Angels Foul Up Royally on K.C. Turf

Kansas City outfielder Willie Wilson has played on artificial turf all his career. Angel outfielders Jack Howell, Devon White and Gary Pettis play on it grudgingly.

This difference was especially telling in Kansas City’s 7-6 victory over the Angels Thursday night at Royals Stadium, with Wilson turning the wisdom of experience into a win and the Angels turning a bunch of routine plays into mayhem.

Wilson scored the decisive run with two out in the bottom of the ninth. However, in the eight innings that served as a prelude, Pettis misplayed one flyball into a run-scoring single, White misplayed another into a two-run double and White lost a catchable ball in the lights--turning that, too, into a rally-starting double.

By the time Wilson singled with one out in the ninth inning, the Royals had erased a 6-3 deficit against Mike Witt and were tied, 6-6, against the Angels’ second relief pitcher, Greg Minton.

And when Bill Pecota followed with a single to Howell in left, Wilson, noting what AstroTurf can do to a first-year outfielder, gambled and tried to take third base on the play. He succeeded, too, with Howell staying back on the ball and then unleashing a meek relay to the infield.

One out and an intentional walk to George Brett later, Danny Tartabull sent a broken-bat single over Angel second baseman Johnny Ray’s head. Ray threw his arms up in frustration and Wilson crossed home plate in elation.

The Royals had pulled out an unlikely victory that kept them within three games of first-place Minnesota in the American League West.

The Angels, meanwhile, fell to 70-77 and 7 games behind the Twins and afterward, all Manager Gene Mauch could do was curse his club’s rotten luck.

“If you told me this morning that we’d score six runs off (Charlie) Leibrandt with Witt on the mound, I would’ve said, ‘Rack the table,’ ” Mauch said.

“Damn. They’re going to have to get a new order of bats here. Brett broke his bat twice. Tartabull twice. They got a lot of funny-looking hits, but, they count.”

Pecota started the Kansas City kindling parade by cracking his bat on a Witt pitch in the second inning and blooping it toward center field, where White was stationed. White hesitated on the ball, then ran in and then stopped, hoping to field the ball on the bounce.

Nice try. But the ball took an AstroTurf hop over White’s head that allowed Pecota to reach second on the play. Two Royal baserunners also scored in the process.

By the eighth inning, White had moved to right field, with Pettis entering the game as a pinch-runner, then taking over in center. On back-to-back plays, White and Pettis helped turn a 6-5 Angel lead into a 6-6 tie.

Kevin Seitzer opened the eighth with a line drive to right and White moved in to backhand the ball on the run. But White lost track of the ball in the lights, letting it kick off the heel of his glove for what was generously scored as a double.

Seitzer scored on a broken-bat hit by Brett, although Pettis had a chance to turn it into a broken-bat out. Brett blooped the ball to shallow center field and Pettis began to race in after it, only to pull up at the last instant and let it fall for a game-tying single.

“That’s what can happen when a guy breaks a bat on a full swing,” Angel third baseman Doug DeCinces said. “The ball freezes you. It’s easy to do. That’s what happened to Pettis and Devo.”

With the score still 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth, the Angel outfield struck again. Wilson capitalized on Howell’s tentativeness, moving from first to third on a routine single to left.

“Once Willie gets moving on that AstroTurf, he’s tough,” DeCinces said. “He’s really aggressive and he knows this AstroTurf really well. I thought we had a shot at him.

“Instead, he winds up at third, the other guy (Pecota) goes to second on the throw and we’re out of the double play.”

Seitzer would have accommodated the Angels, bouncing an easy grounder to second. Ray had no double play, however, just the play at first.

At that point, Mauch had Minton intentionally walk Brett, who had already singled three times. That brought up Tartabull with two out and the bases loaded.

Minton got ahead on the count, 1-and-2, and delivered what he considered “my pitch.”

Tartabull broke his bat . . . and won the game.

“It was inside maybe two or three inches, but he hit my pitch,” said Minton (4-3). “I have no qualms about that pitch. I made kindling out of his bat. In fact, I did that twice with him tonight--and he’s hitting 1.000 against me.”

What’s a pitcher to do?

“I hope I get to face him again,” Minton said, managing a slow smile. “Better yet, I hope he has 11 kids and has to baby-sit them all the next time we have to play Kansas City.”

Angel Notes

Overlooked amid the festivities surrounding Bob Boone’s record-setting 1,919th game caught Wednesday night was Gene Mauch’s 1,898th career victory, which tied him for eighth on the all-time list with Bill McKechnie. Even Mauch had overlooked it until Angel publicist Tim Mead pointed out the milestone to him. “I’ve been around a long time,” Mauch said. “When only three guys in the world have managed more games than you have, you ought to catch somebody in wins.” Mauch ranks fourth in games managed (3,928) behind Connie Mack, John McGraw and Bucky Harris. . . . Mike Witt has now gone a month between wins, his last coming Aug. 17. The Angels gave him 2-0 and 6-3 leads Thursday, but he failed to hold them. Witt lasted 7-plus innings, allowing 6 runs and 10 hits. . . . The pitcher’s mound was the dangerous place to hang around. Royal reliever Steve Farr had to leave the game after the sixth inning when he was bruised on the right knee by a Johnny Ray line drive. And in the ninth inning, Angel reliever Greg Minton lost his cap and his balance in snagging a Gary Thurman-drive headed at his face. It was a tough way to get the first out of the inning. “It was either plastic surgery or catch that son of a gun,” Minton said. . . . Brian Downing walked three times to bring his season total to 94. With two more bases on balls, Downing will tie Albie Pearson’s Angel season record.