This Time, Angels Rout Ojeda : Red Sox Lose, 13-4; Miller Joins Fight in Stands

The last time Ron Romanick faced the Boston Red Sox at Anaheim Stadium, they hit three home runs and scored six times before chasing him in the third inning.

Red Sox left-hander Bob Ojeda, meanwhile, likes nothing better than facing the Angels. His career earned-run average against them--2.74--was by far his best mark against any opponent.

So when Romanick, who has been battling a cold for the last three days, and Ojeda were matched up Friday night, Boston Manager John McNamara must have thought he had at least a slight advantage.

But McNamara, who saw his share of shaky pitching performances when he was the Angel manager in 1983 and ‘84, got a slightly different view Friday night as his former team jumped all over Ojeda and then cruised to a 13-4 win before 36,780 fans at Anaheim Stadium.

Romanick made it only into the sixth inning, but he lasted long enough to improve his record to 9-4 as the Angels increased their lead in the American League West to four games over second-place Oakland and improved their record to 12 games over .500 at 45-33.

“Well, it’s nice . . . it’s nice,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said about the Angels’ record, their best in relation to .500 since 1982. “What more can I say?”

The Angels, who have been getting more-than-respectable pitching for the better part of two months, are beginning to realize their offensive potential, too.

Friday night, Doug DeCinces hit a two-run homer to cap a six-run third and lined a two-run double in the four-run eighth as the Angels collected 14 hits off three Red Sox pitchers. Rod Carew got three singles and is now 26 hits shy of 3,000, and Bobby Grich drove in three runs for the first time since last September.

“You can slow our hitters down,” Mauch said, “but you can’t stop them.”

Mauch has continually insisted that the once-feared Angel offense would re-emerge. And about the only thing that could slow the Angels Friday night was a fistfight behind the Red Sox dugout.

The Angels had already scored their 13th run of the game in the eighth inning when the fight broke out in the stands. And suddenly Boston’s Rick Miller, whose wife and young son were nearly involved in the altercation, went diving over the rail to put a chokehold on one of the combatants.

Police arrived on the scene quickly, but Miller chose to evacuate his wife, Janet, and 5-year-old son, Joshua, through the clubhouse.

Miller said a friend of the family was involved in the fight.

“There was no way I could just sit in the dugout and watch with my family there,” said Miller, who kissed and calmed his son as he carried him into the dugout. “Three guys were on my friend, and I grabbed one who had him in a stranglehold. All I know is my wife was really upset. She was shaking. And my son was crying.”

Three unidentified people were arrested and charged with assault and battery and disturbing the peace, according to Anaheim Police Sgt. Jack Parra. Officer Richard Raulston suffered a shoulder injury in the scuffle.

All this occured within the sights of baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who was watching from a seat behind the Angel dugout.

On the field, meanwhile, the fight had been taken out of the Red Sox about two hours earlier, when the Angels had scored six times in the third.

Ojeda gave no indication Friday night of how he had mastered the Angels in the past.

Boston staked him to a 1-0 lead in the first inning as Dwight Evans and Wade Boggs turned two of Romanick’s first three pitches into singles to center and Bill Buckner brought home Evans with a sacrifice fly to left.

The Angels got that one back in much the same manner--singles by Carew and Juan Beniquez and a sacrifice fly by Brian Downing--in the bottom of the first to tie the score.

But in the third, they started to pull away, loading the bases with one out after a walk, a force-out, a single and another walk. Mike Brown lined a single to left to score Carew, and when Red Sox left fielder Jim Rice overran the ball, Jones scored, Downing took third and Brown went to second.

Grich then lined a single to right to drive home two more runs.

McNamara was soon standing in a familiar place--the Big A mound--only waving in the direction of a different bullpen.

But he called for an old, familiar face--former Angel Bruce Kison, who had barely finished warming up when he yielded a home run to left-center to DeCinces, giving the Angels a 7-1 lead.

“A lot of us are getting back into our grooves,” DeCinces said. “I don’t know if it’s contagious. There’s certainly no viral infection you can pinpoint. When it happens, it happens.

“But I do know that to be successful, you have to win, 1-0 and 13 to whatever.”

The Angels added two more in the fourth on a run-scoring double by Downing and a ground-out by Grich.

Romanick, reinforcing the theory that some pitchers don’t pitch very well with big leads, gave up a leadoff homer to Jim Rice in the fourth and then allowed singles to the Red Sox’s Nos. 7 and 8 hitters, Glenn Hoffman and Steve Lyons, to open the fifth. He then walked Marty Barrett to load the bases with no one out.

Romanick struck out Evans, but Boggs (hitting .332 coming in) made him pay with a two-run single to center. Rice came up with a chance to put Boston back in the game but grounded to short to start a double play. It ran the Angels’ major-league leading double-play total to 106 for the season.

Buckner opened the sixth by ripping a single to right, and Mauch didn’t waste any time going to his bullpen. Pat Clements came on to get Easler on a fly ball and then induced Gedman to hit into double play No. 107. Clements is 2-0 with a save in three appearances against Boston.

Two innings later, after Evans’ single to center, Rice rolled to short again, and the Angels racked up No. 108.

Angel Notes

Center fielder Gary Pettis, who sprained his left wrist diving for a fly ball last Sunday at Kansas City, was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday, and utility player Darrell Miller was reactivated to take Pettis’ spot on the roster. Pettis was examined Thursday by hand specialist Dr. Norman Zemel at Orthopaedic Hospital in Los Angeles, and further X-rays revealed no bone chips or fractures. Pettis, who is hitting .256 and leads the team with 30 stolen bases, will remain in a splint for seven days and then begin rehabilitation. Miller, who went on the disabled list June 12 because of a nerve irritation in his left knee, made his first appearance since June 4 Friday night and singled to right in his first at-bat as the designated hitter. . . . Juan Beniquez, hitting .350 in his last 16 games, beat out a grounder to shortstop in the first inning but sprained a thigh muscle running down the line and had to leave the game. . . . General Manager Mike Port said that left-hander Geoff Zahn, out since April 30 with tendinitis in his shoulder, has made “considerable progress” in the last two weeks. . . . Port also said he’s “delighted with the job our staff has done.” It’s easy to see why: The Angels led the American League in team earned-run average going into Friday night’s game at 3.38. Angel pitchers had limited opponents to three runs or less in 18 of the last 24 games. In 42 games before Friday night, the Angel staff ERA was 2.88. Relief pitchers Donnie Moore, Pat Clements and Stewart Cliburn had combined for a 13-4 record with 18 saves and a 2.14 ERA before Friday. . . . The Angel hitters are beginning to make their presence felt as well. The team average has jumped 12 points in 17 games (from .232 to .244) and, of the Angels’ last seven home runs, two have been grand slams, two have been three-run shots and one was a two-run homer.