A.L. Playoff Notebook : Joyner Is Expected to Be Back in Angel Lineup on Tuesday

Wally Joyner, who was been hospitalized since Saturday with a bacterial infection in his right leg, will be released in time to accompany the Angels to Boston this morning. He is expected to play in Game 6 Tuesday night.

Joyner was not accepting calls Sunday, but Manager Gene Mauch said before the start of Game 5 that he had talked to his first baseman an hour earlier and that Joyner told him, “Skip, if this was a night game, I could play.”

Mauch said he later talked to Joyner’s doctor, who told him that while the soreness and swelling has diminished, he doubted Joyner could have played Sunday no matter when the game started.

Boston’s Dwight Evans kept saying “huh?” when reporters asked him questions Sunday.

“I’m not hearing too good,” he said. “My ears are still ringing.”

Apparently, Angel fans were pretty rowdy.

“Going back to Boston, our people better come alive,” Evans said. “These people are loud.”

And former Angel Don Baylor said: “This was the best I’ve heard the fans scream in Anaheim Stadium.”

Add fans:

Here’s a sampling of some banners at the stadium--

“Get Well Wally!”

“Joyner Bitten By Boston Fan”

“Boston’s At Their Witt’s End”

The Red Sox trailed by three games to one prior to Sunday’s contest, but they remembered last year when Kansas City overcame a similar deficit.

“That’s all we talked about this morning,” Baylor said. “Kansas City did it, so can we.”

Baylor on Sunday’s victory: “If we’d lost today, it wouldn’t have been fair. After losing Saturday night and then to lose this game, there would’ve been a lot of bitterness about it all winter long.”

Boston second baseman Marty Barrett, asked if Sunday’s game is the turning point: “It was the only point. We lose it, and we’re through.”

Boston starter Bruce Hurst went six innings and gave up three runs on seven hits.

“I struggled for six innings, but we won, right?” he said. “I’ll take it.”

Boston’s Dwight Evans on his feelings when Angel Manager Gene Mauch took out Mike Witt in the ninth inning: “Thank you very much.”

Bad timing, notwithstanding, the Angels announced Sunday that tickets for the World Series would go on sale at Anaheim Stadium beginning Wednesday at 9, that is, if the Angels win the American League pennant on Tuesday.

There will be a limit of four tickets for each game and each customer. Box seats are $40 and reserved tickets are $30 apiece. Tickets will be sold on a cash-only basis.

Priority wrist bands, like those distributed before pennant tickets were sold, will be issued at 6 today.

World Series tickets also can be purchased at Ticketron outlets.

Should the Angels make it to the World Series, the middle three game would be played at Anaheim Stadium, beginning Tuesday, Oct. 21 (5:30 p.m.), Wednesday, Oct. 22 (5:25 p.m.) and Thursday, Oct. 23 (5:35 p.m.)--if necessary.

The way Bobby Grich has been hitting this series--.211 after Game 5--he has needed all the help he can get. And in the sixth inning Sunday, he got precisely that as Boston center fielder Dave Henderson couldn’t hold his fly ball which fell over the fence.

Grich on the home run: “It was a curveball and I swung one-handed at it. I didn’t lean into the pitch the way I do on most of my home runs.

“But it carried and carried and when I got to first base and prayed, ‘Get out of here, please.’ Then, Henderson tipped it over the fence and I lost it.”

Slightly. Between second and third bases, Grich threw a fist in the air. He rounded third with a hop and a yell. At home plate, he exchanged high-fives with Doug DeCinces.

And when the fans called him out of the dugout for a curtain call, Grich made like the Kings’ Bernie Nicholls after a goal--raising a leg and pumping his fist like the arm on a locomotive.

“I really got emotional,” said Grich. “I don’t imagine Boston appreciated it much. But at the time, the way (Mike) Witt was throwing, I thought that was it. I could taste the champagne.”

Grich’s home run gave the Angels a 3-2 lead, but the Red Sox later saw to it that no wine would be served before its time.

Staff writers Ross Newhan, Mike Penner and Gene Wojciechowski contributed to this story.