Angels Run Over by Rundown and Phil Niekro, 2-1

Little Leaguers have been practicing the play for years, for decades, even before Phil Niekro became a major league pitcher.

Situation: Runners on first and third. Two outs. Runner on first gets caught in a rundown. Runner on third breaks for home.

Question for the defense: What to do?

“You can’t be getting the third out between first and second when the guy on third is scoring a run,” says Angel Manager Gene Mauch, stating the obvious.

So what were Angel first baseman Wally Joyner and second baseman Mark McLemore doing Tuesday night, chasing down Pat Tabler on one side of the infield while Julio Franco was scoring what proved to be the decisive run in the Cleveland Indians’ 2-1 victory over the Angels at Municipal Stadium?

“We didn’t work on it enough during spring training, evidently,” Mauch said.

Niekro and the Indians were leading, 1-0, in the bottom of the sixth inning when Angel pitcher Jack Lazorko set the play in motion. With a quick move to first, Lazorko caught Tabler leaning off first base. Joyner ran Tabler toward second and threw to McLemore, who ran Tabler back toward first.

Meanwhile, back at third base, Franco was edging down the line, waiting to see what McLemore had in mind. When McLemore continued the pursuit of Tabler, instead of looking homeward, Franco was off and running.

Franco scored without drawing a throw. Angel shortstop Dick Schofield finally tagged Tabler for the third out, but by then, Franco’s run was already official.

And that run eventually came between the Angels and their ninth straight victory. Niekro, the ancient knuckleballer, and reliever Scott Bailes combined to limit California to a single run on eight hits, thus ending the Angels’ longest winning streak since 1979.

It was more of the same for Niekro and the Angels. Three weeks ago, the wrinkled one shut out the Angels, 2-0, with Bailes’ late-inning assistance. Niekro, 48, has beaten the Angels six straight times and is 6-2 against them overall.

Without the Angels, Niekro would only be a 311-game winner.

Mauch, who is just a tad older than Niekro, was asked if he’d ever seen a better knuckleball pitcher.

“He must be the best,” Mauch grumbled. “He’s won about 310,000 games . . . and it seems like I’ve seen a lot of them.”

As if he needed it, Niekro received help from the Angels on what should have been a routine play in the sixth inning.

Lazorko caught an Indian off base and off-guard, just as he had in his last start against Cleveland. The date was June 9 and then, Lazorko picked Cory Snyder off third base in the fourth inning. “That play got me a win,” said Lazorko, who went on to earn a 6-5 victory.

Indian Manager Pat Corrales wasn’t surprised to see Lazorko try it again Tuesday night.

“I told Pat twice about it,” Corrales said. “And he (Lazorko) still gets it off. Julio just read it very well.”

Said Franco: “I moved on my own. Once I saw the second baseman throw on the rundown, that’s when I decided to go home.”

McLemore said he didn’t see Franco break for home in time. Joyner said he should have alerted McLemore on what was happening across the infield.

“I didn’t see the guy going,” McLemore said. “I was trying to see him out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t see him in the corner of my eye.”

Said Joyner: “We were supposed to get the guy at home. I just gave the ball to Mac and didn’t tell him to look back. We should’ve had four or five guys yelling, telling him to throw home. It was just a breakdown.”

McLemore said he didn’t think a throw home was necessary, that Tabler could have been tagged before Franco had a chance to run down the line.

“If we had gotten (Tabler) sooner, we wouldn’t have had to worry about the other guy,” McLemore said. “The timing of the play was off. I wasn’t close enough (to Tabler) to make the tag and then when Franco broke, I didn’t have a chance.”

Mauch, though, felt McLemore erred when he threw the ball back, keeping the rundown between first and second alive.

“I can put any runner you want on first base and any runner you want on third,” Mauch said. “I can put McLemore here and Schofield there and I can walk through the play and still get the runner at home. As soon as (Franco) goes beyond the 45-foot line, he’s dead.”

The Angels still had a chance to at least tie the game in the ninth inning, loading the bases with two outs against Niekro and forcing Corrales to make a pitching change.

Bailes came on and yielded a line drive up the middle to pinch-hitter George Hendrick. If the ball had gone through, two runs score. But Bailes got his glove on the ball, deflecting it and keeping it in the infield, holding the Angels to one run.

Bailes then came back to strike out pinch-hitter Butch Wynegar on three pitches for the final out.