Finley’s Follies Help to Foil Angels : Tigers’ 6-3 Win Is Aided by Pitcher’s Defensive Lapses

Mike Heath and Tom Brookens hardly knew what to do with the pitches they saw from Angel reliever Chuck Finley in the eighth inning Friday night. Both Detroit batters flailed away, barely making contact, barely managing to roll the ball in front of the plate.

“Undoubtedly, I made the right pitches,” Finley said.

But then Finley had to play some defense.

By throwing Heath’s ball away and then failing to cover first base on Brookens’ dribbler, Finley put runners on first and third before he could blink. And when both runners scored, the Tigers proceeded to turn a tie game into a 6-3 Angel defeat before a crowd of 33,275 at Tiger Stadium.

Finley had worked two scoreless innings in relief of starter Don Sutton and the Angels had rallied to force a 3-3 tie in the seventh, but in the eighth, Finley (2-4) gave it all away with his two fielding lapses.

Heath opened the inning with a chopper down the third-base line. Angel third baseman Doug DeCinces drew a bead on the slow roller, but Finley intercepted the ball, whirled and threw the ball toward first base.

At least that was the intent.

“I didn’t intend to throw it in the bullpen,” said Finley, which he did.

Heath wound up at second and went to third as soon as Brookens sent his little dribbler to the right of the mound.

On that ball, Finley simply froze. First baseman Wally Joyner swooped in to glove the ball, but when he turned to throw, no one was covering first base. Joyner had to hold the ball while Heath took third and Brookens first.

A double to left field by Lou Whitaker brought home Heath, and a double to right by Kirk Gibson brought home Brookens and Whitaker.

This is one way to ruin a 3-3 tie in a hurry.

“Often times, unusual plays have a disruptive effect on young pitchers,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said.

“A veteran pitcher would have just stuck that first ball in his pocket. The next ball was kind of unusual, too. You would think a young pitcher should be able to gain strength from making a hitter hit a ball that weakly. But it doesn’t always work out that way.”

Finley gave his version of both plays.

--No. 1: “Doug came up to me afterward and said he had it. It probably would have been better if I had turned, planted and took a better look. Or I should have ate it.”

--No. 2: “I was falling off the (third base) side of the mound. If I broke (for first) as soon as I threw the ball, I would’ve gotten there in time. But the way I fell off, I don’t think we could’ve got him.”

Finley entered the game in the sixth inning after two of nature’s elements took care of Sutton.

First was the wind, which Mauch believed aided a pair of Tiger home runs by Whitaker and Chet Lemon.

“I’m going to tell you, this was a dangerous night to be a pitcher,” Mauch said. “Sutton’s been a fly-ball pitcher all his life and he has the ability to ‘hide’ the ball from the pull field. But the way the wind was blowing, there was no place to hide it.”

Second was the rain, which interrupted play for 24 minutes after 5 1/2 innings. The delay was too long for the 42-year-old Sutton, who retired to his ice bath for the night.

Jack Morris, the Detroit starter, returned to the mound after the delay but didn’t last long. After working the top of the sixth, Morris was forced out of the game with a slight groin pull.

His replacement, Eric King, failed to get an out as the four Angels he faced in the seventh inning all reached base.

Joyner led off by striking out, but when Matt Nokes failed to hold on to the third strike, Joyner was able to run to first base. Jack Howell followed with a walk. Then, designated hitter Mark Ryal doubled to left, scoring Joyner and sending Howell to third.

Ruppert Jones drove King’s final pitch to right field for a two-run single, and the Angels had tied the score.

Mike Henneman, the Tigers’ next reliever, was a bit more effective. After Bob Boone bunted Jones to second, Henneman struck out Gus Polidor and retired Mark McLemore on an infield grounder to end the inning.

Henneman held the Angels to one hit during the last two innings to earn the win, which improved his record to 7-0.

He got there by his own doing--and by some imperfect defense on the part of Finley.

Angel Notes

John Candelaria’s reconditioning program began Friday as he pitched for 10 minutes in the bullpen under the surveillance of Manager Gene Mauch and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann. After spending 28 days in an in-patient counseling center, Candelaria didn’t expect to be sharp--and he wasn’t. Mauch assessed the workout this way: “Every time you see Candelaria do something, it’s pretty unusual. (But) the man hasn’t thrown in a month.” Candelaria will throw again Monday and repeat the process as long as it takes him to regain his pitching form. And not the form he exhibited just before his second stint on the disabled list, when he went 1-2 with a 6.45 ERA in four starts. He failed to pitch into the sixth inning in three of those starts. “I’m not really interested in Candelaria coming back and pitching five innings,” Mauch said. “He will help our situation more if I can expect more than that.” Added Candelaria: “The way I was pitching before wasn’t that great. I hope to be better than that.” . . . Candelaria admitted his legs are out of shape, so much so that he is even considering running. Mauch, noting Candelaria’s legendary non-work ethic, cracked, “Candelaria may never catch up on his running.” . . . The Angels have adopted a new media-relations policy with Candelaria: Candelaria will only grant interviews on days he pitches. That, however, is more access than reporters had after his first return from the disabled list, when Candelaria granted no interviews.

Both Mauch and Gary Pettis were ejected from Friday night’s game by plate umpire Drew Coble after arguing a third-strike call in the eighth inning. “I don’t know what I did (to get ejected),” Pettis said. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t think it was a strike, (but) I didn’t curse him. At least until after he ejected me.” Mauch said he was thrown out because of a misunderstanding. “His contention was that I was questioning a ball-strike call,” Mauch said of Coble. “That really wasn’t my intention. I simply thought he handled the situation poorly. If an umpire calls you out on a questionable call, he shouldn’t be quite so quick with the hook.” . . . Besides his two-run single, Ruppert Jones took an extra-base hit away from Pat Sheridan in the fifth inning with a leaping catch that sent him crashing into the left field wall. . . . The two home runs allowed by Don Sutton were the 449th and 450th of his career, moving him closer to another milestone. The all-time record for most home runs allowed, career, belongs to Robin Roberts, who served up 505.