Angels Find Manpower to Win, 5-4 : Schofield, With 3-Run Homer, and Slaton Star in Victory Over Twins

Gene Mauch was not the only manager to complain when major league baseball owners decided before the season to cut their rosters to 24 players, a reduction of one from previous years.

But considering that his lineup is, shall we say, laden with experience, the Angel manager knew that his team would be affected more than most.

Saturday was a case in point. The Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4, before a crowd of 23,498 at Anaheim Stadium, but they won because of the pitching of a starter who wasn’t supposed to be in the rotation and the hitting of a shortstop who was filling in for an ailing veteran.

Jim Slaton, who gained a spot in the rotation when John Candelaria underwent elbow surgery last Wednesday, allowed just two earned runs in 7 innings of work to pick up his first win at home since May 19, 1985. And the .143-hitting Dick Schofield, making only his third appearance of the season, provided the key offensive blow with a three-run homer to cap the Angels’ five-run fourth inning.

So what does Mauch think of the 24-man roster now?

“At this point, I’d like to have 22,” he said, managing a smile.

The Angels are without the services of 38-year-old catcher Bob Boone, who sprained his right ankle sliding into second Friday night; 37-year-old second baseman Bobby Grich, out with a jammed thumb, and 34-year-old shortstop Rick Burleson, a last-minute scratch from Saturday’s lineup because of a tired arm.

Then rookie first baseman Wally Joyner tripped over first base running out a grounder in the fifth, hurting an ankle, and Mauch was left with just one healthy position player, Darrell Miller, on the bench.

And the season is barely two weeks old.

“I don’t know if we deserved this one or not, but we’ll take it,” Mauch said. “It definitely wasn’t our best brand.”

That’s putting it mildly.

The game was scheduled to be the second half of an NBC doubleheader, but it never made it on the air. The Dodger-Brave game ended early, and NBC switched to the St. Louis-Montreal game to fill the gap. It was the top of the ninth inning at the time, but it wasn’t over until St. Louis won, 9-6, after 17. By then, the Angel game was over, too.

Don’t fret. This wasn’t one you wanted to videotape for your Little Leaguer, anyway.

It included three errors (all of the more embarrassing variety), a couple of passed balls and some shaky base-running strategy.

Twin starter John Butcher had a one-hitter and a 2-0 lead going into the fourth, when the Angels used a combination of bleeders and bullets to score five times.

Brian Downing got things rolling with a one-out line drive that nipped the top of third baseman Gary Gaetti’s glove en route to left field. Then Doug DeCinces rolled a single through the hole into left. Reggie Jackson beat the ball into the dirt and over Butcher’s head for an infield hit that loaded the bases.

Ruppert Jones’ slow bouncer to second looked like a double-play ball, but Chris Pittaro bobbled it momentarily and had to settle for a force on Jackson as Downing scored. Rob Wilfong then grounded a single into right field to bring home DeCinces.

There was nothing cheap, though, about Schofield’s ensuing homer, a line drive that ended up in the seats in left-center.

The Angels’ inability to catch the ball helped the Twins make it close. Jones misjudged Kirby Puckett’s high fly to right in the fifth, and the ball landed untouched on the warning track as Jones staggered back and came up empty. Puckett scampered all the way around to third and scored on Mickey Hatcher’s fly to center.

The Angels had a chance to add a run in the sixth. DeCinces reached second when shortstop Greg Gagne dropped his pop-up. He tried to score when Jackson’s bouncer squirted between the legs of first baseman Kent Hrbek but was out at the plate despite a bad throw by Pittaro.

Jerry Narron, who was replacing Boone, had a Terry Forster pitch go under his glove and a Donnie Moore delivery go over it in the eighth for passed balls as the Twins pulled within one. After Hatcher’s single to left had chased Slaton, Forster came in and walked Hrbek, whose solo homer in the third had given Minnesota a 2-0 lead. That brought on Moore, who yielded a run-scoring fly to right by Tom Brunansky.

“Slaton was superb,” Mauch said, “and we didn’t give him the best of it, either.”

Slaton was also generally pleased with his performance and happy to pick up a win at home.

“I’ve thrown a few good games here,” he said. “Hopefully, it won’t be 11 months before I win again. My location was good, and I got away with a couple of hanging curves that ended up on the warning track.”

Slaton, who said he can tell when he gets up to 100 pitches by “the way the ball starts coming off the bat,” had made 102 when he went out in the eighth.

“We got some breaks (in the fourth), but it’s nice to see our hitters take advantage of the opportunities.”

Scoring runs has not been a major problem for the Angels. Mauch doesn’t figure it will be in the future, either--as long as he can find nine healthy players to fill his lineup card.

Angel Notes After Wally Joyner, the rookie who was one of the reasons the Angels decided not to re-sign Rod Carew, tripped over first base in the fifth inning and jammed his right ankle, George Hendrick went out to play first in the top of the sixth. This prompted Reggie Jackson to walk out of the Angel dugout, point up toward Carew, who was in the NBC broadcasting booth, and then point to first base and smile. It was Carew’s first appearance at the Big A in 1986. X-rays of Joyner’s ankle were negative, and the injury was diagnosed as a medial sprain. Joyner said there was a “50% chance he’d be ready to play today.” . . . The Angel X-ray machine got a workout Saturday. After catcher Bob Boone injured his ankle Friday night, he remained in the game. But the ankle stiffened overnight. Saturday’s X-rays were negative, and the injury was diagnosed as a sprain. “He probably should be out a week, but he’ll lie to me and play in three days,” Manager Gene Mauch predicted. It must have hurt Boone to miss Saturday’s game. He has a career batting average of .409 against Twin starter John Butcher. . . . Rick Burleson was a late scratch from the lineup when he developed a knot in the muscle of his right shoulder. Burleson said the injury is not related to the shoulder problems that sidelined him for most of the last three seasons. . . . Jim Slaton made a nice play behind the mound to snag Kirby Puckett’s high bouncer in the third inning, and his throw to first was just in time. It was the first time the Angels had retired the Twin center fielder in his last five at-bats. Puckett had two singles, a double, a home run and five RBIs in the previous four trips to the plate.