BANDO BELTS 3 HRS; A'S WIN 7TH STRAIGHT
Tribe Drops 8th in a Row
CLEVELAND, Apr. 24 (AP) - Sal Bando hit three solo home runs to lead the Oakland
Athletics to their seventh consecutive victory, 11-5 over the Cleveland Indians
at Municipal Stadium. Bando now has six home runs on the season, twice as
many as anyone else in the American League. The Indians have dropped eight
straight since winning their season opener on April 9. The A's currently
stand at 11-2, the best mark in major league baseball.
Bando put Oakland on the board first with a one-out solo home run in the second
inning off Cleveland starter Fritz Petersen that landed in the left field seats,
just inside the foul pole. Billy Williams followed with a drive to
right-center field that went for a triple after center fielder Rick Manning's
diving attempt came up short. Bert Campenaris then lifted a sacrifice fly
to right, scoring Williams to make it 2-0. Phil Garner then ripped the
second triple of the inning for the A's and scored on Larry Haney's base hit for
a 3-0 lead.
The Indians pushed back with two runs off Mike Norris in the bottom of the
third. Alan Ashby led off when he reached on an error committed by first
baseman Don Baylor and advanced to second on Frank Duffy's bunt single.
Manning then grounded a single up the middle but Ashby was thrown out trying to
score by Bill North, leaving runners on first and second with one out.
Duane Kuiper followed by dropping a single into left field, scoring Duffy and
advancing Manning to second. Buddy Bell then singled to center, scoring
Manning and cutting the deficit to 3-2.
In the top of the fourth, Oakland got one of the runs back when Bert Campanaris
singled with one out, stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by
Ashby, and scored on Haney's second single of the contest, giving the A's a 4-2
lead.
Oakland appeared to break the game open in the fifth when Claudell Washington
tripled to the right field corner and scored on Joe Rudi's RBI ground out.
One out later, Bando deposited a Petersen offering over the left-center field
fence for a 6-2 A's advantage.
But Cleveland responded in their half of the fifth, knocking Norris out of the
game in the process. Kuiper lined a lead-off double and moved to third on
Bell's base hit. Boog Powell made it 6-3 with a sacrifice fly to center
field, scoring Kuiper, and Rico Carty drew a walk, putting runners at first and
second with one out. That was it for Norris. Oakland manager Chuck
Tanner replaced him with Glen Abbott who immediately yielded a run-scoring
single to George Hendrick. Bell came home on the play with Carty holding
at second and the A's lead was down to two. After Charlie Spikes struck
out, Ashby came through with a base hit to left-center, scoring Carty and
cutting the Oakland advantage to 6-5.
But that was as close as the Indians would get. Facing reliever Tom Buskey
to open the top of the sixth, Campanaris led off with a single and took second
on a passed ball. Garner's infield chopper went for a base hit, leaving
runners on first and third. Haney fanned, but North bounced a single into
right field, scoring Campanaris and chasing Garner to third. North then
stole second base. Washington's roller scored Garner and North came home
on Rudi's base hit. The A's now led 9-5 and were never threatened
thereafter.
Bando led off the seventh by belting Buskey's 0-1 offering into the left field
stands for this third long ball of the game and a 10-5 lead. Don Baylor's
RBI single in the eighth scored North, who has singled, with Oakland's 11th
run.
The only drama remaining was whether Bando would hit a fourth home run.
With Jackie Brown on the mound for the Indians, Bando came to the plate with one
out in the eighth and Baylor on first and forced the runner at second on a
fielder's choice chopper back to the mound.
Abbott and Rollie Fingers combined on 4 2/3 shutout innings of relief to close
out the game for the A's while Buskey and Brown were charged with five runs in
relief for Cleveland.
4/24/1976, Oak76-Cle76, Cleveland Municipal Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1976 Athletics 0 3 0 1 2 3 1 1 0 11 18 2 8 1 1976 Indians 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 5 11 1 7 1 Athletics AB R H BI AVG Indians AB R H BI AVG North cf 5 2 2 1 .308 Manning cf 5 1 2 0 .189 Washington rf 5 1 1 1 .220 Kuiper 2b 5 1 2 1 .179 Rudi lf 5 0 2 2 .256 Bell,B 3b 5 1 2 1 .421 Baylor 1b 4 0 2 1 .217 Powell 1b 3 0 0 1 .091 Bando 3b 5 3 3 3 .306 Carty dh 3 1 0 0 .114 Williams,B dh 5 1 1 0 .171 Hendrick lf 4 0 1 1 .194 Campaneris ss 4 2 3 1 .234 Spikes rf 4 0 0 0 .387 Garner 2b 5 2 2 0 .163 Ashby c 4 0 2 1 .308 Haney c 4 0 2 2 .400 Duffy ss 4 1 2 0 .148 Lintz pr 0 0 0 0 .000 37 5 11 5 Hosley c 0 0 0 0 .000 42 11 18 11 Athletics INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Norris 4.1 8 5 4 1 0 82 49 8.31 Abbott W 1-0 2.2 3 0 0 0 2 36 24 0.00 Fingers 2.0 0 0 0 0 0 19 10 0.00 9.0 11 5 4 1 2 137 83 Indians INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Peterson L 0-2 5.0 9 6 5 2 3 82 52 8.38 Buskey 2.0 6 4 3 0 1 44 25 6.75 Brown,J 2.0 3 1 1 1 2 39 24 1.69 9.0 18 11 9 3 6 165 101 Oak: Lintz ran for Haney in the 9th Hosley inserted at c in the 9th E-Baylor, Garner, Ashby. 2B-Kuiper(1). 3B-Washington(1), Williams,B(1), Garner(1). HR-Bando 3(6). RBI-North(3), Washington(9), Rudi 2(7), Baylor(12), Bando 3(11), Campaneris(2), Haney 2(2), Kuiper(4), Bell,B(4), Powell(3), Hendrick(1), Ashby(2). SB-North(6), Campaneris(7), Lintz(3). CS-Baylor. K-North, Washington, Baylor, Williams,B, Garner, Haney, Hendrick, Spikes. BB-North, Baylor, Haney, Carty. SF-Campaneris, Powell. PB-Ashby. GWRBI: Bando Temperature: 61, Sky: clear, Wind: left to right at 14 MPH. Attendance: 14,199 Game Time: 2:35