Chadwick Still Has Problems, Chased in 4th : Reggie Hits Pair of Homers, but Angels Handed 7-4 Loss

The Angels’ Not-So-Great Experiment took another turn for the worse Friday evening, and that can mean only one thing:

Ray Chadwick still hasn’t won since he left the comforts of Edmonton and the Angel Triple-A affiliate on July 22.

Actually, Chadwick’s last victory came July 16 against Portland, which is nice for the scrapbook but doesn’t do much good for the Angel pennant drive. This time, as a replacement for the injured John Candelaria, Chadwick was gone by the fourth inning, followed later by the Angels, who lost, 7-4, to the New York Yankees at Anaheim Stadium.

The loss put a temporary hush to all this talk of a division title, what with the second-place Texas Rangers winning and the Angels’ lead shrinking to 6 1/2 games.

Not that the Angels went quietly, mind you. To the contrary.

Reggie Jackson, supposedly living out his days as an Angel and preparing for a final fling with, say, the Oakland A’s, provided 44,701 fans with a pair of home runs and three RBIs. A single earlier in the evening gave Jackson three hits in three at-bats.

Jackson made way for pinch-hitter Rick Burleson in the eighth, a curious move until you realize that Jackson would have had to face Yankee reliever Dave Righetti. Entering this season, Jackson was 1 for 18 (.056) against the left-hander, including eight strikeouts.

“It’s not my place to argue,” Jackson said. “I don’t think anyone here is trying to embarrass me. We’re just trying to win ballgames, and we’re doing that.”

Said Manager Gene Mauch of the move to replace Jackson with Burleson: “People who get mad at what I do can live without me. I have to live with myself . . . sometimes that’s not easy.”

Until Friday night’s loss, the Angels had won 6 of their last 7 games and 19 of their last 26. But for all of their success, the Angels find themselves without a dependable fifth starter or a completely healthy Candelaria.

Chadwick has no wins, a 7.40 earned-run average and four losses in his five starts with the Angels. Include his time with Edmonton, and Chadwick entered the game against the Yankees with a 9-12 record and a 4.97 ERA.

For this, Angel management rid itself of starter Ron Romanick who, in his last six starts for Edmonton, went 2-2 with a 4.26 ERA. While no one is hurrying to offer Romanick the Cy Young Award, he might at least have been included in the list of players called up from the minors Sept. 1. The Angels didn’t, and that’s that.

There was no middle ground for Chadwick. At times, such as in the first and second innings when he retired six consecutive Yankee batters, you wondered why Chadwick had ever spent time in Edmonton.

In the third inning, you found out.

After striking out Mike Pagliarulo and retiring Joel Skinner on a line drive to left field (for the eighth straight out), Chadwick walked Wayne Tolleson. Up came Claudell Washington and his .224 batting average for another try at Chadwick. This time, Washington singled to right.

Tolleson went to second on the hit, while Chadwick went to pieces.

Willie Randolph followed Washington and also singled to right, scoring Tolleson and moving Washington to third. Don Mattingly was next, but for reasons unknown, Washington wandered off third and got thrown out by catcher Bob Boone.

Even with Boone’s inning-ending play, Chadwick merely received a reprieve. In the fourth, Mattingly led off with a single to center. That made three hits in a row. Then Chadwick walked Dan Pasqua to put men on first and second.

A fly ball to center allowed Mattingly to move to third on the tag, and Mike Easler’s single to center gave New York a 2-1 lead. Pagliarulo grounded to Chadwick for the second out, moving the runners to second and third with the slow chopper. Skinner singled to center for two more runs.

“That base hit by Skinner was going to be the last batter (Chadwick) faced,” Manager Gene Mauch said. “Four innings and two runs allowed, that was going to be fine. I thought he could get Skinner. But his two hits fractured us.”

Chadwick, still without his first major league win, left in favor of reliever Chuck Finley. In less than two innings’ time, Chadwick had allowed four runs, five hits and two walks.

Afterward, Chadwick left the clubhouse without pausing to chat with reporters.

The Angels did what they could.

Jackson began the second inning with an opposite-field single to left. He moved to second on Doug DeCinces’ grounder to first and appeared ready to settle for third when Ruppert Jones singled to right fielder Dave Winfield.

Winfield, who has one of the strongest throwing arms in the league, sent the ball toward Skinner at the plate. But the ball skipped off Skinner and caromed far enough away to allow Jackson to score.

After the Yankees took their 4-1 lead into the bottom of the fourth, Jackson was at it again. With one out, he homered to right. It was his first home run since Aug. 15 and only his 12th of the season.

Later, in the sixth, when the Yankees had built their lead to 6-2, Jackson sent another Doug Drabek pitch over the fence, this time with Wally Joyner on base. Jackson last had two homers in one game on July 11 against Tom Seaver.

“I just want to swing the bat well for the next month,” Jackson said. “Hopefully, this is the start of something good. I’d like people to think that I can still play.”

Angel Notes Reliever Donnie Moore, who has 18 saves and a 2.91 earned-run average despite nursing a sore right shoulder this season, said he’ll use rest rather than cortisone shots to help heal his injury. “I don’t know if the worst is over, but I ain’t taking no more (shots),” he said Friday evening. “I think three is enough. I’m not in love with them.” Does he think the fans and Angel management appreciate his efforts? “I don’t care if they appreciate it or not, it’s me,” he said. “I’m not out to satisfy anybody. I’m just out to help the team as much as I can. Whether they appreciate it or not is their business. Whether they think I should throw more or I should throw less, or they think I’m lying or faking it, I don’t know, that’s their problem. I’m worried about myself and my career. If I can help us win a pennant without destroying my arm, ruining my career--great. But I’m not going to ruin my arm, my career for a (championship) ring. You have a 10-man pitching staff . . . a 40-man roster, and if one man can’t go, you have to replace him with someone else. I’ve had complaints of, ‘He makes all that money and now he doesn’t want to pitch.’ But people don’t realize that money don’t take away the pain. I can’t go out there hurt. I’m not helping myself and I’m not helping my team. I tried doing that earlier in the year and that’s why I had to go on the DL (disabled list). The more I pitched, the worse I got.”

A spectator tossed from 8 to 10 rubber knives near Yankee right fielder Dave Winfield in the third inning. “Someone thought it was fun and games,” he said. “But it interfered with the game.” Winfield and an Angel ball boy retrived the knives. One of them, about eight inches long with a five-inch “blade,” had the name Wally Joyner inscribed on it, according to Winfield. It was a reference to an Aug. 26 incident at Yankee Stadium, in which Joyner was grazed by a real knife thrown from the upper deck at the end of the game. “That’s really sick,” Winfield said in reference to the Yankee Stadium incident. “It could have been anybody out there. He could have put an eye out or could have killed him. There’s just no place for that in the game.” Earlier in Friday night’s game, stadium ushers requested that some fans in the upper deck in right-center field remove a huge bedsheet banner that read, “Yank Fan Motto: If U Can’t Beat ‘Em, Knife ‘Em.”