Angels’ Latest Loss Is Real Team Effort as Twins Win, 6-5

There was blame to be placed for the Angels’ 6-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome on Monday night, but in whose direction should the first finger be pointed?

At John Candelaria, who surrendered four runs in 6 innings, including Mickey Hatcher’s second home run of the season? “I blew it,” Candelaria said. “I had the lead and I let them come back.”

Or at Wally Joyner, who charged a bases-loaded grounder by Mark Salas in the eighth inning, failed to grab it and allowed the Twins to score the tying run? “I had to catch the ball and throw home,” Joyner said. “When I didn’t do the first, I couldn’t do the second.”

Or at Donnie Moore, who allowed that tying run and then the winning run, moving Greg Gagne into scoring position with a wild pitch and then serving up Gary Gaetti’s RBI single with one out in the bottom of the ninth? “I was struggling from the time I went in,” Moore said. “I didn’t do my job.”

No, it would be inaccurate to single out just one player. This loss, the Angels’ third in a row, was certifiably a group effort.

The Angels broke out of their offensive doldrums by moving to the Midwest and into the Homerdome, where the ball really carries, they say, if you get it up in the air conditioning. Rick Burleson, Dick Schofield and Doug DeCinces all hit home runs to left field, and the Angels led by scores of 2-0 and 5-4, but in the end, they wound up giving it all away.

It all started to unravel in the bottom of the eighth, after Schofield’s 10th home run and DeCinces’ 14th had given the Angels a 5-4 lead in the top of the inning.

Moore promptly loaded the bases with no outs--yielding an infield single off Schofield’s glove by Gaetti, a walk to Tom Brunansky and a single to right by pinch-hitter Randy Bush. Then the Twins chopped two balls into the artificial turf for Joyner, who had just entered the game for defensive purposes.

Joyner fielded the first, off the bat of Roy Smalley, and threw out Gaetti at the plate. The second, by Salas, was tougher. Joyner had to run in on a ball that caught him between hops. He got a glove on it, but that’s all. Brunansky scored without a play.

Joyner was credited with an error, and Minnesota had forged a 5-5 tie.

“We didn’t catch the ball quite as well as we usually do,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said. If Joyner had, would he have had a chance to throw out Brunansky, who got a good jump on the play?

“It would’ve been close,” Mauch said. “That (home plate) was where he was going.”

Said Joyner: “It was a slowly hit ball. I don’t know if I had a play or not, but I had to go home with it, play or no play. I just missed the ball.”

The Angels averted further damage--at least temporarily--when DeCinces and Bobby Grich turned an inning-ending double play.

Then came the bottom of the ninth.

Moore, laboring hard, opened the inning by walking the Twins’ No. 9 hitter, Gagne, who took a .242 batting average into the game. Matters worsened when one of Moore’s offerings to Kirby Puckett got past catcher Bob Boone for a wild pitch, sending Gagne to second. So much for the double play ball.

Moore struck out Puckett and then intentionally walked Kent Hrbek to set up another double play situation. And, he got the next batter, Gaetti, to hit the ball on the ground.

On the ground, through the hole at second base. Gagne rounded third on the single and center fielder Gary Pettis’ throw home was up the first base line. Moore, who saved five games last week, started a new week by letting a potential victory slip away.

Moore (1-4) said the workload of the previous week had no bearing on Monday night. “I had two days off,” he said. “That’s like a year.”

Control was the problem.

“I wasn’t spotting the ball like I usually do,” he said. “When I go in there, throwing balls, I’m struggling. I’m supposed to be a control pitcher.

“My control wasn’t there. I can’t make it any simpler. Walking the leadoff man (Gagne) in the last inning is what killed me.”

And home-run pitches are what did in Candelaria. Particularly the one to Hatcher in the third inning. It came with a runner on base and against the .245-hitting Hatcher, who doubled his season’s home run total with a 373-foot fly to left.

“If one pitches here, one cannot afford to make too many mistakes,” said Candelaria, reciting the creed of the Metrodome pitcher. “I made one. Anywhere else, that’s a flyball to left field. But this is not anywhere else . . . and that’s reality.”

For the Angels, reality now is this: a 4-4 record on a trip that began with three wins in four games at Oakland.

“Now,” said Mauch, “we gotta go like hell to have a good road trip.”

Angel Notes

Wally Joyner was pronounced fit to play after bruising his right shin on a foul tip Sunday, but he did not appear in the Angels’ starting lineup for the first time this year. Joyner did, however, extend his streak of consecutive games played to 105 when he entered the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning. Gene Mauch said Joyner was overdue for a rest. “He’s a little mentally fatigued right now,” Mauch said, “and it’s not gonna get any easier. He’s getting all this talk--’Gee whiz, you might be Rookie of the Year,’ ‘Gee whiz, you might be MVP.’ He’s tired of all that. That’s the price you have to pay when you’re that good, I guess.” . . . Rick Burleson’s appearance at second base was his first in the field since July 22. He has been miffed over his lack of playing time, backing up Dick Schofield despite batting better than .300. “There have been days when I should’ve played and I didn’t,” Burleson said. “There were times when Schofield has struggled at the plate for two or three days in a row. Basically, (Mauch) has decided to go with him. The guy has had a good year in the field, but I’m not going to hurt defensively. But I’m not the manager. That’s their decision and they’re in first place with that decision. It’s just hard to stay sharp in the field playing once every three weeks.” . . . Burleson opened the game with his fifth home run of the year and had another single in the fifth. But after that single, Burleson was thrown out at home while attempting to score from second base on a wild pitch by Twin starter Neal Heaton. It eventually proved to be a costly out for the Angels.

Mauch hasn’t made an announcement, but he appears to be leaning toward keeping rookie Ray Chadwick in the starting rotation. Sunday, Chadwick failed to get an out in the first inning while Vern Ruhle followed with seven innings of scoreless relief, prompting discussion about a possible switching of roles. Said Mauch: “I know how it looks--’You got one guy who gave up four runs and didn’t get an out, why don’t you pitch the guy who pitched seven shutout innings?’ Well, we have to keep our bullpen in good shape. A No. 5 starter ain’t any damn more important than the bullpen. We don’t have a set plan, (but) I wouldn’t worry about putting the kid out there tonight. There’s nothing wrong with him physically. He felt great; it was just, ‘Whoops, I can’t get my curveball over, whoops, I can’t get my changeup over.’ Who’s to say it wasn’t a one-day thing?” Mauch said he will meet with pitching coach Marcel Lachemann before making a decision.