DeCinces’ Response to Rare Opportunity: a Three-Run Homer

The 1987 Angels were supposed be beating out bunts, stealing bases and winning with defense and pitching. Their perennial threat of power diminished by retirement and release, they were going to intimidate with speed.

But veteran third baseman Doug DeCinces figured he was going to do a lot more walking while everyone else was sprinting.

“I never saw too many fastballs before,” he said this spring. “I don’t figure to see many this season.”

DeCinces reasoned that the absence of Reggie Jackson and Bobby Grich and the demise of the right-field power platoon of Ruppert Jones and George Hendrick would mean that most pitchers would work their way around him to softer spots in the order.

That, in fact, had been pretty much the case until the eighth inning at Anaheim Stadium Tuesday night when Milwaukee pitcher Chuck Crim walked Jack Howell intentionally to get to DeCinces. DeCinces responded with a three-run homer to left that capped a 10-5 victory over the Brewers.

It was only DeCinces’ second home run of the year, but it was the Angels’ 31st, the most in the major leagues. Tuesday night, the Angels’ version of Murderers’ Row was manned by guys named Brian, Jack, Dick and, of course, Doug.

If this team is a bunch of Punch-and-Judy hitters, put the emphasis on Punch . The homers by Brian Downing, Jack Howell, Dick Schofield and DeCinces give the Angels 18 in the last eight games.

“It’s nice,” Manager Gene Mauch said, “but it (home runs) is the last thing I want them thinking about. I don’t care what Brian and Doug think. They know how to handle it. But I don’t want the younger guys thinking about it.”

DeCinces hasn’t had many chances to think about three-run homers, so he was more excited than angry when the Brewers decided to walk Howell and pitch to him.

“It was the first time this season I felt like I was going to get pitched to in a situation like that,” DeCinces said. “I appreciated the opportunity.”

DeCinces, who had not hit a home run since April 8, has hit safely in seven of his last nine games. He had a pair of doubles to go with the homer on Tuesday. He followed Howell’s homer in the fifth with a double to left. But he was eventually tagged out in a rundown between third and the plate after Darrell Miller singled and got himself in a rundown between first and second.

An inning later, DeCinces hit a line drive that one-hopped the wall in left-center, scoring Wally Joyner.

“This display of power is a little surprising,” DeCinces said. “I didn’t think we had it in us. But Wally’s hit five recently, Jack’s had a couple the last two days, Devon (White) got five right off the bat and Brian’s swinging the bat as well as I’ve ever seen him.

“These things go in cycles, though. There’ll be days when our pitchers are throwing shutouts and we can’t score a run.”

Right now, though, DeCinces hopes the Angels’ little guys keep swinging big bats. And he invites a whole league of pitchers to slight him more often.