Moore Did Not Have Anywhere Near Enough

What? After 25 years of also-running, you expected the Angels to cruise into the World Series on automatic pilot?

You thought they’d ease into the Fall Classic fresh and happy, 24 guys riding a parade float, waving and blowing kisses?

Not this time.

If they get to the Series at all, they’ll have to go through Boston--the town and the team. And it won’t be easy.

Ask Donnie Moore.

Moore is the Angels’ ace relief pitcher. At least he used to be. In Sunday’s 7-6 loss to the Red Sox in 11 innings, Moore came on near the end and got battered and booed.

Moore wasn’t the only Angel un-hero in the come-from-ahead loss, but he certainly got the loudest boos. It was a very tough outing in what has been a very tough season for Moore.

Sunday’s game may have seemed complicated and convoluted, but actually it was simple. In the end, it came down to three guys and two pitches.

There was a thrower (Moore), a hitter (Dave Henderson) and a hitee (Don Baylor).

Moore entered the game in the ninth and gave up a two-run homer to the first batter he faced, Henderson.

In the 11th, Moore gave up the winning run when he hit leadoff batter Baylor and Baylor eventually scored on a sacrifice fly.

The biggest mistake was the gopher ball to Henderson.

“I can’t blame my arm,” said Moore, who has had shoulder problems all season. “My pitch selection was bad. I was throwing fastballs, and he (Henderson) was fouling them off, so I went with the split-finger, thought maybe I’d catch him off guard, but it was right in his swing.

“I really shouldn’t have thrown him an off-speed pitch, because that’s the kind of bat speed he has. I should’ve stayed with the hard stuff.

“I wanted it down in the dirt. I wanted to bounce the split-finger to him.”

Moore said he wasn’t second-guessing his catcher, Bob Boone, who called for the fateful pitch.

“I have confidence in my catcher,” Moore said. “I made a bad pitch.”

Boone said simply, “Donnie didn’t throw a very good split-finger.”

Ah, but the regular fastball also betrayed Moore Sunday. That’s what he hit Baylor with, leading off the 11th.

“He (Baylor) was up on the plate, and I was trying to throw a running fastball in on his hands,” Moore said. “That’s how you get him out. But I started it out too far inside. My control hasn’t been really too good lately. Most of the year, I haven’t really been happy with my control.”

The problem this season is that Moore has had either too much rest or too much pain in his right shoulder. After appearing in 65 games and saving 31 in 1985, this season he appeared in 49 games and saved 21.

“Here’s the dilemma with Donnie Moore,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said. “In the matter of getting his arm strong, you have to rest him four or five days. Then when you rest him four or five days, you may run the risk of losing his sharpness.”

You run the risk he’ll throw an inside fastball to Don Baylor, who hangs his body way over the plate and attracts inside pitches like a magnet. He’s the American League’s all-time best at being hit.

“It’s a big part of his game,” Boone said of Baylor. “He doesn’t give an inch. Never has.”

Moore came inside, and Baylor saw opportunity knocking. And Donnie Moore, last season’s consistently unhittable door-slammer but this season’s inconsistent mystery man, had himself a very tough loss. The fans didn’t let him off easy.

“They pay their money and they can do what they want,” Moore said of the booers. “That’s part of the game. I’ve been this way before. Anyone can stand in front of the cameras and take the success.

“My job’s not an easy job. I gotta make the pitches. When you’re bad, you’re bad. I can handle bad. I’ve had a roller-coaster career. Things have never come easy for me. I can handle it.

“I’m down now, but when I’m out there Tuesday, I’ll be up. . . . I have to be ready by Tuesday.”

Tuesday is Game 6 of the playoff series, in Boston. There’s a good chance Moore will be needed in that game, or the following one.

“I got a tired arm now,” he said. “But I can’t blame my arm. If my arm felt that bad, I wouldn’t have gone out there today. I was (horsebleep), no other excuses, I was (horsebleep).”

In other parts of the clubhouse, other Angels were also attempting to put their situation in easily understandable terms. Reggie Jackson, for instance, was talking about how this game was very educational.

“There was a hell of a lesson to be learned out there today,” Jackson said. “You have to keep your foot on a man’s neck and keep his face in the dirt. If not, he’s gonna reach up and tear you a new (remainder of colorful description deleted).”

I don’t know if Reggie’s been watching too much baseball or too many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.

Someone asked the Angels’ Bobby Grich if going back to Fenway Park would be walking into a buzzsaw.

Grich said no, but it would be a real lion’s den.

And then Reggie was talking about alligators ripping off your arm at the socket and how you shouldn’t let that happen.

Jot that down, fans. And jot this down: Don’t ever throw Dave Henderson an off-speed pitch up in the strike zone. Some lessons you learn too late.