Angels Get Swept Out of Toronto, Lose, 5-1

Every October, the American League holds a championship series between the winners of its two divisions. This year, there’s a chance the Angels could be involved.

For the Angels, this is distressing news. It could mean one more trip to Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium, where the only thing the Angels exhibited the past four days was a penchant for getting clobbered.

The latest loss, completing a four-game sweep by the Toronto Blue Jays, came Sunday afternoon by a score of 5-1 before a crowd of 36,910. It was the closest game of the series.

Before that, the Toronto margins of victory were 7-0, 8-3 and 8-3. In the four games, the Blue Jays outscored the Angels, 28-7, and outhit them, 52-28.

Toronto sent the Angels off to Oakland reeling, burdened with their longest losing streak of the season (four games), which has stripped the Angels’ lead in the AL West to three games.

Afterward, Gene Mauch looked every bit the part of a manager of a team in the throes of aftershock.

“I’d rather take four days off the end of my life than right in the middle of it,” Mauch said with a sigh.

Times have changed, rather abruptly, since the Blue Jays and Angels last tangled in Anaheim. Two weeks ago, Toronto Manager Bobby Cox was the somber one, trying to explain three straight defeats.

“When we beat them three in a row they were in total disarray,” Mauch said. “They’ve been a good team all year long, but there are down periods. We just had one.

“They’ve still got some crises to face. So do we.”

The Angels are staring nose-to-nose with their most severe crisis of the year. The team is 4-7 on its current trip and, as Mauch

concedes, “To tell you the honest truth, we didn’t play too good the first seven games of the trip. We still managed to win four of them.”

The Angels salvaged two wins in both Boston and Milwaukee, taking advantage of some spotty Red Sox pitching and some erratic Brewer hitting.

But, in Toronto, the Angels discovered they could not get away with minor discretions. Every hanging curveball, every pinball bounce on the AstroTurf, every misjudged fly ball . . . the Blue Jays pounced upon them all.

The Blue Jays also took advantage of inexperience. Mauch sent three straight rookie pitchers against Toronto--Urbano Lugo Friday, Tony Mack Saturday, Kirk McCaskill Sunday. The Blue Jay hitters responded as if this were a personal affront to their pride and honor.

For the third straight game, Toronto scored in the first inning. Damaso Garcia and Tony Fernandez led off with singles, both coming home on a line-drive double to right-center field by George Bell. It would’ve been a triple, but Bell stumbled and pulled a body-flop on his way to third, where he was an easy out.

It would be the only Toronto pratfall of the afternoon.

The Blue Jays received help to score their next two runs:

--From Angels’ second baseman Rob Wilfong, who couldn’t pick up a grounder by Ernie Whitt in the second inning, enabling Willie Upshaw to score from second.

--And from the AstroTurf, which prompted Whitt’s fourth-inning dunker to bounce high over the head of Angels’ center fielder Ruppert Jones, resulting in a triple that brought home Upshaw from first.

Whitt’s hit was a symbol for this series--producing a run for the Blue Jays while the Angels kept slipping and sliding all over the artificial surface.

At one point this season, the Angels were 9-1 on the synthetic stuff. Mauch, a longtime anti-artificial grass man, was almost growing fond of it.

No more.

“I never did like it,” he said. “I was disliking it less . . . until we got here.

“I think it was amazing that our (9-1) record was so good, because usually a team that plays well on turf is designed for speed. We had two sweeps on it . . . now, three.”

There was more to this sweep, however, than the surface on which it was played. The Blue Jays also made a contribution.

“They’re hot and we’re not. That’s what it boils down to,” said McCaskill, who gave up five runs in 4 innings as his record fell to 6-7. “This (series) was similar to what we did to them, except we got some lucky breaks there (in Anaheim). Toronto’s a real solid ballclub.

“Sure, we’re down, but that’s got to be the top of their game. I don’t see how they can play better than that.”

While the Blue Jays’ lineup totaled 10 hits against McCaskill and Pat Clements, Toronto starting pitcher Doyle Alexander was throwing a seven-hitter to improve his record to 10-6. The only run he allowed came on a solo home run by Reggie Jackson, his 17th of the season and 520th of his career.

It wasn’t enough to stop the sweep. The Angels wound up 5-7 on the season against Toronto . . . unless the teams meet again in October.

Could four routs in July have a carryover effect then?

“Yeah,” said McCaskill, searching for a silver lining. “That’ll mean it will be our turn to win.”

Angel Notes

Rod Carew was back in the Toronto newspapers Sunday. No “Carew Slights Canada” banners this time, but there on the cover of the Sunday Sun--sandwiched between “Teens Party With the Devil” and a promo for Bruce Springsteen concert tickets--was a box bearing the headline, “Carew gets the Girl: P. 3.” Hmmm. Page 3, of course, is where the Sun runs its daily photographic feature, the SUNshine Girl, and Carew, an avid amateur photographer, was enlisted by the Sun as a designated shooter Saturday. The Sun considered this big news, describing Carew as “the first major league ballplayer to photograph a SUNshine girl” and printing a photograph of Carew photographing “lovely Lynn.” Reported the Sun: “SUNshine girl Lynn said she felt very comfortable with photographer Carew, and noted that he was ‘very much a gentleman.’ ” . . . The Angels are through with Toronto for the regular season, but the Blue Jays could still cause the Angels problems in the days ahead. In order to trade for Cleveland’s Bert Blyleven, the Angels first need the veteran pitcher to clear waivers. Toronto nearly completed a deal for Blyleven before the June 15 trade deadline, and the Blue Jays are said to be interested again, with 7-4 Jim Clancy on the disabled list. A Toronto waiver claim could block any possible transaction for the Angels. . . . The Angels have a day off today before opening a a three-game series in Oakland Tuesday. Don Sutton (9-6) will pitch the opener for the A’s, facing the Angels’ Mike Witt (8-7).