Reggie Fans and Fumbles as Angels Lose, 8-1

The A’s defeated the Angels, 8-1, Sunday in a game that was decided, to a significant extent, by the performances of current and former Oakland right fielders.

--Mike Davis, beginning his third season as the A’s regular right fielder, ripped a three-run homer off Mike Witt in the second inning and added a fourth RBI on a sacrifice fly in the eighth. Davis had 10 RBIs in the three-game series, which is what he totalled for April and May last year.

--Reggie Jackson, a cornerstone in the Oakland dynasty of the early 70s and returning now as the Angels’ regular right fielder for the first time since 1982, struck out on three pitches while representing the potential tying run in the eighth, then contributed to a four-run A’s half by dropping a fly ball.

“I was really on a roll,” Jackson said. “It couldn’t have happened to a more colorful guy.”

The burden was not all Jackson’s.

The Angels, averaging 3.7 runs per game through a 2-4 first week, got only four hits off Chris Codiroli and Jay Howell. The A’s, by contrast, made economical use of seven hits, leaving Witt at 0-2 and the Angels’ team earned-run average 5.94.

Manager Gene Mauch shook his head and said: “I’d have lost all my money today. I’d have bet we’d have scored and scored big. I thought (Doug) DeCinces was going to have one of those days when he drives in six or seven runs.”

DeCinces had a chance but stranded six runners as he went hitless. He’s off to a 3-for-24 start with 1 RBI. Brian Downing’s third-inning single produced the only run off Codiroli, who had a 6-4 record and 5.84 ERA last year and yielded 12 hits and six runs in the four innings of his 1985 debut at Seattle.

Codiroli yielded only three hits Sunday and none between the fourth and eighth innings, when he was replaced by Howell, obtained as the new relief ace in the trade that sent Rickey Henderson to the Yankees.

It was 4-1 when Howell rejected the last Angel threat, striking out Jackson with two on and one out in the eighth, then getting DeCinces to ground into a force play.

Jackson had missed Saturday’s game with a touch of flu and is now 3 for 17 after a torrid spring. He reflected on the strikeout and said: “The last pitch was over my head. He didn’t strike me out. I struck myself out.”

That performance may have still been weighing on Jackson when Alfredo Griffin opened the A’s eighth with a single and Dave Collins hit a high drive to right.

Jackson retreated, then reached back for something of a basket catch and dropped the ball for a two-base error, his first since 1983 and his second since 1982.

Said Mauch: “Reggie Jackson didn’t drop that ball, frustration dropped it. Reggie has struck out before but that last at-bat embarrassed him. He wants so desperately to be Reggie Jackson that when the club isn’t doing well his own problems are magnified. We had a little talk and I told him to relax, forget it, just go out and play.”

Witt followed the error by walking Carney Lansford to load the bases. Bruce Bochte laced a two-run single and in came Luis Sanchez, carrying the burden of his 27.00 ERA.

Sanchez quickly walked two, forcing in a run, and permitted Davis to hit a deep drive to center, scoring another.

Witt, who ended the 1984 season with a perfect game, has now allowed 17 hits and nine runs in the 14 innings of his two starts. The second inning of Sunday’s game was pivotal. He yielded a one-out double to Dwayne Murphy, walked Mike Heath, then hung a curve to Davis, who turned Cap Day into ball day for a souvenir hunter in the right-field bleachers.

Mauch: “Mike walked the wrong guy. If he gets Heath out then maybe he can walk Davis.”

Davis had five RBIs Friday night and one Saturday. He now has 12 in six games, generating the production Oakland anticipated last year when they moved him into the heart of the order after he had hit .275 batting No. 2 behind Henderson in 1983, his first full year.

Davis seemed to respond to his 1984 assignment by pressing some and never recovered from a slow start. He hit .230 with 46 RBIs. Now, batting seventh, the 25-year-old product of San Diego’s Hoover High said he won’t even talk about last year.

“No more of ‘84,” he said. “My goal is to come alive in ’85.”

He’s done that. As for the Angels?

“I’m a little anxious to get things going but I’m not worried about anything,” Mauch said. “If you get in too much of a hurry to make things better, you can make them a hell of a lot worse.”

Angel Notes On Mike Davis, who had two homers, two doubles, a single and sacrifice fly against the Angels, Manager Gene Mauch said: “He used to hit nothing but low inside fastballs. Now if he gets a low inside fastball he hits it over the right-field fence. If he gets a pitch away, he lines it to center field. He’s obviously enlarged his hit zone. He’s a good-looking player who was a skinny kid when I saw him a couple years ago. Now he has the confirmation of a man.” . . . On the continued problems of Luis Sanchez, Mauch said: “I’ve never seen him this wild. I’ve never seen him wild, period. He better work it out and that’s not a threat. He better work it out or he and I are both in trouble.” . . . Doug Corbett remained sidelined with a swollen left knee that was drained Saturday. Asked if Donnie Moore is now his only dependable short man, Mauch said, “Definitely.” . . . The bullpen ERA is 13.14. Angel relievers have allowed 18 earned runs in 12 innings. . . . There may be nothing to this yet, but Pittsburgh’s top scout, Howie Haak, picked up the Angels’ trail here, reviving 1984 rumors of a possible deal for John Candelaria. . . . Add Davis: His brother, Mark, is a top player on the Stanford baseball team.