Sutton Too Much for Brewers, 2-0

April of 1987 is gone forever, which placed the Milwaukee Brewers and Don Sutton on fairly equal footing Tuesday night.

The Brewers haven’t gone 13-0 in a while. They haven’t no-hit anybody in three weeks. And when is the last time you saw a Brewer’s smiling face on the cover of any national magazine? Why, it’s been days.

And what was that about Don Sutton’s arm finally catching up with the gray permed hair under his Angels cap? At 42, Sutton was a beaten man through most of April, getting shelled in each of his first three starts and looking just about ready to turn his presidency of Suttcor International into a full-time job.

But now it is May, a new month as they say, a time where Sutton can two-hit the 20-5 Brewers for seven innings and combine with Donnie Moore for a 2-0 shutout over the winningest team in baseball in front of its home crowd. Before Tuesday, Milwaukee had not lost at County Stadium in nine outings and, overall, was averaging more than six runs per game.

Times change. So do teams. And the team that managed four paltry hits against Angel pitching before a crowd of 13,137 bore little resemblance to the Brewer bunch that rocked the American League through Easter.

Paul Molitor, the league’s leading hitter at .395, is on the disabled list with a pulled hamstring.

Rob Deer, a .350 batter with 9 home runs and 22 RBIs, was on the bench with a groin injury.

B.J. Surhoff and Bill Schroeder, the catching tandem of the ‘90s that arrived a little early, were both out of the lineup. Surhoff is out of town, attending his father’s funeral, and Schroeder is sidelined with a sore throwing arm.

As a result, Milwaukee Manager Tom Trebelhorn had to start a lineup that included a light-hitting utilityman (Juan Castillo) at second base, a light-hitting journeyman (Rick Manning) in left field and a rookie catcher (Charlie O’Brien) who was playing for Denver just last weekend.

This Brewer team is extremely beatable--which Sutton clearly illustrated.

“It’s a lot different pitching to this team without Molitor and Deer,” Sutton said. “What’s Molitor doing, leading the league in hitting and on-base percentage? And Deer’s one of their power guys.”

Without their presence in the batting order, the Brewers went down quietly. Sutton (2-3) gave up a leadoff double to Robin Yount, a bloop single to Glenn Braggs in the fourth inning--and nothing else. He walked one and struck out four, allowing only one Milwaukee baserunner to advance beyond second base.

“A masterful game,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch called it. “It was a beautiful thing to watch.”

The victory was the 312th of Sutton’s career, moving him past Tom Seaver into 14th place on the all-time list.

Mauch took great caution to preserve it, pulling Sutton from his shutout after seven innings. Sutton hadn’t struggled at all while throwing 95 pitches, but the main point in Mauch’s mind was the fact that Sutton had thrown 95 pitches.

That’s perilously close to the 100-pitch limit that seems to affect Sutton the same way “the Wall” hits a marathon runner. In his previous start, Sutton had a seven-inning shutout ruined by passing that barrier and serving up a home run to the Detroit Tigers’ Matt Nokes on his 105th pitch.

Detroit eventually won that game, 2-1.

“I said, ‘That’s 95, that’s enough,’ ” Mauch said. “Sutton told me that, emotionally, he’d like to go out there, but, logically, it would probably be better to send somebody else out. I have a fondness for logic.”

Sutton said the 100-pitch limit “is not etched in stone. It’s a barometer, not a benchmark. Gene becomes more observant at that time.

“He gave me the option (to stay in). I thought it would be better to go with someone fresher.”

That would be Moore, who braved his sore ribs for two more innings of scoreless relief to protect the lead manufactured by solo home runs by Brian Downing and Jack Howell. Moore didn’t pitch painlessly or flawlessly (two singles and a walk), but with the help of the Angel defense, he pitched successfully.

Castillo, the first batter Moore faced, lined a shot toward center field that was interrupted by Angel second baseman Mark McLemore. McLemore, shading to his right just before the pitch, leaped and backhanded the ball at the apex of his jump.

“A great play,” Moore said.

First baseman Wally Joyner provided another. Still in the eighth inning, with runners on first and third, Dale Sveum sprayed a flare down the first-base line. Joyner ran over to grab the ball on the fly and step on first in the same motion, catching Yount off base for an inning-ending double play.

In the ninth inning, Moore walked leadoff hitter Braggs but settled down to retire Greg Brock on a fly ball and Billy Jo Robidoux and Cecil Cooper on strikeouts.

“That was vintage Donnie Moore,” said Bob Boone, who joined the Angels Tuesday and caught the ninth as a late-inning replacement for Darrell Miller.

Moore, who ached his way to his fourth save, begged to differ.

“I’m not a guy who usually walks people and gets behind in the count,” he said. “As you can see, I’m not right yet.

“I haven’t been able to shake this thing, but it’s gonna have to go away. I can’t function out there a whole year like this.”

Today, Moore plans to try a new therapy--electronic muscle stimulation--in his latest effort to heal the rib cage. “We’ll have to see how this works,” he said. “I’ve tried just about every thing possible.”

Tuesday, however, Moore ran into a team hurting worse than he is. Together with Sutton, he helped quiet the giants of the American League.

Or, at least introduce them to the reality of a new month.

Angel Notes

Bob Boone rejoined the Angels ahead of schedule, requiring just a three-day tuneup in Palm Springs, which caught the club’s equipment manager short-handed. Boone arrived in Milwaukee with no warm-up jersey and had to take batting practice in a generic, numberless top. “I’m a player to be numbered later,” Boone quipped. . . . Angel Manager Gene Mauch, on Boone’s quick recall: “He’s not ready with the bat, but based on what I saw in Palm Springs, he’s not gonna get ready with the bat there. Those conditions are nice for a lot of people, but not for 39-year-old ballplayers. Here, Boone can work with Moose and Down (hitting coaches Moose Stubing and Rick Down). It shouldn’t take too long.” . . . Butch Wynegar can run and take batting practice on his sore right foot, but Mauch was not quite ready to use him behind the plate. So, after Mauch pinch-hit for starting catcher Darrell Miller in the eighth inning, he summoned Boone to put on the gear for the ninth. “I felt pretty good,” Boone said afterward. “Catching-wise, I’m comfortable, but I felt that way Sunday in Palm Springs. I was sync with everything. As for hitting, I just don’t know. There’s no way of telling until I see some live pitching in real games.”

Don Sutton made his sixth start of the season Tuesday. In the first three, he was 0-3 with a 7.10 earned-run average; in the last three, 2-0 and 0.87. “Isn’t he just about on schedule with last year?” Mauch said. No, actually, Sutton has turned things around sooner this season. After his first seven decisions of 1986, Sutton was 2-5 with a 7.05 ERA. He went on to finish 15-11. Why the annual April blues? “I have no idea,” Sutton said. “If I did, I would avoid it.” Suggested Mauch: “Both years, he had two tough starts against Seattle and then he got things together. I like to see Sutton roll around. Sometimes, it takes until May.” . . . Brian Downing’s home run off Bill Wegman (2-2) gave him the American League lead at 10. Downing did not hit his 10th homer of 1986 until July 23, the Angels’ 83rd game of the season.