Angels Go Out With a Bang at Big A, 7-4

In the wake of the final out of the final game of their regular-season home schedule, the Angels ignited a fireworks display modeled after their 25th anniversary logo.

Ron Romanick was to be excused if he thought the pyrotechnics were in commemoration of his first win since July 31, a 56-day period in which he had allowed 33 earned runs in 33 innings through eight starts.

Romanick’s record went from 13-4 to 13-8, his earned-run average from 3.02 to 4.04.

The misery ended Wednesday night.

It wasn’t as fashionable as Romanick would have liked, but he is now back in the win column.

More significantly, he helped put the Angels there following two straight losses to the Chicago White Sox.

A 7-4 victory before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 33,028 also enabled the Angels to maintain a half-game lead over Kansas City in the American League West. The Royals defeated Seattle, 5-4, ending a 10 game losing streak to the Mariners.

The Angels lightened Romanick’s load with a productive attack that built leads of 6-1 and 7-2, ultimately saddling 18-game winner Britt Burns with his ninth defeat.

Gary Pettis, batting .345 in September, drilled a two-run double in the second inning. Doug DeCinces, with 10 runs batted in over the last five games and as many spectacular plays at third, tripled in a run in the third. Juan Beniquez, batting .489 in his last 13 games and the Angels only .300 hitter (he’s at .310), slugged his eighth home run to extend a 3-1 lead to 6-1 in the fourth.

Romanick, who is scheduled to pitch against Kansas City next Tuesday, allowed six hits in 6 innings. Three of the hits were solo homers.

Tim Hulett connected in the fifth, and Carlton Fisk and Ron Kittle homered consecutively to open the seventh.

Fisk, attempting to become the first catcher ever to win the American League’s home run title, is now tied with Darrell Evans for the league lead at 37. The homer was also his 33rd in a catching role, a league record. On Tuesday night, Fisk had tied Lance Parrish’s 1982 mark of 32.

Kittle’s homer was his 20th. Romanick yielded to Donnie Moore two outs later. Moore responded with his 29th save, striking out the side in the eighth while pitching 2shutout innings.

The victory enabled the Angels to conclude a productive home schedule with a 49-30 record. The team opens its final, 10-game trip in Cleveland Friday night. The only way the Angels will play in Anaheim again this season is if they host the third, fourth and fifth games of the playoffs. The first of the playoff games here would be Oct. 11.

“We’ve had some fun here,” Manager Gene Mauch said of the Angels’ success in Anaheim. “Now I want to go pack and play. This team has character. It can win on the road.”

Now Romanick knows he can still win.

“It’s been difficult,” he said. “It’s been a roller-coaster season. I felt that in my last two or three starts I had gotten the monkey off my back as far as feeling good again about the way I was pitching, but winning is the bottom line.

“Tonight wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. I was able to nullify them until we got a big lead. I’d have liked to make it a sparkler, something like 8-0, but down the stretch they just aren’t going to be like that. Every one is going to be a dogfight, but I’m confident I can come back and contribute.”

The theory is that Romanick’s activities as the club’s player representative during the period preceding and following the August strike served to disrupt his concentration, leading to mechanical flaws and a loss of confidence. His groove became a rut. He became tentative. Mauch and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said it was all a matter of Romanick getting his concentration back and and getting aggressive again.

Said Mauch : “He’s been vulnerable to the long ball, but he’s started to compete again like Ron Romanick can compete. He didn’t give in on any of those pitches tonight. I told him recently that the last three weeks wouldn’t be easy because he wouldn’t be pitching on a regular schedule, but that I still needed him, that I needed three wins from him.”

Romanick said that Mauch’s willingness to keep him in the rotation during his six weeks without a win aided his peace of mind. So did the succession of big hits by the hot hitting Pettis, DeCinces and Beniquez.

Another hot hitter, Dick Schofield, singled twice and scored twice. The shortstop is hitting .290 in September, improving his average to a season high .215.

It ultimately came down to Moore, who has been hot since April. This appearance may have been Moore’s last as an Angel in Anaheim since he is eligible for free agency in October and is somewhat frustrated by the Angels failure to have resolved the situtation, which is not to say he’s hasn’t been bargaining. Twenty-nine saves shows he knows how to negotiate.

Angel Notes

The Angels finished their home schedule with an attendance total of 2,567,423, second highest in club history. Reggie Jackson, who makes 50 cents for every admission over 2.4 million, earned $83,711. . . . Completing the Don Sutton trade, the Angels sent pitcher Rob Sharpnack, a second-round selection in the June draft, and outfielder Jerome Nelson, a third-round choice, to Oakland. The acquisition of Sutton and John Candelaria wound up costing the organization two of its top pitching prospects: Bob Kipper, who went to Pittsburgh in the Candelaria deal, and Fountain Valley High product Sharpnack, an 18-year-old right-hander. General Manager Mike Port, reiterating that the pennant bid has not cost the Angels any of the position players who are considered part of the club’s future, said: “As much as we held Sharpnack in high regard, we had to look at it from the perspective of what Sutton can do for us now. We still have all of our draft choices for next year and we still have all of the other kids we selected in June.” . . . . KMPC, with the Angels off tonight, will broadcast Kansas City’s series finale in Seattle, picking up the Royals’ broadcast feed. . . . In opposition to the player association’s request that all clubs abstain from voting on Commissioner Peter Ueberroth’s proposal for voluntary drug testing, the White Sox held a pregame meeting and decided to vote today on the concept of voluntary testing. Player representative Richard Dotson said the subject’s importance demanded a statement. He said the results of the vote would be sent to the union in the hope it would foster a dialogue.