Angels Win, Head Home for Royal Showdown

Call it a salvage operation on the eve of a survival test with Kansas City.

The struggling Angels tied Sunday’s game with Baltimore with two runs in the ninth inning, then defeated the Orioles with three runs in the 11th, 7-4.

The sudden turnaround revived memories of how the Angels did it in the first half of a long season, erased some of the frustration from this last, harrowing tour of the East and enabled the Angels to remain 1 1/2 games behind Kansas City. They open a three-game series with the Royals at Anaheim Stadium tonight.

Manager Gene Mauch, whose team completed the trip with a 4-6 record and is now 22-23 since July 21, when it led the Royals by 7 1/2 games, was asked the importance of momentum going into tonight’s game.

The Royals definitely have it, having won eight straight games. Sunday’s win may give the Angels a measure of it.

“If you don’t have it you better see to it that Monday gives it to you, that you have it after Monday’s game,” Mauch said.

Thus, the first of three Anaheim games with the Royals and the first of seven September games with the Royals could establish a tone, the momentum for what follows.

“It’s of tremendous importance,” Mauch said. “You can look on it as the beginning of a three-game series or the beginning of a seven-game series. Attach any word you want to. You have to win. It would be the same if we were a game ahead or two ahead. Both teams would feel the same.”

The Angels were feeling a great deal better after Sunday’s 4-hour 1-minute marathon in which 43 players played. Having hit .233 in the first nine games of the trip, the Angels got 16 hits off six Baltimore pitchers and benefited from Baltimore’s failure to turn pivotal double plays in the ninth and 11th innings.

First baseman Eddie Murray threw to second rather than home on a potential double play in the ninth, allowing the tying run to score. Second baseman Alan Wiggins threw wildly to second on a potential double play in the 11th, allowing the tiebreaking run to score.

A double by Daryl Sconiers, a single by Juan Beniquez and a double by Bobby Grich helped tie it in the ninth. Singles by Gustavo Polidor (his first major league hit), Grich and Darrell Miller helped win it in the 11th.

Donnie Moore, who pitched two innings Saturday night and lost, pitched three innings Sunday and won. Starter Jim Slaton carried a shutout into the sixth, when the Orioles scored three runs, capitalizing on some daydreaming by George Hendrick. The right fielder first allowed a catchable line drive to sail over his his head, then made a lazy throw on an ensuing hit, enabling a run to score. Slaton hurled the resin bag when he was removed later in the inning.

Mauch thought only about his own team’s hits and said: “They finally found the grass instead of leather. I’d feel better if Donnie Moore wasn’t so used up. Maybe if it’s a cool evening tomorrow, (John) Candelaria can finally go the distance.”

The series opener finds Candelaria (4-1) moving ahead of Kirk McCaskill to face Bret Saberhagen, the 21-year-old Reseda right-hander who is expected to win the American League’s Cy Young Award. Saberhagen is 17-5 and has won 15 of his last 17 starts. Saberhagen also has a 3-0 career record and 0.79 earned-run average against the Angels.

Is this a survival test--or what?

“We’ve always played Kansas City pretty well at home,” Grich said in partial disagreement. “I’m not looking to survive--I’m looking to sweep and make up the ground we’ve lost on the road.

“We’ll be ready emotionally, but that hasn’t been the problem. We’ve been up mentally all along. The question is, do we have the talent. The question is, can we hit Saberhagen or not. He’s been one of the hottest pitchers in the league, and we haven’t been setting the world on fire with our bats.”

The Angels, in fact, are last in the league with a team batting average of .249. Said Mauch, of Saberhagen: “You’ve got to hit him. He ain’t going to give you nothing. He doesn’t walk anyone, he’s a good fielder and he’s not easy to steal against.”

The Angels, who had a two-game lead when the trip started, have been straining the Little General’s personality, but he implied that he wasn’t surprised to find his team returning to Anaheim without its lead, though he was hopeful the deficit wouldn’t be 1 1/2 games.

“When we left home I figured that if we don’t play .500 or better, we’d go home tied or a game behind. I didn’t foresee the Royals losing three in Texas, but I could foresee them winning as many as they have while we’ve been on this trip.”

Of the eight straight wins that have followed those three losses in Texas, Kansas City Manager Dick Howser said Sunday:

“I don’t think losses affect good clubs, and that’s why California is not going to be affected by what’s happened. I still think this is going to go down to the last series of the year, though I do feel we’re in good shape no matter what happens--whether we sweep, get swept or whatever. We can’t be buried in the next three games.”

It’s more do or die for the Angels.

“Give Kansas City credit,” reliever Moore said. “They’ve played well the second half. They’ve played the second half as well as we played the first half.

“Their pitching staff has been great, and it’s not just one guy doing the hitting. It’s Brett and Balboni and McRae.

“Then they pick up a guy (Omar Moreno), who couldn’t hit a basketball and he’s helped, too.”

The Angels?

“We’re down, but not out,” Moore said. “If guys are thinking we can’t make up 1 1/2 games, they might as well get their fishing gear out. You’ve got to have better confidence than that, and I think we still do.”

Angel Notes

The Angels have 26 games left, all against Kansas City, Texas, Chicago and Cleveland. They have a cumulative record of 15-10 against those teams. . . . Kansas City has played better in Anaheim than at home against the Angels. The Royals are 72-54 in Anaheim since 1969, which contrasts to a home record of 62-50. . . . Injury update: Kansas City center fielder Willie Wilson will be sidelined for the remainder of the week because of his reaction to a penicillin shot. Angel third baseman Doug DeCinces, who has not started since Aug. 17 because of lower back problems, is still on a day-to-day basis. Relief pitcher Stewart Cliburn, who has missed the last seven games with a pulled muscle on the left side of his rib cage, is definitely out of the K.C. series. . . . Some comments from K.C.: Hal McRae: “The thing I feel best about is that we’re playing well. That’s the most important thing . . . not where you are, who you’re playing or where you came from. We also know that our pitching will keep us in every game.” . . . George Brett: “We’ve done something we haven’t done in the past. We went out and got a key player (Omar Moreno). When Willie Wilson went down we got somebody who’s helped us win--maybe even single-handedly a couple times.” . . . Said Gene Mauch: “I didn’t know they were going to come up with Babe Moreno.” . . . Moreno, who is 9 for 17 with eight RBIs in six games with the Royals, will not start against left-hander John Candelaria tonight. Lynn Jones will be the K.C. center fielder. . . . The Royals are 30-13 since McRae was reinstated as the regular designated hitter July 21. McRae has 39 RBIs in the 43 games. . . . Much grumbling among Angel players regarding the club’s chartering of only a DC-9 for Sunday’s postgame flight to Ontario. One and possibly two refueling stops were expected. The earliest the club would reach Ontario was 10 p.m. A larger plane would have cost a minimum of $8,000 more. “Why would we want to get home at a decent hour?” one Angel said. “We’re only playing Kansas City tomorrow night.” . . . Ron Romanick is still penciled in to start against the Royals Wednesday night. Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann met with Romanick to discuss his recent lack of concentration and aggressiveness. “He’s aware that he hasn’t been mentally into the game as much as he should be,” Lachemann said. “But he’s working at it. I can’t be critical as long as he’s working at it. Hopefully, it will come.”