DeCinces’ Single in 11th Wins It for Angels, 3-2

Doug DeCinces thinks he has the Angels’ formula for success figured out.

“You’ve got to realize that a lot of games are won by the guys with the gloves,” the Angel third baseman said. “There’s more to the game than home runs.”

Monday night, it was DeCinces’ 11th-inning single that brought home Brian Downing with the winning run as the Angels beat Milwaukee, 3-2, in front of 21,273 at Anaheim Stadium. Home runs played a huge part in this one, but , like DeCinces says, it’s not all that simple.

One thing is clear, however. This game was proof positive that the Angels are a team on a roll. Consider:

--They got a game-saving throw from Reggie Jackson, a 39-year-old All-Star who is definitely more at home standing at home plate than throwing there.

--They got a home run from Rob Wilfong, a .197 hitter who was in the game so that regular second baseman Bobby Grich could rest his sore back.

--They got the third home run in two games from Ruppert Jones, the center fielder who is filling in for the injured Juan Beniquez, who was filling in for the injured Gary Pettis.

--And they overcame a questionable managerial move that might have had Gene Mauch considering hari-kari while watching the Japanese chefs during his Monday night dinner at Benihana.

Jones and Wilfong hit solo home runs in the second inning and it looked for quite a while as though that might be all Mike Witt would need. The tall right-hander yielded a solo homer to Cecil Cooper in the third and then was saved in the sixth by Jackson, who, ironically, was replaced for defensive purposes in the ninth (but that’s another story).

The Brewers got back-to-back singles from Cooper and Robin Yount to put runners on first and second with one out in the sixth. Ted Simmons then ripped a line-drive single to right that Jackson fielded on one hop. His one-bounce throw to the plate was slightly wide, but catcher Bob Boone made a sweeping tag that caught Cooper on the foot just before he crossed the plate.

It was only Jackson’s second assist of the year and first in more than three months.

Angel General Manager Mike Port came up to Jackson in the clubhouse afterward and said: “Nice throw, young fella.”

Jackson had already taken the field for the top of the ninth and was warming up with a bat boy when defensive replacement Mike Brown sheepishly jogged up to tell him he’d been replaced. Jackson looked over his shoulder at the Angel dugout and then retreated to the bullpen where he sat until the bottom of the 11th. Later, he smiled and said he wasn’t at all angry with Mauch.

“I asked if he wanted me to go out before the inning,” Jackson said, shrugging. “Then he just changed his mind.”

One batter into the ninth, Mauch wished he had changed his mind about Witt, too.

Witt (6-6), who has allowed three runs or less in 14 starts, went nine innings, scattered eight hits but ended up with another no-decision. He has finished three games, but Witt went one inning too many this time.

Mauch, who has been criticized for going to relief ace Donnie Moore too often this season, decided to let Witt pitch the ninth, despite the fact he had issued walks in both the seventh and eighth, was falling behind most of the hitters and had already thrown more than 110 pitches.

Ben Oglivie, who had just three home runs prior to Monday night, opened up the ninth with No. 4, a fly ball that just made it into the seats in the right-field corner.

“I’ve been wrong about Witt two or three times,” Mauch said. “If I’d been right every time Witt pitched, he’d have 10 wins now.”

Mauch went to reliever Pat Clements to open the 10th and then called for Moore in the 11th after Clements walked Oglivie and Jim Gantner sacrificed Oglivie to second. Moore got two ground outs and his sixth win in nine decisions in the process.

Milwaukee Manager George Bamberger replaced starter Danny Darwin, who had allowed just six hits in 10 innings with Bob Gibson. Gibson walked Downing to open the 11th. Downing took second on Brown’s sacrifice, and Jones was walked intentionally, setting up DeCinces, who hit a shot right back up the middle to score Downing.

“I feel good about where we are now,” DeCinces said, reflecting on the Angels’ 47-34 mark at the season’s halfway point. “We’ve filled a lot of question marks that we had in spring training.

“We’ve got a lead and we’re just starting to hit the ball like we can.”

Don’t forget fielding it and throwing it, too, Doug.

Angel Notes

Angel Manager Gene Mauch said Juan Beniquez, who strained a muscle in his left thigh Friday, “will probably be ready to play full speed by Thursday, but he might have to go with whatever he’s got before then.” Beniquez is hitting .338 in his last 16 games. . . . Bobby Grich extended his hitting streak to 10 straight with a fifth-inning double Monday evening. Grich moved to third on Rob Wilfong’s bunt single and then tried to score on Bob Boone’s shallow fly to left. Robin Yount’s throw to home nailed Grich by 15 feet. “He (Yount) made a better throw than he was capable of the last time we saw him in Milwaukee,” Mauch said. “If I were Moose (Stubing, the third base coach), I would’ve done the same thing. . . . Geoff Zahn, out since April 30 with tendinitis in his left shoulder, will pitch a simulated game today.