No Rally This Time for Angels : They Lose to Rangers at Anaheim, 7-2, and Fall 7 1/2 Games Back

In days of yesteryear, as in last year, the Angels used to draw strength from dramatic victories. They once rallied for eight runs in the ninth inning to beat Detroit--and then reeled off wins in 8 of their next 10 games. Another time, they broke up a no-hitter by Charlie Hough in the ninth inning--and then went on a 7-1 binge.

But this is 1987, year of the blown opportunity in Anaheim, where every step forward is usually followed by two steps backward. And on the night after their most implausible comeback of the season, the Angels responded Friday night as if nothing new had happened, losing time and ground and another game to the Texas Rangers, 7-2.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Mark Ryal and Devon White had helped turn a 7-3 ninth-inning deficit into a 10th-inning 8-7 victory. Ryal’s grand slam tied it in the bottom of the ninth, and White’s home run over the center-field fence won it in the bottom of the 10th.

“Any time you win a game like that,” Ryal said Friday before the Angels and the Rangers reconvened at Anaheim Stadium, “it’s got to up your confidence for the next few games. At least, it’s got to help you for the rest of the games against the same team.”

Or, at least, that’s the common line of thinking.

And Angel Manager Gene Mauch, thinking ever so wishfully, expected to see the line played out again--maybe even at last shaking his club out of its summer-long lethargy just in the nick of time.

“All I can say is that they started the game as enthusiastically as you can start a game,” Mauch said.

By the time five Texas Rangers had made their way to home plate, however, that enthusiasm had waned.

Angel starter John Candelaria walked the first batter he faced, Bob Brower; gave up a two-out single to Larry Parrish, and then hung a changeup so badly that even a 40-year-old batter with no home runs in exactly one year could drive it into the outfield seats.

Tom Paciorek hit his last home run on Sept. 11, 1986. After 364 homer-less days, he hit another, creating an instant 3-0 deficit for the Angels.

Candelaria also served up a two-run homer to Steve Buechele in his final inning, the fourth, and left trailing, 6-0.

That made it easy for Ranger starter Jose Guzman, who had a 4.97 earned-run average at game time but lowered it while pitching nine innings against the Angels. Guzman (13-11) limited the Angels to six singles and a double through eight innings before yielding Brian Downing’s 25th home run with two outs in the ninth. He also struck out eight.

All of this cost the Angels another game in the American League West standings. With 21 games remaining, the Angels trail the first-place Minnesota Twins by 7 1/2 games, their largest deficit since June 26.

The Angels’ biggest deficit of the season was 8 1/2 games, on June 19-21.

Obviously, new and exciting dimensions for the Angels are at hand.

Candelaria (8-6) wiped clean any emotional residue from Thursday night before he completed the first inning. The leadoff walk to Brower hurt, but the two-run home run by Paciorek was a crippler.

“It wasn’t one of John’s better outings,” Mauch said. “He sure didn’t get his changeup where he wanted to Paciorek. I know it irritated the hell out of him to walk the first batter.”

But in the process, it helped make an old man happy. Before Friday, Paciorek had only appeared in 15 games this season after spending four months on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Playing out what figures to be his final season, Paciorek finally cleared the fences but just barely--dunking a 340-foot fly ball into the seats inside the left-field foul pole.

The Rangers scored another two-out run in the third inning, with Parrish blooping a single into shallow right field to bring home Brower from third base.

And in the fourth inning, Buechele broke the game open, following rookie Dave Meier’s double off the top of the center-field fence with a drive over the left-field fence. Buechele’s 12th home run left the Angels down and out, 6-0.

And with the Angel offense promptly slipping back into the tank against Guzman, there would be nothing even approaching a California comeback this night.

Even Johnny Ray went hitless. Ray entered the game with a 14-game hitting streak and a .432 average as an Angel, but he went 0 for 3 with a walk against Guzman.

It should be noted, though, that two of Ray’s outs came on a line drive to second base and a line drive to right field. So he hit the ball hard twice against Guzman, which is more than most of the other Angels could say.

The Angels needed a wild pitch to score their first run. With one out in the fifth inning, Bob Boone singled, and Dick Schofield doubled him to third. Boone scored when Guzman misfired on a delivery to catcher Don Slaught.

Guzman also walked the next batter, Downing, but came back to retire Jack Howell on an infield pop fly and Ray on the line drive to right.

After that, the Angel offense was shut down until Downing hit his bases-empty home run in the ninth.

The next batter, Jack Howell, struck out, and just as he swung and missed on the third strike, any momentum the Angels had accrued from Thursday night’s comeback wafted quickly out of Anaheim Stadium.

Angel Notes

The television crews took their turns Friday evening with Mark Ryal, the pinch-hitter who delivered the ninth-inning grand slam in the Angels’ 8-7 victory over Texas Thursday night. “They find you when you do something good,” said Ryal, the Angels’ little-used outfielder-first baseman. Ryal is hitting only .212 overall but with the grand slam, his first in the major leagues, he is batting .391 (9 for 23) as a pinch-hitter. Ryal credited a three-week stint in Edmonton during August for restoring his batting stroke. “I went 21 for 49 (.429) at Edmonton,” Ryal said. “It was something I needed. At first, when they sent me down, I was discouraged at the time, but I needed some at-bats. At Edmonton, they put me in the starting lineup, and I got 49 consecutive at-bats.” Also at the time of his demotion, Ryal wondered about his future with the Angels, but his value as a pinch-hitter probably will earn him a contract for 1988. “I’d never been a pinch-hitter up until this year,” Ryal said. “But now I’m confident in that role.”