belanger          ss  3  0  0  0  .249
 Drago            p   0  0  0  0  .000    Torrez            p   2  0  0  0  .176
                     31  2  5  2           Beniquez         3b  1  0  0  0  .250
                                                               30  3  8  3
 
Boston                           INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Jenkins          L 16-7          7.2  7  3  3  0  8 120  81  3.38
Drago                            0.1  1  0  0  0  0   7   5  2.65
                                 8.0  8  3  3  0  8 127  86 
 
Baltimore                        INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Torrez                           7.0  4  2  2  3  7 113  68  3.48
Luebber          W 9-6           1.0  0  0  0  0  0   8   5  3.02
Miller,D         S 10            1.0  1  0  0  0  1  20  15  3.07
                                 9.0  5  2  2  3  8 141  88 
 
BOS: Rader batted for Dillard in the 9th
BAL: Beniquez inserted at 3b in the 8th
 
2B-Burleson, Fisk, Watson. HR-DeCinces(14). SB-Rice(5). CS-Remy, Harper. 
K-Remy, Fisk, Watson, Yastrzemski, Dillard, Miller,R, Jenkins 2, Harper 2, 
Singleton, Grich, May,L, DeCinces, Belanger, Torrez. BB-Burleson, Watson, 
Miller,R. HBP-Maddox. PB-Fisk. HB-Jenkins. 
GWRBI: Singleton