Curses, the Angels Are Fallen Again, 8-1 : Boston Wins 3rd in Row, AL Pennant

For the 26th consecutive season, the Angels are not going to the World Series. This is because they ran into something bigger than the Green Monster, bigger than Roger Clemens, bigger than the Fenway Park crowd, bigger than any of the bats in the Boston Red Sox lineup.

For the 26th consecutive season, the Angels ran into Angel karma.

It may be unseen, it may be unheard, but it is unmistakable. It has claimed nine managers, hundreds of players and two previous playoff bids, but it saved its coup de flop for October of 1986.

This time, the Angels blew a 3-games-to-1 playoff lead when they blew a 5-2 lead in the ninth inning of Game 5. This time, the Angels were one pitch--one measly pitch--from at last slamming the door on more than a quarter-century of frustration and exasperation.

In the end, it was all a big tease, the biggest yet. In the end, which came for the Angels Wednesday night in an 8-1 loss in Game 7 of the American League championship series, the karma remained untied and unbeaten.

Instead of being remembered as the Year of Wally Joyner, the Year of Mike Witt and the Year of Gene Mauch’s Vindication, 1986 will be remembered for the greatest collapse in Angel history.

On a 2-and-2 pitch by Donnie Moore to Dave Henderson last Sunday in Anaheim, it all began to crumble. Henderson’s home run, which will take its place in Red Sox lore alongside Carlton Fisk’s in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, had a jumper-cable effect on Boston.

The Red Sox returned home, recharged, and the Angels responded by playing two of their worst games of the season in succession.

They lost Game 6 by six runs, 10-4.

They lost Game 7 by seven runs. Of the eight runs scored by Boston, seven were unearned.

That merely kept in line with the trend established in California’s 9-2 loss in Game 2. Since winning the series opener, the Angels:

--Let the Red Sox even the series at 1-1 when Bobby Grich failed to catch a pop fly, third base coach Moose Stubing failed to stop Grich at third base and the Angel defense tied a playoff record by committing three errors in one inning.

--Lost leading hitter Wally Joyner to a mysterious bacterial infection after Game 3.

--Had Game 5 slip away when Mauch replaced ace starter Mike Witt with Gary Lucas, who hit Rich Gedman with a pitch, and then replaced Lucas with Moore, who served up Henderson’s Shot Heard ‘Round New England.

--Were blown away in Game 6 by the end of the third inning, watching young starting pitcher Kirk McCaskill get pounded for seven runs in 2 innings.

--Fell apart in Game 7 behind John Candelaria, committing two errors that paved Boston’s way to a 7-0 advantage after four innings,

“It’s uncanny,” said Grich, a 10-year Angel veteran who announced his retirement immediately after Wednesday night’s game.

“We’re one pitch away from wrapping it up, we lose our leading hitter to an insect bite. All you can do is scratch your head and wonder what the heck’s going on.”

Brian Downing, another veteran of the Angel playoff losses of 1979 and 1982, tried to blot out 1986 with the contents of a beer can.

It wasn’t working.

“This is the toughest moment of my life, bar none,” Downing said. “Personally, professionally. Everybody poured their heart into this season.

“This is a worthless feeling I have. I feel like dirt.”

Downing took another swig and attempted to smile.

“I guess the curse got us again,” he said.

It came down on the Angels, fast and furiously, in Game 7. The Red Sox were cresting after two straight victories, but the Angels had hoped to stem the tide with Candelaria, who brought World Series experience and a 10-2 record this season to mound with him.

“How does Boston have an edge?” Doug DeCinces demanded after the Red Sox had evened the best-of-seven series at three games apiece. “We have a rested John Candelaria going. How can Boston possibly rate an edge?”

Well, maybe because the Red Sox had Roger Clemens going. The Angels had bucked the odds twice in this series by winning the previous two games that Clemens started. But the American League’s imminent Cy Young Award winner had never gone three starts without a victory in 1986.

That record remains intact.

Clemens limited the Angels to four singles through seven-plus innings. But he was assured victory in this one by the bottom of the fourth inning.

Boston scored three times in the second. All came after shortstop Dick Schofield fielded Jim Rice’s leadoff grounder and sprayed his throw to first base into the Angel dugout.

Don Baylor, the ex-Angel who has hit safely in his last 10 playoff games, a league playoff record, singled Rice to third, and Dwight Evans walked to load the bases with no outs.

Gedman got one run home with a routine grounder. The Red Sox scored two more on a play that, in a matter of seconds, summed up the entire history of the Angel franchise.

With the bases loaded and two out, Candelaria was on the verge of escaping with only minimal damage, a 1-0 deficit. But then, Wade Boggs grounded a pitch back over the mound toward center field.

Schofield and second baseman Rick Burleson moved in on the ball but before either could reach it, the ball struck second base and popped up in the air--floating over the outstretched reach of a helpless Burleson.

Two runs came home, and the Red Sox led, 3-0.

All three runs were unearned.

Boston scored four more runs, all unearned, in the fourth inning. Again, the residue of Angel karma.

Henderson, who at one point nearly cost Boston Game 5 by gloving a fly by Grich and then depositing it over the fence for a home run when his arm hit the wall, reversed the tables. This time, he hit a fly to center field that Gary Pettis--1985 Gold Glove recipient Gary Pettis--dropped.

Henderson reached third on the error, and the Red Sox were moving in for the crusher.

Spike Owen’s RBI single made it 4-0. Two outs later, Candelaria walked Dave Stapleton and then pitched to Rice. Rice, who took a .148 playoff average into Game 7, drove a full-count pitch over the Green Monster for his second home run of the series.

A 7-0 advantage . . . and the beginning of the end for the Angels.

No one took it harder than Mauch, who sequestered himself in his office, door locked, for nearly half an hour after the final out. When the door was opened, Mauch’s eyes were red and his voice was barely audible.

“Boston ran into an undermanned team that was a little bit in shock,” Mauch said. “I don’t want to say that, but if that’s the truth, it’s the truth.”

Mauch was asked about his team’s defense, which set a club record for proficiency during the regular season but melted down in the postseason. Would Mauch comment on it?

“If I was so inclined,” Mauch said.

“And are you?” a reporter asked.

“No,” Mauch whispered.

Mauch was questioned about his future. After the Angels squandered a 2-0 lead to Milwaukee in the 1982 playoffs, Mauch resigned. Would he do the same after this latest, greatest disappointment?

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Mauch replied. “I haven’t thought about anything other than how much this hurts.”

General Manager Mike Port tried to dispel such speculation, saying “there’s absolutely no reason not to expect Gene Mauch back in an Angel uniform next season. I expect Gene Mauch to be around as the manager of the California Angels for a long time.”

Mauch said he didn’t want to talk about it.

“I won’t be thinking about anything for two days,” he said. “I’m going to try and sleep for two days.”

Later, an Angel beat writer asked if he would be seeing Mauch again when the Angels open spring training next February.

“There’s a pretty good chance,” Mauch said.

The same cannot be said for all of Mauch’s players. Grich has already retired. Reggie Jackson has said he is thinking about it. And the contracts of such key players as Bob Boone, Downing and DeCinces expired with the Angels’ playoff bid.

It will be a winter of decision for the Angels. It will also be a winter of long, hard reflection.

The ghosts of the past have been replaced by a darker, more haunting breed.

For now, Boston ’86 has replaced Milwaukee ’82 for Mauch and the team as the Angels’ greatest depression.

“It took a while to get over ‘82,” DeCinces said quietly. “And it will take a while to get over this.”