Angels, Getting Ever Younger, Fall to Stieb, 7-0

Angel Manager Gene Mauch knew his pitching staff would have a different look by the time it got to Toronto. How much different, he wasn’t saying as his team prepared to cross the border after leaving Milwaukee.

“No,” Mauch told reporters with a wave of a hand, “we didn’t get Stieb.”

For the Angels’ sake, that was too bad. While the Angels made two roster changes Thursday, placing Doug Corbett on the disabled list and promoting Tony Mack from Edmonton, Dave Stieb remained a Toronto Blue Jay. And with his ensuing 7-0 shutout delivered before an Exhibition Stadium crowd of 32,083, Stieb remained an Angel nemesis.

He threw a complete-game seven-hitter at the Angels, improving his career record against the current leaders of the American League West to 8-4. In the process, Stieb did not yield an extra-base hit, had a no-hitter through four innings and allowed just three baserunners to move as far as second base.

“He’s good,” Mauch said of Stieb, who raised his 1985 record to 10-6 and lowered his earned-run average to 1.98. “But,” the manager added, contributing a bit more fuel to this burgeoning rivalry, “I don’t think anybody in the world is as good as he thinks he is.”

Hmmm. A bit of sour grapes after a sour Angel performance, perhaps?

Well, Dave Stieb is a Dave Stieb fan.

“By far,” Stieb said, “my won-lost record has never indicated how well I have pitched. I don’t know if it ever will. I look around and see other guys at 14-3 and I feel I should be be right there with them.”

Stieb finally reached double figures in victories this season at the expense of Mike Witt (8-7), who awakened Thursday morning to find himself the old man of the Angels’ starting pitching staff at 25.

Mack is 24 and right-handed, and his record at Edmonton was 7-9 with a 4.35 ERA. He will make his first major league start Saturday, replacing Jim Slaton, who has replaced Corbett as the team’s long-relief specialist.

Corbett was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a nerve irritation in his left knee. That paved the way for Slaton, 35, who hasn’t won in two months, to move to the bullpen--and for Mack’s arrival in the big leagues.

With veteran Geoff Zahn still not ready to resume pitching, the Angels will venture into August, trying to win a division title with a starting rotation composed of Witt, 22-year-old Urbano Lugo and 24-year-olds Ron Romanick, Kirk McCaskill and Mack.

That would seem a considerable gamble, although Mauch and General Manager Mike Port would not allow such a concession.

“We have three rookies (as starting pitchers), but what does rookie status mean?” Mauch said. “It depends who the rookies are.

“Remember Larry Sherry? He was a rookie in 1959 and he pitched the Dodgers to the world championship. Kansas City won last year with three rookies (Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza, Danny Jackson). We’ll see.”

Port said: “I don’t know how it stands, historically speaking. There are certain things that must said for experience. But the fact is, there’s still a ways to go yet in the season. I don’t think it’s a risk, but I’m saying that with an appreciation for longer-running things.”

Translation: Mack as a starter figures as a stop-gap measure until Zahn is completely ready to rejoin the club.

In the meantime, Witt finds himself in a leadership role in the rotation. The Dean.

“Maybe that will shake his rear end,” Mauch said. “He’ll have to give an example for the younger pitchers.”

Thursday’s lesson may better be ignored. After winning his last five decisions, Witt lasted just four innings. He surrendered nine hits, five runs and was bailed out of jams three times by pickoffs or outfielders’ relays.

Toronto scored twice in the second inning before shortstop Dick Schofield caught Jesse Barfield off third base. Willie Upshaw delivered a two-run single in the third inning before being thrown out, attempting to stretch the hit into a double, via the Reggie Jackson-Rod Carew-Schofield connection. And in the fourth inning, Jackson gunned down another runner, erasing Tony Fernandez at the plate to end the inning.

On came Slaton in his new role as long reliever. He pitched the final four innings, yielding an RBI single to Lloyd Moseby and a solo home run to Ernie Whitt.

Those runs were superfluous. The way Stieb was pitching, one run looked like Mt. Everest.

For a while, Stieb flirted with a no-hitter. Doug DeCinces broke it up in the fifth with a sharp single to left.

“I’ll never throw a no-hitter,” Stieb said, almost griping. “You’ve got to be lucky. I’m not a lucky guy.”

But is he good? There’s no dispute about that.

How good, according to Gene Mauch, is another matter.

Angel Notes

International Incident?: Rod Carew wanted to close out his quest for 3,000 career hits amid peace and quiet. Or at least as much as possible. Well, you can’t always get what you want. The Toronto press created a furor over a recent comment made by Carew regarding the timing of his 3,000th hit. In a July 9 story written by Tom Singer of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Carew talked about the possibility of the historic hit coming on the road, adding as an aside: “As long as it doesn’t come in Canada.” The reaction by the Toronto Globe and Mail was a Wednesday story bearing the headline “Carew slights Canada” and asking the question, “What is it about this country that bothers Carew?” The article, written by Marty York, began: “Thousands of knowledgeable baseball fans in Toronto would be delighted to witness Rod Carew’s 3,000th career hit this week, but the thought of reaching the plateau at Exhibition Stadium is anything but delightful for the future Hall of Famer. In fact, it makes him wince.” York went on to quote Toronto fans about Carew’s remark (“It’s very insulting,” said one season-ticket-holder) but didn’t get anything out of Carew, who said, “I have no comment, because you people always try to make something out of nothing.” Wrote York: “Many Canadians, however wouldn’t regard Carew’s comment as nothing. They would consider it downright insulting.” Both Carew and Singer claimed the quote was taken out of context, the context being the possibility of Carew becoming the first player to record his 3,000th hit outside the United States. According to Singer, Carew said that he would prefer No. 3,000 to come in Anaheim or Minnesota, the two cities where he has spent his career.