White Gives Angels 5-3 Win With Home Run in 10th

They were off and running at the Kingdome Monday night--running too far, running too slowly, running into outs and running out of them.

But when the Angels and the Seattle Mariners ran out of regulation innings, they were tied at three runs apiece. At that point, Angel rookie Devon White brought an end to the tomfoolery on the basepaths and got serious with the bat--hitting a two-run home run in the top of the 10th to give the Angels a 5-3 victory over the Mariners.

With Mark McLemore on second base and Edwin Nunez pitching for the Mariners, White delivered his first home run of 1987 into the seats above the right-field fence, presenting reliever Donnie Moore with a two-run advantage.

Then, in the bottom of the 10th, White helped make sure Moore protected it.

Moore, who surrendered the game-tying single to Scott Bradley in the bottom of the ninth, opened the 10th by striking out Phil Bradley and walking Jim Presley. Alvin Davis followed with a line drive to White in right. White caught the ball on the run and, without breaking stride, fired a relay to first baseman Wally Joyner, who had Bradley caught off base for the game-ending double play.

That run-and-throw impressed Angel Manager Gene Mauch more than the tie-breaking home run.

“Oh my goodness,” Mauch said. “He must have covered 37 feet in those last three steps. He went from right field to (the foul) line in a flash.”

And then, in a move he may have recalled from his high school basketball days, White unleashed a powerful outlet to Joyner for the final out.

“He saw the guy at the other end breaking for the basket,” Mauch quipped.

Through nine innings, Joyner had accounted for all of the Angels’ offense--hitting a bases-loaded double off the top of the fence in left-center, momentarily giving the Angels a 3-0 lead after five innings.

But John Candelaria, Willie Fraser and Moore couldn’t hold it. Moore (1-0) had to pitch into the 10th, and receive some help, to finally clinch the victory.

The first two innings were uneventful enough. Then, the Angels and the Mariners interrupted the game to bring a crowd of 11,834 an inning of sheer baseball folly.

In the top of the third, McLemore hit a one-out single, but, apparently, the out count didn’t register with many on the plastic grass. When Brian Downing lofted a high fly to center, McLemore broke from first as if there were two outs. Seattle centerfielder John Moses acted as if he were on the same wavelength, too, as he started to run the ball back to the infield.

Just then, he spotted the gestures of first baseman Davis, who had the foresight to consult the scoreboard. Moses lobbed the ball back to first and Davis stepped on the base for an easy double play.

“I thought we missed our wake-up call,” Mauch said. “We were out of it early on.”

McLemore, however, was merely the opening act. The real zaniness was saved for the bottom of the third.

Again, things started with a one-out single. Moses lined a Candelaria pitch up the middle, took his lead off the base--and got picked off.

Harold Reynolds followed with another single and took another lead of first base. Another pickoff seemed in order as well, with Candelaria’s quick move to first catching Reynolds off balance.

But a rundown never materialized because Joyner, engaging Reynolds toward second base, overthrew McLemore. Reynolds wound up safe on second base.

Donnell Nixon then directed a bouncer wide of first base to Joyner. Candelaria and his numb right leg hobbled over to cover the bag but didn’t come close. Nixon beat Joyner’s throw.

At the same time, Reynolds was rounding third base and leaning toward home. Joyner fired the ball across the infield and Reynolds dove back to the bag. Jack Howell applied the tag and third base umpire Greg Kosc waved Reynolds out--a ruling that brought Seattle Manager Dick Williams out for his first round of protest.

Just a routine inning for Candelaria.

Another umpire’s call saved him a run in the fourth. Candelaria issued a one-out walk to Phil Bradley and a two-out double to Davis. Davis drove the ball into the gap in right-center and with two outs, Bradley sprinted for home.

White fielded the ball and hit cutoff man McLemore, who hurried a relay home. Bradley lunged for the plate and catcher Butch Wynegar, taking McLemore’s throw, lunged for Bradley.

Bradley appeared to slide around Wynegar’s tag--and television replays indicated the same--but home plate umpire Vic Voltaggio called him out. Williams argued some more, but Candelaria’s shutout, with a sizable assist, had been preserved.

White ended it in the 10th, but it took Joyner to properly sum things up.

“It was a weird game, but you don’t have normal games here,” Joyner said, referring to the wild indoors of the Northwest. “I’d say it was about par for the course.”

Angel Notes

Before naming a starting third baseman Monday night, Angel Manager Gene Mauch had to choose between one with a bad back (Doug DeCinces) and one with a bad wrist (Jack Howell). But when the surface is AstroTurf, the bad back will sit every time, so DeCinces missed his second consecutive game. “It’s half as sore as it was (Sunday),” DeCinces said, “but I still don’t feel good enough to give it a go. Gene didn’t even ask me. It was ‘No, not on AstroTurf.’ ” So Howell, who was hit on his left wrist by a Butch Wynegar line drive during batting practice Sunday, received his first start of the season at third. . . . DeCinces would have taken a different night off, given the chance. “Mike Moore is one of my all-time favorite pitchers,” he said. DeCinces has a career .472 average against Moore (17-for-36) along with six home runs. But DeCinces maintained it was better to rest now and not pay later. “If I don’t do this, I run the risk of being out a real length of time,” he said. “It’s better for me to miss one, two or three days now than to go out there halfway ready. It’s a fine line, because you have to push it every day just to play. It never feels great--I feel it every day of my life. It’s knowing when I’m on the verge of really hurting it.” . . . Last Add DeCinces: He says back surgery is inevitable after he retires. “Doctors said I should have had surgery years ago,” DeCinces said. “Some of them see the X-rays and they say, ‘This guy’s already had surgery.’ Boy, that sure gives me a vote of confidence. But (Angel team doctor Lewis) Yocum just shakes his head and says, ‘Keep on going.’ ”

By moving Howell to third base, Mauch needed a new leftfielder. So, he moved rookie Mark Ryal into the lineup--in the cleanup position. “I’ve been pumping weights,” Ryal joked. Ryal doesn’t have much of a track record--78 major league at-bats--but he collected his first major league hit off Moore in the Kingdome in 1982 while playing for Kansas City. “We go back a long ways,” Ryal said of Moore.