Angels Pull Off a Win and a Tie Against Rangers

The Angels are a team without their ace reliever, without their left-handed starter, without a true leadoff man. A month ago, as they lurched through the end of May with eight losses in nine games, it was safe to wonder how fourth or fifth place in the AL West would look on them.

A snug fit, it was decided.

So what happens? The Angels meet June and begin a love affair. They win games in bunches. They break up no-hitters. They win at home. They win on the road. No injury is too damaging. Few decisions backfire.

Tuesday night’s game against the Texas Rangers at Arlington Stadium was no different. The Angels won, 12-3, which earned them a return visit atop the division standings in a tie with the Rangers. How they did it is another question.

The Angels have defeated Texas five straight times this season and seven times in a row over the last two years. They’re 4 for 5 on a road trip that includes games with the Kansas City Royals and the surprising Rangers. During the last 13 games, the Angels have 10 victories. They’ve won seven of their last eight games.

And hadn’t it been 10 days earlier that the Angels were 4 1/2 games out of first place and headed nowhere fast?

“We knew from Day One that everyone said the California Angels were too old,” center fielder Gary Pettis said. “But I think everyone here believed in themselves. We believe in one another.”

Sure they do. Doug Corbett leaves the team Tuesday morning to attend to a family emergency, Terry Forster comes up with a tender throwing arm--and it doesn’t matter. Starter Ron Romanick (5-5) pitches seven innings and a healthy Donnie Moore, rather than three rookies, were stationed in the bullpen.

Pregame showers end any thoughts of batting practice. So, of course, the Angels tie their highest run production of the season, using 13 hits to do it.

Brian Downing, who entered the game batting .356 over the last 13 games, injures his ankle in the third inning and departs. Doesn’t matter, not on this night anyway. The Angels act as if they could do quite nicely with, say, second baseman Rob Wilfong as their run producer.

Wilfong, who came up three times with runners in scoring position, finishes with four runs batted in, matching a career high and earning him an infrequent visit on the television postgame show. Later, he holds his first press conference of recent months in third baseman Doug DeCinces’ clubhouse cubicle. “I figured if I came down with a big guy’s name, you might find me,” he says. “You probably don’t know where my locker is.”

Wilfong, who finished last season with a .189 batting average and then retreated home during the winter to work on his swing, now has 21 RBIs, which is eight more than he had in 1985. “I’m right on Wally’s (Joyner) tail,” he says, alluding to Joyner’s 53 RBIs. And Wilfong also is hitting .260, which isn’t going to win the batting title but is nice enough.

“When you hit .189, you tend to have to change,” he said.

The oddities continue. Reggie Jackson, who hasn’t homered since May 14, retains his .300-plus average with an RBI single and gets credit for another run driven in with a bases-loaded walk. He doesn’t seem to mind a bit, what with the Angels scoring six runs in the third, three in the fourth and three in the sixth.

And so it goes.

Ranger rookie Edwin Correa was accountable for eight of the runs. He allowed a three-run double by Wilfong as well as RBI hits by Ruppert Jones and Jackson. Correa said: “I was thinking out there, ‘I can’t believe it. This is like a nightmare.’ ”

Jones had two hits and two RBIs, and Joyner had two hits and an RBI. Jackson had his two RBIs; DeCinces had one RBI; Wilfong had four RBIs; Dick Schofield had one RBI. A wild pitch accounted for another run.

“Kind of a strange game, wasn’t it?” Manager Gene Mauch said. “A lot of funny hits.”

The Rangers weren’t exactly laughing. They scored single runs in the second, the fifth (unearned) and in the eighth. By then, Todd Fischer had replaced Romanick.

“I’m starting to find answers to what I’ve been doing wrong,” said Romanick, who won his second straight game after four losses. “Actually, I’m kind of mad about myself at the two-out hits. I could have made better pitches.”

This wasn’t an evening to be picky. This was a night when 29,057 fans saved their loudest cheers not for Ranger runs but for a scoreboard gimmick called “The Arlington Stadium Dot Race.”

Don’t ask.

They couldn’t be blamed for the indiscretions. The Angels could do little wrong, the Rangers little right.

“I think the experience on the ballclub is carrying us through the hard times,” said Pettis, who was less sure how to describe the Rangers’ lack of success against the Angels.

“I can’t explain it,” he said. “Maybe they’re just in the right place at the wrong time.”

Angel Notes

Outfielder Brian Downing left Tuesday night’s game in the third inning with a strained right ankle after returning to second base on an attempted pickoff play. Manager Gene Mauch said Downing will be out of the lineup until at least Friday. . . . Reliever Doug Corbett took a plane home to Anaheim Tuesday morning to be with his 2 1/2-year-old son, Kyle, who has contracted viral meningitis. Corbett, whose son is resting comfortably at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, might rejoin the team by Friday, in time for a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians. “He called about 2 o’clock (Tuesday) morning,” Mauch said. “He was frantic, besides himself with anxiety.” Corbett wasn’t expected to pitch Tuesday evening (he went 1 innings Monday night, earning his sixth save), but Mauch said he might have been used Wednesday. Corbett’s departure leaves the Angels with veteran left-hander Terry Forster, right-hander Jim Slaton and three rookies--right-hander Todd Fischer, left-hander Chuck Finley and right-hander T.R. Bryden. Mauch said Forster’s arm is tender, though Forster says otherwise. “That’s what he tells me,” Mauch said, “but I know better. I know who he talks to.” . . . Reliever Donnie Moore, who continues to rehabilitate an injured right shoulder, threw at Anaheim Stadium Tuesday. It marks the first time he has tested his shoulder two consecutive days. “He felt good,” Mauch said. John Candelaria, scheduled to start in Palm Springs Thursday, also threw for about eight minutes at the Big A, as did Gary Lucas, who is expected to make a relief appearance in the same game. No problems, Mauch said. . . . Reliever Jim Slaton will remain in the bullpen. “We’ll probably continue this way,” Mauch said. . . . Don Sutton, 41, will face Cleveland Indian pitcher Phil Niekro, 47, Saturday evening at Anaheim. It will be the first time since 1892 that two 300-game winners (Sutton, 301; Niekro, 304) pitched against each other. Pud Galvin, who finished with 361 career wins, and Tim Keefe, 342 victories, did it in 1892. Saturday’s 7:05 Angel game will be preceded by an Old-Timers game, an irony not lost on Sutton. “It just means we’ll be playing two old-timer games that day,” he said. “And it’ll be nice to work on a day when I’m not the oldest guy on the field, too.”