After a Wild Ninth, White’s Homer Wins for Angels in 10th

In all likelihood, it may be too late to make any difference in the American League West race, but Thursday night at Anaheim Stadium, in their 140th game of 1987, the Angels pulled off their most remarkable comeback of the season.

Down by four runs in the bottom of the ninth, the Angels tied the game at 7-7 when pinch-hitter Mark Ryal hit a grand slam off Texas reliever Dale Mohorcic. That set the stage in the bottom of the 10th inning for Devon White, who gave the Angels an 8-7 victory by hitting a one-out home run over the center-field fence against the Rangers’ fourth pitcher of the evening, Steve Howe.

White, in the midst of a late-season slump that had brought his batting average down to .253, connected for his 23rd homer of the season to make a winner of Angel reliever DeWayne Buice (6-6) and a loser of Howe (2-3).

With the win, the Angels gained a half-game on the idle first-place Minnesota Twins. With 22 games remaining, the Angels trail Minnesota by 6 1/2 games.

The Angels took a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning with a run-scoring single by Brian Downing but gave that lead--and more--away in the top of the ninth, when Greg Minton and Buice gave up five runs.

Minton began the inning and yielded singles to Pete O’Brien and Larry Parrish. Buice then came in to get two outs followed by two quick strikes on pinch-hitter Darrell Porter.

But on an 0-2 pitch, Porter stroked a grounder through the right side of the infield, bringing home the tying run and sparking the five-run outburst.

Bob Brower followed with a walk, and Jerry Browne drove in a run with an infield single that a diving Doug DeCinces could only stop. Scott Fletcher then doubled in two runs, Ruben Sierra singled in another, and the Rangers suddenly led, 7-3.

Faced with the prospect of falling five games below .500, the Angels--previously 5-61 in games in which they have trailed after seven innings--rallied around their rookies.

White started the bottom of the ninth with a single off Texas relief pitcher Mitch Williams. Rookie No. 2, Tack Wilson, followed with a walk.

In came Mohorcic, who got one out and then gave up an infield single to another rookie, Jim Eppard, loading the bases.

That brought up Ryal, a 27-year-old rookie, who responded with his first major league grand slam, and fifth homer of the season to tie the game at 7-7.

One inning later, the Angels won it on another home run.

“It was a fastball,” White said. “I was looking for a certain pitch. When I saw it, I swung.”

By the time White’s game-winning home run had cleared the fence, the scuffball controversy surrounding Angel starter Don Sutton in the fifth inning had been all but forgotten. Sutton had gone two starts without incident, taking his Scuff-or-Bluff tour to Baltimore and New York and drawing not so much as a quizzical glance from an umpire.

But in the fifth inning, he prompted an informal frisking at the request of plate umpire Steve Palermo.

After a 2-and-1 pitch to Browne took a nosedive just before reaching the plate, Palermo asked catcher Bob Boone for the baseball. Upon looking it over, Palermo found the ball defaced and walked out to the mound to ask Sutton about it.

During an animated discussion that included all of the umpires and Angel Manager Gene Mauch, Palermo inspected Sutton’s glove and the palms of Sutton’s hands. The umpire removed the ball from the game but let the pitcher stay.

Sutton went on to walk Browne, loading the bases, but got Fletcher to ground out to end the inning.

Sutton lasted two more innings, allowing two baserunners in the sixth and another in the seventh, but prevented all three from scoring.

In the sixth, Sierra and Parrish reached base on singles, but Sutton got Tom O’Malley to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

In the seventh, Oddibe McDowell was safe at first on a throwing error by third baseman Jack Howell and was sacrificed to second. There, however, McDowell was picked off by Sutton. The inning came to a close when Brower fouled out to Joyner at first base.

Sutton worked 7 innings, throwing 85 pitches and allowing 7 hits. He gave up a two-run homer to Brower in the third inning.

The home run was the 35th Sutton has allowed this season, extending his club record. He broke Tom Murphy’s old mark of 32 (set in 1970) in his previous start.

The Rangers would also tie a major league record in the ninth inning, using four pinch-runners in the inning while taking their 7-3 lead. But all of that would be washed away by a pair of swings by Ryal and White.

Angel Notes

Before Thursday night, Devon White was hitless in his last 16 at-bats, 6 for 62 (.097) and batting just .109 since Aug. 12. Manager Gene Mauch admitted that White was “tired mentally” but kept the rookie outfielder in the starting lineup nonetheless. “He just might be ready to go absolutely crazy with the bat,” Mauch added--a comment that turned out to be somewhat prophetic. “He and (Texas’) Ruben Sierra are the same kind of players. Give them both 600 at-bats and you’ll see the same type of game. Sierra had a dry spell earlier in the year, and White has just had his dry spell. If somebody had told us that in September, White would have the stats he does now, you’d have said, ‘How sweet is that.’ But because he got off to such a roaring start, people expected that from him all the time.” Mauch added that timing and circumstances have made White’s recent slump all the more noticeable. “He’s had a tough time or two in the minor leagues, but it was never as magnified as this,” Mauch said. “It may be because he keeps reading about it. It may be because it happened at a time when we’re trying to win.”...Donnie Moore moved closer to a return to the active roster by pitching the equivalent of two innings before Thursday’s game. “His second inning was real good,” Mauch reported. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s off the (disabled) list by Saturday or Sunday.”...Texas Manager Bobby Valentine and the Angels’ Bill Buckner spent time talking around the batting cage, and Mauch could imagine the former Dodger teammates comparing medical histories. “The four legs in that conversation have been through a lot,” said Mauch, alluding to Buckner’s surgically scarred ankles and the broken leg Valentine suffered as an Angel outfielder in 1973. Valentine never fully recovered from that injury, his playing career ending in 1979. Today, Valentine is 37 and in his second season as a major league manager; Buckner turns 38 in December and is batting fifth for the Angels. Joked Buckner: “He’s six months younger than me--31.”...DH Or Bust: Brian Downing is most content when left field is left to others, a notion supported by the numbers. Entering Thursday night’s game, Downing was batting .276 as a designated hitter (118 for 430) but only .206 (13 for 63) as a left fielder.