Howell’s Home Run in 12th Completes Angels’ Rally, 10-7

One gains an appreciation for how much things have changed for the Boston Red Sox, defending American League champions, when Roger Clemens, who couldn’t hold a 9-0 lead in his last road start, couldn’t protect a 7-0 advantage against the Angels Monday night.

Handed five runs in the first inning, Clemens took that seven-run edge into the seventh inning and gave back four runs--surrendering a two-run triple to Wally Joyner and a two-run home run to Doug DeCinces. Worse than that, Clemens gave way to the Boston bullpen, which gave away the rest of the lead, enabling the Angels to rally for a 7-7 tie and force the game into extra innings.

The Angels won it, 10-7, on Jack Howell’s two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the 12th. It was the Angels’ second straight 12-inning victory.

Brian Downing opened the 12th with a double to right-center, the seventh time he reached base in seven at-bats Monday. Downing also had a single, another double, three walks and was hit by a pitch.

With one out, Joyner was intentionally walked and DeCinces followed with a potential double-play ground ball to second. Marty Barrett flipped the ball to shortstop Ed Romero for one out but an aggressive slide by Joyner, who used his right leg as a whip, barreled over Romero before he could make a throw.

That gave Howell the opportunity to deliver his 13th home run of the season, coming on a 2-2 pitch off loser Wes Gardner (4-3), and gave Angel reliever Greg Minton his second AL victory. Minton (2-0) worked three scoreless innings, pitching out of a bases-loaded situation in the top of the 12th.

This came 10 days after Clemens took a 9-0 lead into the third inning against the New York Yankees--and never got out of the third. Clemens wound up with no decision and the Red Sox wound up 12-11 losers in 11 innings.

The Angels, by scoring four runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth against relievers Calvin Schiraldi and Joe Sambito, took much of the sting out of a brutal 5-inning performance by Jerry Reuss. Reuss surrendered all seven Boston runs in regulation play.

The Angels mounted a comeback when Ruppert Jones opened the bottom of the seventh with a single off Clemens, the Angels’ fifth hit of the evening at that point. Two outs later, Devon White joined Jones on base and both runners scored on Joyner’s triple--a deep fly ball into the gap that Boston left fielder Jim Rice tracked down but couldn’t hold onto.

DeCinces then followed with his 10th homer of the season, cutting the deficit to 7-4. Clemens came back to walk the next hitter, Jack Howell, which earned his departure from the game.

Schiraldi replaced Clemens and ended the seventh inning.

He couldn’t do the same in the eighth.

Mark Ryal hit a two-run homer off Schiraldi in the eighth. Schiraldi also walked Brian Downing, who scored the tying run on a bloop double by Joyner off Sambito.

This hit, as with Joyner’s triple, also touched Boston leather before Anaheim grass. Center fielder Ellis Burks tried to make a sliding catch, only to have the ball pop out of the webbing of his glove.

Sambito got out of the inning by intentionally walking DeCinces and inducing a fly out to right by Howell.

But by then, a 7-0 bulge had deteriorated into a 7-7 tie. Extra innings were on their way.

And the Red Sox had let Reuss escape with his perfect AL record intact. Reuss, 1987’s man of many uniforms, switched guises again in the first inning Monday, going from American League beater back to the Cincinnati Kid within a mere matter of pitches.

The Reuss that staggered through a five-run first inning bore a heavy resemblance to the one National League hitters dragged across Cincinnati AstroTurf in May, the one that concluded his stint with the Reds with an 0-5 record and a 7.79 earned-run average.

Reuss was behind, 4-0, after facing four batters. He surrendered five runs on five hits in the first inning. And by the time he left the game, with one out in the fifth inning, he was down, 7-0, the victim of three home runs.

Reuss entered the game with a 3-0 record and a 1.61 ERA after three AL starts, but had shown signs of reverting to early season form in his last outing at Cleveland. Although he was credited with the win in a 10-5 Angel triumph, Reuss wobbled noticeably against the Indians--lasting just five innings while allowing four runs on seven hits.

Monday’s first inning picked up from there. Reuss began it by walking Boston’s leadoff hitter, Burks, and surrendering singles to Barrett and Wade Boggs. Boggs’ hit bounded in front of and away from left fielder Jack Howell for an error, allowing Burks to score the game’s first run.

Three more came on the next pitch, which Jim Rice jerked over the right-field fence for his sixth home run of the season and a 4-0 Red Sox lead.

The first out finally came when Don Baylor grounded to second baseman Mark McLemore. Then, another home-run pitch--this one to Dwight Evans, who sent a 3-and-2 offering over the right-field fence. And infield single by Todd Benzinger followed before Reuss could sneak out of the inning with a double-play grounder.

An error by DeCinces led to another Boston run in the third inning. DeCinces let a ground ball by Baylor skip through his legs into left field--and Baylor’s legs turned it into a two-base error. Benzinger’s second single of the evening made it 6-0.

It stayed that way until the sixth inning, when Evans victimized Reuss again. Evans’ 15th home run of the season made it 7-0 and after Reuss yielded another hit to Benzinger and a single to .180-hitting catcher Marc Sullivan, Angel Manager Gene Mauch finally called upon the bullpen.

Gary Lucas was summoned first. He pitched 3 hitless innings, walking just one batter while buying the Angels enough time to forge a tie.

Lucas got the Angels through the ninth inning. To open the 10th, Mauch went to Minton, who held the Red Sox to one single in the 10th and 11th innings.

Angel Notes

Kirk McCaskill’s six-inning, two-run performance for Edmonton against Phoenix Sunday night was apparently what the Angels wanted to see. “He’s ready,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said. “It’s just a matter of when we are going to do it (activate him). He couldn’t pitch for four days anyway, so what’s the rush? We have four days to work things out.” McCaskill gave up both runs in the first inning, but Mauch attributed that to the game conditions at Phoenix. “Around 6 o’clock, the sun sets and McCaskill said he couldn’t see nothing,” Mauch said. “He gave up a couple hits, a couple runs, then it got dark and he blanked them.” . . . More from Mauch on McCaskill: “He told Wally Joyner, ‘I’m ready--and I was ready to pitch here Sunday.’ Joyner said, ‘No, you couldn’t have. Jack Lazorko was pitching.’ ” . . . Lazorko’s pitching/fielding/goaltending exhibition against Milwaukee made him a star of the Sunday night sports highlight shows, which amused Lazorko. “I’ve been doing that all my career,” he said. “You hit a major market, everybody sees it and all of sudden, everybody’s talking about it. But I saw Dave Henderson today--we used to play together in Seattle--and the first thing he asked was, ‘Still making those kick saves?’ I did the same thing in Seattle. Nothing’s changed.” Not that Lazorko couldn’t use the publicity, however. “Yeah, maybe I’ll get a commercial,” he said. “A laundry commercial. I’ve got two kids. I could use the free detergent.” . . .