One Year Later, the Roof Caves In on Witt Again, 7-1

Gene Mauch, major league manager with a minor in history, had a word for the four-inning, seven-run performance by Mike Witt that sent the Angels on their way to a 7-1 loss to the Oakland A’s Sunday.

Not lousy.

Not disturbing.

“Uncanny,” Mauch said.

Turn back the calendar 364 days to April 13, 1986. Nice sunny afternoon in Oakland. Mike Witt on the mound. The Angels’ second baseman commits an early error, and the A’s jump on it. Witt staggers through 4 innings, surrendering eight runs on seven hits--his worst outing of the season.

For Mauch, there was a familiar sting to it.

“It’s remarkable how alike this game was to Mike’s first game here last year,” he said, not needing to consult crib notes. “(Rob) Wilfong kicked a ball, and we kind of caved in. It’s almost eerie how alike they were.”

You could look it up, as they say. And once Mark McLemore, Wilfong’s replacement at second base, coughed it up in the first inning Sunday, the Angels, commemorating the one-year anniversary, caved in again.

Mike Davis led off the bottom of the first with a single to right field and Tony Phillips followed with a grounder to short. Dick Schofield fielded the ball and flipped to McLemore at second, hopefully starting a double play. McLemore, instead, didn’t get a single play--dropping the ball as he attempted to make the pivot.

Error McLemore. Instant two-on, no-out predicament for Witt.

Carney Lansford solved that problem by clearing them off the bases for Witt, lining a two-run triple that kicked up chalk as it hit the right-field foul line. Suddenly, after three batters, Witt was down, 2-0. Just then, schizophrenia set it in.

Witt struck out the next four hitters he faced--Reggie Jackson and Dwayne Murphy among them.

Then, Alfredo Griffin singled and Davis homered.

Then, seven straight outs.

Then, four straight hits. Griffin tripled, Davis doubled, Phillips and Lansford singled.

Then, Witt was out. In four-plus innings, he had allowed eight hits . . . and struck out eight.

Ve-r-r-ry interesting. The prognosis, Dr. Mauch?

Mauch: “I’ll tell you what I saw. He was kinda fighting with the location of his fastball. He struck all those people out on the hook (curveball). He couldn’t get his fastball over today. The ball Davis hit for a home run was a low fastball.”

Marcel Lachemann, the Angel pitching coach, concurred with that assessment.

“Mike’s struggling with one pitch right now--the fastball away,” Lachemann said. “He struggled with it the other day and during the workout (in between starts). So far, I haven’t done a very good job correcting it.

“Usually, that pitch is something he always has. It’s important to his whole pitching sequence.”

And Witt’s analysis?

“If you look, I struck out the same guys, and guys who got the hits were the same guys,” he said. A check of the scorebook showed Davis with three hits, Lansford with two hits, Jackson and Rob Nelson with two strikeouts apiece.

So what did that indicate?

“Certain guys can’t hit a good curveball,” Witt said.

And certain pitchers, even those of Witt’s caliber, can’t get by with just one pitch. Witt pitched into the seventh inning during 32 of his 34 starts last season, so outings such as Sunday’s are rare.

But, at least once a year in Oakland, they do happen.

“I’m a human being,” Witt said. “You can’t win them all. You’re going to hear every cliche I can think of now. Maybe I was due, although you don’t ever want to believe that. Some games, you’re just going to get hit.”

Again, some history from Mauch:

“I’ve seen ‘em all get tattooed,” he said. “I saw Nolan Ryan get lit up like a Christmas tree. I saw Sandy Koufax get lit up. It gets to the point when you’re surprised when it happens, like with Mike, but it is gonna happen.”

When it does, even teams like the A’s (0-5 before Sunday) can get well in a hurry. Given seven runs to work with, Curt Young (1-1) pitched Oakland’s first complete game of the season. He allowed five hits--two of them doubles by Gary Pettis--and two walks but let only three Angels advance as far as second base.

The Angels scored their only run in the sixth inning when Pettis hit his first double and scored on a single to left by Brian Downing.

“Their guy was a little better than I’ve given him credit for in the past,” Mauch said of Young. “He got about a half-dozen out on a let-up sinker, similar to what (Minnesota’s Frank) Viola throws.

“And (the Oakland hitters) were about due to start swinging the bats. They had guys hitting .200 who are not supposed to be hitting .200.”

It all added up, although before the game, Mauch couldn’t see how--not with his best pitcher taking the mound and the Angels moving in for a sweep.

“How would you like to be down, two-zip, and have to face Mike Witt?” Mauch said. “It’s funny how it works out.”

But, as Mauch knows, it has worked that way before.

Angel Notes

Gus Polidor replaced Doug DeCinces in the lineup Sunday after DeCinces was scratched because of pain and stiffness in his lower back. “I knew it bothered him (Saturday), that’s why I took him out in the ninth inning,” Manager Gene Mauch said. “When I came to the ballpark early this morning, I had two lineups made out--one with DeCinces and one without him. He took treatment until batting practice, and he still couldn’t swing a bat. So I scratched him. In fact, he never came out of the clubhouse. And he’s a lousy golfer, so I know he wasn’t watching the Masters.” DeCinces said he should be able to play tonight. “It all depends how I feel when I wake up,” he said. “It’s nothing drastic, just the same thing that’s always there. I just didn’t want to push it. When I push it too far is when I really hurt it.” . . . Upon suggestion by Mauch and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, Kirk McCaskill has scrapped the change-up from his repertoire. “He may never throw another,” Mauch said. The Angels believe McCaskill puts too much strain on his elbow when he throws the change-up. “It causes him to lock his arm,” Lachemann said. “That caused him problems the other night.” . . . After five games, Oakland’s Jose Canseco was batting .105 with 12 strikeouts in 19 at-bats, so A’s Manager Tony LaRussa decided to give him the day off. Just as well. Against Angel pitching, Canseco was 7 for 50 (.140) last season and went 0 for 8 during the first two games of this series. Things are going so badly for Canseco that he broke a bat during batting practice--without hitting a ball. Canseco just swung and missed, and when he jerked the bat back, the top half snapped off and landed about 20 feet away. A’s hitting coach Bob Watson said he could remember only one other player--Jim Rice--ever doing the same thing. . . . In his first series against his former teammates, Reggie Jackson went 3 for 10 (.300) with a home run and two RBIs. He struck out three times Sunday. . . . Mauch used every man in his bullpen against the A’s. Donnie Moore pitched three innings Friday, Willie Fraser and Gary Lucas appeared in Saturday’s game, and Chuck Finley and Mike Cook combined for four scoreless innings Sunday. Mauch said Moore will be available to pitch tonight if necessary. “He could have gone (Sunday), too,” Mauch said. “Maybe he would have had less than his ‘A’ stuff, but if we had come back to make it close, he would have been out there.”