Wynegar Makes Hay While Boone’s Away, and Angels Win, 6-3

Butch Wynegar can accept the notion that, most likely, his days as a starting catcher are numbered. With each game the Angels play, they get a little closer to May 1 and the imminent return of Gold Glove holder Bob Boone . . . and Wynegar gets a little closer to the Angel bench.

“Boonie’s going to come back and catch,” Wynegar said Saturday after the Angels’ 6-3 victory over the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum. “I fully expect that to happen. And it doesn’t matter if I’m hitting .400 or a buck-fifty, he’s going to be in there.”

Still, a month in the starting lineup is a month in the starting lineup, and Angel Manager Gene Mauch would prefer Wynegar to make it quality time. What’s a buck-fifty going to get you these days, anyway?

Wynegar was right about there--.154--before he stepped in against Jose Rijo, the strong-armed youngster he used to catch when both were with the New York Yankees. Wynegar knew all about the outrageous Rijo fastball and how every at-bat against Rijo provided a two-pronged challenge. “First you try to see the ball,” he said. “Then you try to hit it.”

Wynegar also knew a thing or two about the pitcher’s personality. He remembered Rijo as one stubborn Dominican.

“He was always shaking off everything you’d call,” Wynegar said. “You’d call a slider, and he’d throw a fastball.”

Saturday, Wynegar enjoyed a little role reversal. This time, he got to shake off a couple of Rijo’s pitches--hitting one up the middle for a second-inning single, lining another to right for a two-run single in the third.

And after helping drive Rijo out of the game by the sixth inning, Wynegar kept on hitting. The score was tied at 3-3 when he opened the eighth with a double to left field. Two outs later, he scored the go-ahead run when Gary Pettis hit into a force play.

Wynegar went 3 for 4 for the afternoon, driving in two runs and scoring another. His batting average rose more than 100 points, now standing at .294.

Those hits, along with a two-run home run by Brian Downing--his third homer of the season--and a single and a double by Wally Joyner, laid the groundwork for the first major league victory of Willie Fraser’s career. Fraser, making only his third big league appearance, relieved starter Urbano Lugo in the fifth and worked three scoreless innings. He then handed a 6-3 Angel lead to Gary Lucas, and Lucas preserved it with two innings of two-hit pitching.

With the win, the Angels are 4-1, equaling the second-best start in the club’s history. The 1974 Angels were also 4-1, and only the 1970 Angels won their first five games.

Meanwhile, the A’s are 0-5. And they have the pitching to prove it. Rijo averaged two baserunners per inning by surrendering 7 hits and 5 walks in his 6-inning stint. Reluctantly, Oakland Manager Tony LaRussa called upon his bullpen, and by the time Bill Krueger and Jay Howell put together two innings, the Angels had three more runs.

As a result, the A’s failed to hold the 2-0 and 3-1 leads they forged against Lugo, who teetered through 4 sloppy innings. Lugo gave up 6 hits--including RBI doubles by Dwayne Murphy and Terry Steinbach--and walked 3, leaning heavily on Angel defense and Oakland miscalculation. Wynegar bailed Lugo out of one jam in the first inning, throwing out Tony Phillips on a stolen-base attempt. And a botched hit-and-run try by Oakland kept a two-run inning from blowing up in Lugo’s face.

With Murphy on second and Mark McGwire on first with no outs, Lugo got Steinbach to fly to right. McGwire, breaking on the pitch, was already at second base when Devon White caught the ball. White’s throw easily doubled McGwire off first.

By the time Lugo had staggered through the fourth inning, Mauch decided not to buck the obvious any longer.

“He threw an awful lot of pitches,” Mauch said. “He was right at 80--(meaning) 20 an inning. He might have been able to go out for one inning more, but why? He wasn’t dazzling anybody.”

Mauch called on Fraser, who had completed the final 2 innings of John Candelaria’s victory Wednesday night. Mauch let Fraser pitch three innings, and the rookie gave up only a pair of singles.

“I could’ve gone more,” Fraser said, “but at the same time, Lugo and I are not that much different as pitchers. We both have fastballs in the 90s, we both throw forkballs. (The A’s) were seeing a steady diet of the same kinds of pitches. By bringing Luke (Lucas) in, you bring in someone who throws from the left side and throws five or six miles an hour slower. The situation called for it.”

Mauch explained his decision to bring on Lucas somewhat differently.

“Willie Fraser pitched some very important innings on Wednesday, and I’m not going to tinker with Willie Fraser’s arm,” Mauch said. “That’s a special arm. I don’t want to mess around with that.”

By the time Fraser departed, the Angels, with Wynegar providing the spark, had given him a 6-3 lead.

“Basically, that’s the kind of hitting you’ll see from me all year,” Wynegar said afterward. “I’m not a home run hitter. I just get on base and let the big boys do the bombing.”

Yet, he considers hitting to be a major part of his game. Wynegar owns no Gold Gloves and has been less than a Boone behind the plate thus far. He says he needs to provide some offense to prove his worth.

“I know Gene wants his catcher to be a defensive catcher first, calling a good game, but it’s still hard to get hitting off my mind,” Wynegar said. “It’s important to me.

“But I’m not going to put any pressure on myself, thinking I have to bat .300 this month or do this or do that. What happens with Bob is going to happen. I saw him the other day, and we shook hands. There’s no animosity, no nothing.”

Wynegar smiled.

“If I’m hitting a buck-fifty at the end of the month, it means I haven’t been doing the job,” he said. “But if I’m hitting .300, I think Gene will give me a few left-handed at-bats from time to time.”

Angel Notes

Kirk McCaskill, removed from Friday night’s game after the sixth inning because of discomfort in his right elbow, is not expected to miss a start. “He will not throw between starts,” Manager Gene Mauch said, “but he believes he’ll feel all right by Wednesday, and so do we.” McCaskill said he has experienced such discomfort several times during his career. “All I know is that every fifth day I feel good enough to pitch,” he said. “I could’ve pitched longer Friday, but when Gene came out and told me, ‘You’ve got 34 more starts to think about,’ I thought, ‘Why chance it?’ It’s no biggie.”

The Angels trailed, 3-2, in the fifth inning Saturday when Wally Joyner tagged up on a shallow fly ball to left field by Jack Howell and barely beat Jose Canseco’s throw to the plate. “A good read on Wally’s part,” Mauch said. “Canseco caught the ball off balance--he had to reach across the left side of his body to get it. When Wally saw that, he said, ‘Go!’ The guy threw a strike and he still was safe.” Joyner called it “a big run, at the time” but wasn’t sure he should have attempted to score it. “It was not your smartest base-running move,” Joyner said. “If I had to do it again, I probably would not go. Nobody out with runners on first and third? You got to make sure you can score standing up.” Joyner had to slide to beat the tag by inches. “I’m halfway there and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh,’ ” Joyner said. “I don’t know why I went; somebody must have pushed me off the bag. It worked out, but I could have easily been walking back to the dugout with the goat horns on.”

Oakland rookie catcher Terry Steinbach’s first claim to fame: Becoming the first big league catcher to throw out Devon White on a stolen base attempt. White had gone 11 for 11 as a major leaguer before Steinbach threw him out at second in the first inning. . . . Three innings later, Steinbach went 0 for 2 against Gary Pettis, who stole both second and third in the fourth inning but failed to score. . . . Mauch on Reggie Jackson, who welcomed his old teammates to Oakland Friday night with a two-run home run off McCaskill: “I see Reggie took his left-field stroke with him. History will tell you that he’ll hit some home runs when you want him to--and strike out when you don’t want him to. And vice versa when you’re on the other side. I like his home runs better when they’re done for me than to me.”