3 TIGERS’ HOMERS BEAT YANKEES, 5‐2

DETROIT, June 27—Aided by consecutive homers in the first inning by Aurelio Rodriguez, Al Kaline and Willie Horton, Mickey Lolich coasted to his 12th victory of the season tonight at Tiger Stadium as the Detroit Tigers raised their Eastern Division lead to two games with a 5‐2 victory over the New York Yankees.

The defeat was the Yankees’ fourth in a row on a five‐game road trip that ended tonight and dropped them into a tie for fourth place with the Boston Red Sox, eight games behind the Tigers.

The Tigers drove Wade Blasingame, making his first American League start since the Yankees acquired him from Houston on June 7, to an early shower after he threw only 14 pitches.

The left‐hander walked Tony Taylor to open the first, then fed home‐run pitches to Rodriguez (his second), Kaline (his second and 368th of his career) and Horton (his fifth).

Lolich Allows 10 Hits

After that Lolich had little trouble tying Gaylord Perry of Cleveland for the most victories in the major leagues. Pitching with only two days rest, the left‐hander was not sharp. He gave up 10 hits, six in the first three innings, but had enough to close the door on New York in every inning except the seventh and eighth.

Lolich presented the Yankees with their first tally, heaving a wild pitch by Johnny Ellis, a pinch‐hitter in the seventh, after Celerino Sanchez had doubled and moved to third on a single by Rusty Torres, the second of three hits by the fielder.

Bobby Murcer stroked his ninth homer into the upper right‐field stands in the eighth to account for the Yankees’ only untainted run. Murcer, too, had three hits to raise his average to .282. In the month of June, he has batted at a .391 clip with 34 hits in 87 times at bat, He hit six homers and drove in 21 runs in that period.

4 Yankee Hurlers Toil

But Murcer; Torres and Roy White (who picked up two infield singles) could not match the Tiger explosiveness. After their opening fusilade, the Tigers got two doubles and eight singles for a total of 13 hits off four Yankee pitchers.

Despite all the hitting, the Tigers could manage only one run after the first inning. In the fourth, Mickey Stanley doubled, moved to third on a grounder and scored on a sacrifice fly by Taylor.

The Yankees, now saddled with their longest losing streak of the year hard on the heels of a six‐game winning string, return home tonight to play a two‐game series tomorrow night and Thursday afternoon against the Orioles.

Fritz Peterson, the last Yankee pitcher to win a game, will start against Mike Cueller of Baltimore tomorrow night.

DP—Yankees 2, Detroit 1. LOB—Yankees 7, Detroit 9. 20—Murcer, Torres, Stanley, Freehan, Sanchez. HRS—Rodriguez (2), Kaline (2), Horton (5), Murcer (91. SF—Taylor.

Wild pitch—Lolich. T—2:22. A—29,447.