Angels Rally to Beat A’s : Sloppy Fielding in 8th is Key in 8-5 Victory

It was not a great day for pitchers Tuesday--neither those on the mound nor those in the doctor’s office.

They found bone chips in Kirk McCaskill’s right elbow, they found Jose Rijo too wild, they found Urbano Lugo too hitable and, after seven innings, the Angels and the Oakland A’s found themselves tied at 5-5.

But in the eighth, Oakland’s defense caved in and the Angels capitalized to wring out a messy 8-5 victory before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 27,388.

Dick Schofield opened the bottom of the eighth with a seemingly innocuous single up the middle. But by the time two A’s outfielders got through with it, Schofield was on third base.

Center-fielder Dwayne Murphy had first shot at the ball. He over-ran it, letting the ball skip several feet behind him. Backing up the play, left-fielder Stan Javier followed the bouncing ball, grabbed it and cocked his arm to throw--only to have the ball slip out of his hand.

Schofield made it all the way to third before the ball could be relayed back to the infield. Murphy and Javier were both charged with errors--and the Angels were poised for the go-ahead run.

Schofield scored on a single to right field by Gary Pettis, which spelled the end for Oakland’s first reliever, Dennis Eckersley. Bill Krueger came on to load the bases with walks to Mark McLemore and Brian Downing before turning matters over to Gene Nelson.

Nelson got one out--a force play of Pettis at the plate--before Devon White singled home McLemore and Wally Joyner’s sacrifice fly scored Downing.

That set the stage for Mike Cook’s first major league victory and Willie Fraser’s first major league save. Cook pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Lugo and Fraser worked the ninth, allowing two hits but no runs.

Finally, after three hours and 46 minutes, the longest nine-inning game in Anaheim Stadium history, the Angels had salvaged something positive on a day when their starting rotation was further jeopardized by the prognosis of bone fragmentation in McCaskill’s elbow and another rough outing by No. 5 starter Lugo.

McCaskill has to decide between undergoing arthroscopic surgery or trying to pitch with the chips.

Lugo, meanwhile, is at full health but continues to struggle. Those credentials were obvious during the five laborious innings he sweated through before leaving with a 5-1 deficit.

Lugo completed a perfect first inning only by the grace of Pettis’ fielding, with Carney Lansford driving Pettis to the center-field fence for the third out. Real trouble would develop in the second inning.

Reggie Jackson and Jose Canseco led off with back-to-back singles and after Murphy struck out, rookie catcher Terry Steinbach doubled to right. That scored Jackson and moved Canseco to third base.

Lugo then walked Mark McGwire, loading the bases, before striking out Alfredo Griffin and getting Mike Davis to ground to first. It was Lugo’s luckiest inning--the A’s get two singles, a double, a walk and managed just one run.

Oakland didn’t let him off so lightly in the fourth. Lugo yielded a pair of singles and, with one out, served up a three-run home run to McGwire. It came an 0-1 pitch and it wound in the right-field seats, 385 feet from home, doubling McGwire’s home-run total for 1987.

Four straight outs followed before Lugo walked Jackson in the fifth. He didn’t have to face Canseco again, as the A’s left-fielder left the game with flu symptoms after the fourth inning. But Canseco’s replacement, Javier, was good enough for the A’s, singling Jackson to second. Murphy then singled home Jackson and Oakland led, 5-1.

The Angels had scored their first run in the fourth, barely squeezing something out of a bases-loaded, no-out setting. Singles by Jack Howell and Butch Wynegar and a walk to Dick Schofield opened the inning. A ground-out by Pettis brought home Howell. But then Mark McLemore and Brian Downing took turns tapping back to pitcher Jose Rijo and that ended that.

In the fifth, however, White delivered his fifth home run in the past eight games. This moved Joyner, who hadn’t homered since Aug. 5 of last season, to respond kind. Back-to-back home runs and the Angels were back to within 5-3. It was Joyner’s first home run in 61 games and his first at Anaheim Stadium since last July 23.

The Angels tied the score in the seventh via the bat and legs of White. After Jones’ one-out double, White singled to left, scoring Jones for one run. White then stole second and Joyner followed with a walk.

Mauch then sent up pinch-hitter Mark Ryal to bat against Oakland reliever Dennis Eckersley. Eckersley jammed Ryal on a pitch that Ryal cued down the line over third baseman Lansford’s head. White sprinted into third and third base coach Moose Stubing waved him home--a mistake, it appeared, with left-fielder Javier charging the ball. But White out-ran the mistake, bursting home to score as Javier’s relay bounced out of catcher Steinbach’s glove.

Joyner took second on the play but was stranded when Wynegar ended the inning one a double play.

An inning later, the game was placed in the hands of the Oakland outfield. And for one play certain to wind up on future baseball-folly films, the hands of Murphy and Javier will never be confused with All-State’s.

Angel Notes

George Hendrick suffered a broken finger when he attempted to pinch-hit for Ruppert Jones in the eighth inning. Claiming he was hit on his right hand by an inside pitch by Oakland’s Gene Nelson, Hendrick started jogging toward first base--only to be called back by home plate umpire Jim McKean, who ruled the pitch a ball. Was Hendrick hit by the pitch? Well, moments later, he was removed from the game and replaced with another pinch-hitter, Darrell Miller. The injury was diagnosed as a “fractured dislocation” of Hendrick’s right middle finger. Hendrick will have the hand re-examined today in Los Angeles by Dr. Norman Zemel

Flu continued to make the rounds at Anaheim Stadium. Doug DeCinces missed his third straight game because of a stomach virus and Oakland’s Jose Canseco left Tuesday’s game after three innings because of nausea. DeCinces, who spent Monday in bed, took batting practice before the game but reported afterward that “I still feel like death warmed over. My stomach feels like I’ve just done 1,000 sit-ups. If I’m going to play tomorrow, I’m going to have to take it real easy tonight.” . . . That was the plan, anyway. But when Gene Mauch ran out of third baseman in the eighth inning, DeCinces was pressed into action a day early. Figure on DeCinces starting today’s game. Back-up third baseman Jack Howell will miss the 1 p.m. game in order to be with his father, Jack Howell, Sr., who is undergoing double-bypass heart surgery in Tucson. Howell took a late flight to Tucson after Tuesday’s game and will rejoin the team in Minneapolis Thursday.

Dugout Humor: The bases were loaded and no one was out in the first inning Monday night when Wally Joyner made his way to home plate. Joyner, hitting .192 at the time, had been pressing in recent games so when Manager Gene Mauch called over to him, the Angel bench was all eyes and ears. “Hey, Wally!” Mauch yelled. “Don’t hit into a triple play!” With that, the entire Angel dugout broke out in laughter. Joyner then went out and drove in the Angels’ first run with a sacrifice fly. . . . Dugout Humor, Part II: Angel owner Gene Autry was spending some time on the bench during batting practice Tuesday evening when John Candelaria, he of the drunk-driving arrest, sauntered by and told Autry, “You’re gonna have to let me borrow your chauffeur one of these days.” . . . Gary Pettis struck out twice in his first three at-bats Tuesday, giving him seven strikeouts in his last 13 plate-appearances. . . . Mike Witt (2-1) opposes Curt Young (1-1) in today’s finale.