Don Sutton Stays a Little Too Long; Angels Lose, 6-5 : Wally Joyner Still Struggles, Doesn’t Want to Talk About It

Searching for his first regular season victory since Sept. 22 of last year, Don Sutton pitched five-plus innings Sunday. Gene Mauch, his manager, had nothing but praise for the five innings.

Then the plus turned into a minus again when Gary Gaetti hit a three-run homer in the sixth, erasing a 2-1 Angel lead and propelling Minnesota to a 6-5 victory before a Cap Day crowd of 49,627 at Anaheim Stadium.

Limited to five hits through eight innings, including home runs by Jack Howell and Devon White, the Angels closed to within a run in the ninth, scoring twice before Jeff Reardon finally aborted the rally that had Mauch thinking that Easter Sunday would be like so many other Sundays in Anaheim.

Those were his words. So were these:

“I didn’t think we were going to lose until the last out.”

The fourth loss in 12 games meant the Angels have now won two of three in each of their first four series.

Does he like the idea of a .666 pattern over 162 games?

“Wouldn’t that be something,” Mauch said.

Then he paused and added: “We’re playing good. The only tough thing about today is that if we come back and win, it just adds that much more to it.”

The Angels might have won except for the high fastball that Gaetti drilled over the center-field fence in the sixth and a low throw that Wally Joyner delivered to second base in the ninth, when the Twins increased their lead from 4-3 to 6-3.

In the clubhouse later, having stranded the potential tying and winning runs when he flied out for the final out, Joyner was consoled by Mauch, then disappeared into his own private Wally World.

Several reporters waited for more than an hour before Sutton, having himself just frustrated the media for almost an hour, reappeared to say that Joyner was hurting mentally and that he (Sutton) would consider it a personal favor if the reporters would leave, allowing Joyner to dress in peace and privacy.

Joyner is batting .192. He has 150 games left but is obviously pressing, attempting to recreate that remarkable April of his rookie season.

Sutton, by contrast, has fashioned an April that is strikingly similar to last year’s.

The difference, of course, is that he wished he hadn’t.

Through 14 innings of three starts, the 42-year-old right-hander has allowed 19 hits, 11 runs and a damaging five homers. He is 0-3 with a 7.07 earned-run average. A year ago he was 0-2 with a 10.31 ERA in April, registering the first of his 15 victories May 7.

Why the April showers?

“I was hoping that one of you geniuses had the answer,” he said, having finally arrived at his locker. “If I had an explanation I’d do something about it.

“The way things are going, one bad pitch gets magnified and contributes to a difficult day. But I’m not wallowing in it.

“I mean, I have only two choices. I can keep throwing the ball or I can feel sorry for myself. I don’t choose to wallow in the past.”

Howell’s homer off Marc Portugal in the second allowed Sutton to take a 2-0 lead into the fourth when singles by Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek led to the first Minnesota run.

Puckett and Hrbek singled again to open the sixth. Gaetti, battling a .186 start, then hit his second homer, connecting on a one-ball, two-strike count.

“Sutton made two perfect pitches to Gaetti, then he made a bad one,” Mauch said. “He had made two perfect pitches to Puckett, then made a bad one. The pitch to Hrbek was decent, he just found a hole with it.

“You can go out there (the clubhouse) and tell him (Sutton) he can’t do it anymore, but I still feel good about him. He pitched five super innings. I don’t think he pitched his first high quality game last year until his fifth start.”

Sutton is now 0-5 with one no decision since his last win. He reflected on his pitches to Puckett, Hrbek and Gaetti in the sixth and said:

“None of the three hit a strike, but they had three runs on the board. The way Portugal was throwing I couldn’t afford to give up four.”

White’s fourth homer in the home sixth made it 4-3. Willie Fraser, having replaced Sutton after the Gaetti homer, held it at that until the ninth.

Mark Salas opened the inning with a walk. Steve Lombardozzi bunted up the first-base line. Joyner fielded it bare handed, heard catcher Butch Wynegar call for him to go to second and attempted an off balance throw that landed in the dirt at Salas’ feet.

The ball caromed into the outfield as Salas took third. A single by Al Newman made it 5-3, putting Lombardozzi on second. A sacrifice and ground out then enabled him to score what proved to be the winning run.

Mauch said later than an accurate throw by Joyner on a difficult play would have nailed Salas and led to a scoreless inning.

Reardon, who came on in the eighth and eventually survived a bases-loaded threat, gained his fourth save in five appearances despite a walk, hit batter and a pair of singles by Mark McLemore and Ruppert Jones in the ninth.

The Angels had two in, two on and two out when Joyner flied to right, his latest struggle proving too much for the generally personable and accessible first baseman.

Angel Notes

Third baseman Doug DeCinces was a late scratch from the Angel lineup because of a stomach virus. “He had a tough night,” Manager Gene Mauch said. “No citation. Just a tough night.” . . . Jeff Reardon has been the closer Minnesota lacked last year, but he has yet to find a real groove. Of his three walks and one hit batter in two innings Sunday, Reardon said, “that’s the wildest I’ve ever been. I’m not pitching well. I don’t what the problem is.” . . . The two runs Willie Fraser allowed in the ninth were the only runs he has allowed in 11 innings in four appearances. . . . Angel pitchers had permitted only two runs in their last 34 innings before Gary Gaetti homered in the sixth.