Hough Takes Blame for Tough Loss : Stunned by Strange Turn of Events, He Didn’t Go Home

Charlie Hough should have known.

Any time you start the year on the disabled list because a buddy shook your hand so hard he broke your little finger, you have to figure to get stood up on your date with destiny.

The Texas Ranger knuckleballer was two outs away from a no-hitter Monday night at Anaheim Stadium when Angel rookie Wally Joyner reached across the plate and stroked a line-drive single to right, scoring Jack Howell, who had reached third on George Wright’s three-base fielding error.

Joyner’s hit tied the game, 1-1, but that was only the beginning of Hough’s disappointment. Three batters later, the veteran of 14 major league seasons was standing in front of the mound watching Joyner score the winning run.

And all he had to do to prevent it was trot fifty feet and cover the plate.

Hough struck out the side in the ninth, including George Hendrick on a high-and-away knuckleball that eluded catcher Orlando Mercado. It would have been out No. 3 and would have sent the game into extra innings. But the ball rolled halfway to the backstop and when Mercado picked it up and saw that no one was covering the plate, he could only take a few futile steps in Joyner’s direction.

“Yeah, I goofed,” Hough said in barely audible tones in a morgue-like Ranger clubhouse. “It was a stupid play on my part. The guy did a great job of catching the whole game and then one gets by him. I just assumed he was going to first.”

Hendrick hesitated before taking off for first, but Mercado couldn’t have known that.

“The count is 3-and-2 with two out and the runners are going,” Mercado said. “I didn’t even look at first. I looked at the plate, but I don’t see nobody at home.

“Both of us, we blow it.”

The lights were on, but Hough wasn’t home and he wasn’t about to let anyone else take even a portion of the blame.

“It’s a terrible way to lose a game,” he said. “I wasn’t even thinking about the no-hitter, even in the ninth. I threw fastballs to the pinch-hitter (Howell) because I didn’t want to give up a walk. It was my own fault.

“All I had to do is walk home, and he flips the ball back to me and I tag out the runner. It certainly wasn’t Orlando’s fault.

“You make a goof in this league and you usually lose.”

Hough said that the error by Wright, who had just been inserted into the game for defensive purposes, didn’t faze him and even the single by Joyner didn’t shake his concentration.

“Errors are part of the game,” Hough said. “Stupid plays are a heckuva lot worse. I made a good pitch to the kid (Joyner) and he just hit. He looks like a pretty good hitter to me.”

Hough went 13 innings and allowed just one hit in the last eight innings but got no decision last week against Minnesota. It was his first no-decision in 37 straight starts. Hough, who lives in Brea, has had three two-hitters. Monday night was his first one-hitter.

He said the defeat hurt worse than the loss of the no-hitter, but he doesn’t expect to get another chance at history.

“Are you kidding, with the junk I’m throwing out there?” he said, mustering a grin.

Texas Manager Bobby Valentine wasn’t smiling when Hough showed up at spring training camp with his finger taped up. He broke it while performing an interlocking pinky shake with a friend. Hough missed the first month of the season, but he hasn’t missed a turn since and is 5-3 with an earned-run average of 1.34 in his last five starts.

Valentine wasn’t smiling Monday night, either.

“I haven’t seen one like that,” he said, looking as if he might start crying at any moment. “The guy pitched his heart out. I told him, ‘Good job, hang with them.’

“He’ll have lots of opportunities to pitch no-hitters for us.”

And he’ll probably never shake pinkies or forget to cover home again.