Schofield, Who’s Always a Hit at Shortstop, Has Been Swinging a Hot Bat

There’s a reason why Dick Schofield is the only Angel to have played in every game this season. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s not his batting average, which he raised to .231 Wednesday night.

Schofield is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game--maybe the most consistent if not the most spectacular. He has made only eight errors this year.

He’ has become the kind of shortstop who, in the words of Angel coach Moose Stubing, “will take you to the world championship.”

The Angels aren’t lining up to have their ring sizes taken, but the guy between second and third has been doing the kind of job Stubing predicted he would.

Wednesday night, he turned in another routinely flawless performance in the field, including what turned out to be a game-saving stab of a ball in the hole that he helped turn into a rally-killing double play.

Those kinds of plays alone are enough to make Schofield an All-Star in the heart of Manager Gene Mauch.

“Dick Schofield is a good, solid ballplayer,” Mauch said. “He makes those scintillating plays in the field, hits a home run now and then and steals a base or two.”

If Schofield can keep swinging the bat as he has the last couple of weeks, he might be an All-Star in the ballot box by this time next year.

He had three hits in Wednesday’s 5-3 Angel victory over the Red Sox, stretching a modest hitting streak to six games. It was his 19th multiple-hit game of year. He had only 11 such games after 85 contests last season.

Schofield has at least one hit in 13 of the last 14 games and is hitting .351 over that span, including two home runs, three doubles and nine RBIs.

“It’s not like I’m doing anything different,” he said. “I’m just going up there swinging and hoping the liners . . . and the bloopers fall in. Any time you start hitting well and the ball starts falling in, you’re going to feel more comfortable at the plate. And I do feel better than I did a month ago.”

Schofield singled to center to drive in Doug DeCinces in the second inning and later scored on Mark McLemore’s two-run double. Schofield lined a single to left in the fourth and then stole second, his 11th steal of the season. In the fifth, he grounded one up the middle for his third hit of the game.

Any time Schofield gets three hits in one night, it’s a pleasant surprise for Mauch. But the Angel manager has come to expect the kind of play Schofield came up with in the sixth.

The Red Sox, trailing 5-2, had chased starter Willie Fraser and had runners on first and second with one out. Bill Buckner drilled a grounder toward the hole, but Schofield made the backhand stab, then whirled and got off a perfect throw to second baseman McLemore, who completed the inning-ending double play with a good throw to first.

“When he hit it, I figured I’d get to it,” Schofield said. “The question was how much I could get on the throw running away from second like that. It was just a matter of giving Mark a chance. I gave him the chance and he came through.”

Mauch has seen a lot of plays like that, but it doesn’t mean he’s any less impressed.

“The beginning of that double play was tremendous,” he said, “and the end of it was equally brilliant.”

The timing, of course, was the biggest factor. The play paved the way for the Angels’ fourth straight victory.

“It’s a great feeling to take a hit away and start a double play like that,” Schofield said. “I guess the hits and that play are about equally exciting.

“Well, I don’t know,” he said, smiling. “I sure like to get my hits.”