Ill Wind Sweeps Up the Angels

Angel tempers flared again Sunday, not in the corner of some downtown bar but in the wide-open spaces of County Stadium.

The Angels were an inning away from being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers, trailing, 5-2, in a game they would eventually lose, 5-3. Rick Burleson led off the top of the eighth with a strikeout, being called out on a 3-and-2 pitch by plate umpire Rick Reed.

Burleson didn’t care much for the call and grumbled about it as he took his seat in the dugout. He got a little louder when the next batter, Wally Joyner, homered over the right-field fence.

“That should have been a two-run home run,” Burleson yelled at Reed.

Reed wasn’t in the mood for such speculation. He turned around and waved Burleson out again--this time from the game.

That got Angel Manager Gene Mauch angry. Mauch ran out to protest to Reed, asserting that Burleson hadn’t said anything inflammatory enough to warrant an ejection.

“Burleson said it should’ve been a two-run homer. That’s all,” Mauch said. “(Reed) said Burleson had been yakking at him all day. Well, I was out there all day and I didn’t hear it. The umpire was being too sensitive.”

He wasn’t the only one. The Angels still lead the American League West by one game, but a clubhouse visitor would never have guessed it. The California locker room, uncommonly loose during the latter part of April, was back to old standards--tense, subdued, eerily quiet. The three-game losing steak, the team’s longest of the season, hung heavy in the air.

In this instance, the troops were following the lead of the Little General.

“I’ve been in this game for years,” Mauch said, “and losses always hurt me. When I lose, it’s a wasted day in my life. It’s never been any different for me--and it never will, I’m sure.”

To be sure, this hasn’t been the best of weeks for Mauch and the Angels.

Thursday, Gary Pettis was thrown out of the game when he pushed umpire John Shulock after a disputed third-strike call.

Friday, a ball the Angels still swear never cleared the fence was ruled a home run, and the Angels lost by one.

Saturday, Pettis and Brian Downing collided head-on while trying to chase down a fly ball that drove in the winning run. Reggie Jackson, who went 0 for 5 in the game, allegedly assaulted a patron of a Milwaukee bar later that evening.

And then there was Sunday.

Helped along by erratic but strong winds, the Angels played their sloppiest game of the trip. A crowd of 12,432 watched as the Angels were miraculously credited with just one error in an effort that could easily have brought them four.

George Hendrick had the lone official error--dropping a fly ball that enabled Robin Yount to wind up on second base. Hendrick also bobbled a ball in the fifth inning, enabling Ben Oglivie to score from first on a double by Moore. Of course, Hendrick would have never touched the ball had Joyner been able to handle it at first base--a tough play between hops, but hardly impossible.

Pitcher Kirk McCaskill also contributed to Milwaukee’s three-run sixth inning when he couldn’t come up with Yount’s bunt toward third base. Yount and Billy Jo Robidoux scored on a double by Rob Deer that Downing knocked around a while in left field.

“We could have got out of here with two (victories) easy,” Mauch said. “What happened to us today defensively wasn’t for lack of effort.

“In the time he’s played, Joyner has probably never had a ball hit to him like that. It was a duck hook. George had a tough time with the wind out there. And Brian Downing . . . if there’s any way Brian Downing can make a play, Brian Downing will make it.

“The wind was tough. It blew things around all day.”

It blew on the Brewers, too, but they handled it all right--spectacularly at times. In addition to his home run and a third-inning single, Joyner made a bid for another extra-base hit when he drove the ball over Yount’s head in center field in the sixth.

Running straight back, Yount hauled in the ball over his shoulder like a wide receiver and did a nose-dive onto the warning track. The catch was so impressive that it brought out Mauch from the dugout steps to get a closer look at the scoreboard replay--just to make sure Yount held on to the ball all the way.

He did, and the Brewers, behind the combined six-hit pitching of Ted Higuera (4-1) and Mark Clear, held on to sweep a three-game series from the Angels for the first time since the 1982 AL championship series.

But that’s another story, from another time. Best not to dwell on it.

At the moment, the Angels are having enough trouble dealing with the present.

Angel Notes

Rick Burleson was the Angels’ designated hitter Sunday, so after his ejection in the eighth inning, Manager Gene Mauch replaced him in the batting order with Reggie Jackson. The County Stadium crowd reads newspapers. Jackson never made it to the plate, but he was on deck in the ninth inning before the final out. When he emerged from the dugout swinging a weighted bat, Jackson was booed loudly by the crowd. . . . Gary Pettis finally stole his fifth base of the season, beating Brewer catcher Rick Cerone’s throw to second base in the third inning. That brought Pettis’ success rate on the basepaths up to .500 (5 for 10). Last season, Pettis stole 56 bases while being caught just nine times. The reason for the slow start? Mauch partly blames himself. “I think I made a mistake by not running him more in the spring,” Mauch said. “I didn’t want him sliding and banging up his neck. But you have to be arrogant to steal bases. It takes the same ego to steal bases as it does to be a good hitter. And that’s something that has to build up. It’s not there, yet.” Pettis agreed. “A base stealer has to be cocky,” Pettis said. “A base stealer has to say, ‘Pitch out--I don’t care. I’m going to steal the base, anyway.’ I don’t think I’ve been cocky enough. At this point I’m not reading the pitchers the way I want. Usually, I make my move when they make theirs--simultaneously. This year, I’ve been waiting for them to their move, and then I make mine.” . . . Both Pettis and Brian Downing were in the starting lineup after their game-ending crash in left-center field Saturday. Pettis complained of soreness below his left armpit, where he struck Downing’s head, and in his left knee. “That’s what I hurt when he kinda flipped me over,” Pettis said. “My knee has been bothering me more than the rib cage. You never want to run into Brian Downing, especially when you’re not expecting it.” . . . Wally Joyner’s home run against Ted Higuera was his eighth homer of the season. That’s more than Rod Carew, the man Joyner replaced, had in his last three years combined. Carew hit two home runs in 1983, three in 1984 and two last season. . . . George Hendrick hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. It was the 100th American League home run of Hendrick’s career.