Candelaria Finds the Good Life in California, 5-2

John Candelaria talked and talked and talked . . . and finally talked his way out of Pittsburgh. Now, he is giving proper thanks with the quiet blur of his left arm.

Freed from the last-place lethargy that pervades Three Rivers Stadium, where the Pirates draw few fans and produce fewer runs, Candelaria has landed on his feet in the middle of a pennant race--where, in two weeks with the Angels, he has already equaled his 1985 Pittsburgh victory total.

Candelaria improved his American League record to 2-0 Friday night by pitching six innings in the Angels’ 5-2 win over the Oakland A’s before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 32,925.

Candelaria struck out six--his highest total since Aug. 3 of last season--before receiving relief aid from Stewart Cliburn as the Angels maintained a 2 1/2-game lead over Kansas City in the AL West.

Candelaria’s second victory in three starts with California evened his season’s ledger at 4-4. Through Aug. 2, the date of his escape from Pittsburgh, Candelaria had managed a mark of 2-4 with the Pirates.

A fortnight later, Candelaria is still celebrating--on and off the field.

“Nothing against the city of Pittsburgh. I just wanted to get away from that organization,” Candelaria said. “I wanted to play for a winning team. The Angels are excellent, professionals, and they play well together.”

Of course, superlatives come easy for a pitcher who has received more offensive support in his last two starts with the Angels than he had seen the Pirates produce during entire homestands. The Angels’ welcome mat for Candelaria has consisted of 17 runs in two starts, including 12 in his shutout of Minnesota last week.

The Angel hitters weren’t quite up to that form against the A’s, but they did give Candelaria something to work with early.

Brian Downing, his hitting streak of 15 games broken Wednesday night in Seattle, got started on another by delivering a three-run home run off starter and loser Tim Birtsas in the third inning. Highlighting a four-run inning that erased a 2-0 Oakland lead, Downing’s homer was his sixth in his last 17 games and his 14th of the season.

The Angels scored a fourth run on an RBI single by Doug DeCinces and then, in the fifth inning, added a final run when Rod Carew singled and Bobby Grich doubled him home.

Candelaria allowed seven hits in six innings and was in trouble twice, but the Angel defense bailed him out with minimal damage.

Oakland had the bases loaded with no outs in the second inning after Mike Heath walked, Mike Davis singled and Steve Henderson beat out an infield hit to deep shortstop. Donnie Hill then gave the A’s a 2-0 advantage by doubling down the left-field line, scoring Heath and Davis.

Still, there were no outs. Candelaria finally got one by striking out Steve Kiefer. Then, he surrendered a line drive to Alfredo Griffin--which wound up becoming an inning-ending double play. Second baseman Bobby Grich grabbed the ball for one out. Firing quickly to DeCinces at third, he got another when Henderson was caught off base.

“That gave us a big lift,” Downing said. “We got out of that inning with only two runs scored. We could have been down big. “

Instead, the Angels had a deficit they could deal with. And they did it quickly.

In the sixth, however, the A’s made some rally-like noises. With one out, Dave Kingman and Heath hit consecutive singles. Davis then drove a ball to deep center field, sending Gary Pettis racing to the warning track.

Pettis ran the ball down, enabling the runners to advance only 90 feet. Candelaria then struck out Henderson, the last batter he would face in the game.

“He threw over 100 pitches,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said. “He left with the same velocity he came into the game with, in the 90s (m.p.h.). After the fourth, he said he was feeling a little stiffness. A hundred pitches is a lot for a man to throw when he’s been averaging 30 or 40 per outing, or less.”

Candelaria, who spent much of his final season with Pittsburgh in the bullpen, is gradually readjusting to life as a starting pitcher.

“I was a little wild in the second inning and I’m not real happy,” Candelaria said. “My strength is coming back slowly. I got tired by the end of the sixth inning; it really got cool all of a sudden.

“I’ll try to get seven (innings) next time.”

After six, Mauch decided to bring on Cliburn, who then gave up only a pair of singles to Hill while striking out three in three innings. The save was his fourth of the season--and kept Donnie Moore inactive for yet another night.

“I expect any minute for Donnie Moore to say, ‘Hey, remember me?’ ” Mauch said. “If it had been the seventh inning, I probably would’ve brought Donnie in. Since it was the sixth, I didn’t want Donnie to go the full three (final innings).”

The victory was the Angels’ eighth straight at home, but only their fifth since the All-Star break. That’s because, with two home dates negated by the two-day strike, the Angels had played 23 of their previous 27 games on the road.

“I expected a rejuvenation when we got home,” Mauch said. “It’s hard when you play four home games in a month.”

Likewise, Candelaria expected a rejuvenation when he changed homes. “It’s just fun,” he said in front of his new locker, “to be winning again.”

Angel Notes

The player to be named later in the trade that brought John Candelaria, George Hendrick and Al Holland from Pittsburgh to the Angels turned out to be minor league pitcher Bob Kipper, regarded as one of the top prospects in the Angels’ organization. Friday, the Angels released Kipper’s contract to Hawaii, the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate, to complete the six-player deal. Kipper, 21, was 10-10 with a 2.95 ERA while pitching for two minor league teams this season (9-9, 3.08 at Midland; 1-1, 2.16 at Edmonton). A first-round draft choice of the Angels in 1982, Kipper was 18-8 with a 2.04 ERA at Redwood in 1984 and was voted runner-up to Wally Joyner as the Angels’ minor league player of the year.