Angels Toss Away 5-0 Lead as Moore Loses Again in 9th

The two-run homer hit by Lee Lacy traveled about 380 feet into the right-field bleachers. It capped a four-run ninth-inning rally that lifted the Orioles to a 7-5 victory over the Angels, who had once led, 5-0.

But the blow the Angels would remember as they wrestled with sleep Monday night came several moments before Lacy hit his first home run of the season, tagging Donnie Moore with his second ninth-inning defeat in two days.

The killer was a 40-foot bunt by Lenn Sakata. Gene Mauch, the Little General, kept seeing it as he paced the clubhouse, ultimately predicting that “tomorrow will be a different day, but this will be a very long night.”

Moore fielded the bunt and lobbed it to an unoccupied third base, the pivotal play in the Orioles’ decisive rally, the third error for the Angels, whose only solace was a loss by Chicago that allowed them to retain their American League West lead of 1 1/2 games.

Wasted as that 5-0 lead disintegrated was a solo homer by Bob Boone and a three-run homer by Doug DeCinces, who had not played since May 10 because of the back spasms that put him on the disabled list until Monday afternoon, when Jack Howell was optioned to Edmonton, creating room for DeCinces return.

Mauch would later reflect on 5-0, on that transitory comeback from the 4-3 frustration in Detroit Sunday, and say, “We’d lost that tough game and came roaring back. I was feeling really good about it. Now we have to come back double tough tomorrow night.”

He paused, thinking of the division title he and the Angels won in ‘82, then said: “We went through things like this that year, too. There were periods when we lost some funny games, but they proved they had the make-up to come back. It’s still there. I’m sure of that.”

Moore concurred.

“A loss is a loss,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how it happens, you accept it the same way you accept a win. I wasn’t thinking of yesterday when I came to the park today and I won’t be thinking of tonight when I come out tomorrow.”

The Angels led, 5-3, when Pat Clements walked Larry Sheets to open the ninth. Moore, making his third appearance in the last four games, was summoned to face pinch-hitter Mike Young, who grounded a single up the middle, putting Sheets on second.

Sakata was the batter in an obvious sacrifice situation. Mauch went to the mound. He wanted nothing fancy or tricky. He told his infield to make sure they got one out, eliminating any possibility that the potential winning run reached base.

Sakata bunted, popping it in the direction of the mound. Moore, still restricted some by October knee surgery, couldn’t get to it before it fell on the grass. DeCinces, seeing the ball in the air, thought it was more toward the line, thought he had a chance to catch it, and charged from third. Boone came from behind the plate yelling “first, first, first,” meaning that’s where he wanted the play made.

Moore, who picked it up, said later that when the ball was bunted towards the mound he thought DeCinces would return to third.

“But Doug was thinking the same thing I was,” he said. “He was thinking the ball was more toward the line and that he had a chance to catch it. I knew the runners had to freeze when the bunt was popped up, looked and saw the runner was only about 10 feet off second, and thought I heard Boone yelling ‘third’ rather than ‘first.’ No one was more shocked than I was when I threw it and saw no one there.”

The ball rolled down the left-field line. Mike Boddicker, running for Sheets, scored to make it 5-4. Young raced to third and Sakata to second. Pinch-hitter Joe Nolan now delivered a fly to deep center that tied the game and moved Sakata to third. Lacy followed by hitting a 1-1 pitch into the seats.

Said Mauch later: “We simply didn’t adjust very well to an unusual play--a popped-up bunt. If he bunts it hard to the mound we get an easy out at first or DeCinces stays at third, and we get the out there. Then Nolan hits the fly, and now let’s see what happens with Lacy when he has to get a hit rather than a fly ball.”

Moore had not allowed a home run in the 31 innings of his first 18 appearances. Now he has allowed three in the 1 innings of his last two, losing on the pair he allowed in Detroit on Sunday and again on Lacy’s--a fastball up and in.

“I thought it was a good pitch,” Moore said. “It wasn’t really anything he could drive. Hell, I thought it was a lazy fly ball.”

The Boone homer in the third and the DeCinces homer in the fourth had driven rookie Ken Dixon to a quick shower, but the Angels were shut out on two hits over the final five innings by Nat Snell, Tippy Martinez and Sammy Stewart, who got one out and the victory.

Errors by DeCinces and Reggie Jackson (who dropped Eddie Murray’s liner to right) got the Orioles an unearned run in the fourth, and then the Orioles got back in it with two in the sixth, chasing the starter, Jim Slaton.

The left-handed Clements erased a threat in the eighth only to make a rookie’s mistake, walking the left-handed Sheets to open a ninth the Angel would not easily forget.

Angel Notes

Bobby Grich suffered a slight strain of his right shoulder in batting practice and was scratched as the first baseman. Grich said it was diagnosed as minor by the Oriole team physician but that he would probably miss the final two games here as a precaution. . . . Bob Boone has now hit in 17 of his last 21 games, a .369 span in which he’s raised his average from .159 to .266. It says something about the Angels’ attack that his .266 leads the club. . . . The homer was the sixth for Doug DeCinces, who had not been to bat since May 8. . . . Baltimore starter Ken Dixon, who opened the season 3-0, has allowed 19 runs in the 16 innings of his last five starts, winning one and losing two. . . . The streak-hitting Fred Lynn has one homer in his last 20 games and one hit in his last 14 at-bats. . . . Ron Romanick (6-2)faces Storm Davis (3-1)in a game to be televised by Channel 5 at 4:35 tonight.