Angels Raise Squawk After Losing on Balk

Another impressive start by Dan Petry and Wally Joyner’s long-awaited first home run of 1988 are terrible things to waste, but the Angels’ bullpen did precisely that Monday night at the Oakland Coliseum.

And it was squandered, ultimately, by the ultimate in new baseball trends--the balk.

Angel reliever DeWayne Buice had already failed to protect Petry’s two-run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, but with two outs, he was trying to keep the game tied. The bases were loaded and Don Baylor was the batter when Buice wound up, delivered . . . and was called for a balk by third base umpire Dale Scott.

Scott waved Glenn Hubbard home from third base and, just like that, the Oakland Athletics were on their way to a 5-4 come-from-behind victory before a crowd of 20,640.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Buice, whose record dropped to 0-2. “To change the outcome of a game on something like that is a mockery.

“It’s ridiculous for the outcome of a game to be given to another team by some umpire, whether it was directed from the (major league) office or not.

“What’s going to happen at the end of the season when we’re tied for first place and we should have won this damn game tonight?”

And, it can be argued that the Angels should have won. For seven innings, Petry held the Athletics’ powerful lineup to two runs and six hits, giving Joyner enough time to stroke his first home run of the season--a 2-run shot in the top of the eighth to give the Angels a momentary 4-2 lead.

But that advantage evaporated almost as quickly as Angel Manager Cookie Rojas grabbed the ball from Petry and gave it to Buice. Buice surrendered two hits and a sacrifice fly to the first three batters he faced, enabling Oakland to tie the game before committing the critical balk.

Petry began the eighth inning for the Angels but stayed on the mound only to face one batter, Terry Steinbach, who singled up the middle.

Buice then replaced Petry, and Mike Gallego replaced Steinbach as a pinch-runner. Buice then proceeded to work to his first hitter, Stan Javier, and immediately wild-pitched Gallego to second.

Javier followed with a double to right, scoring Gallego, and Hubbard singled Javier to third. Dave Henderson then hit a sacrifice fly, driving home Javier with the tying run. Angel second baseman Mark McLemore then misplayed Carney Lansford’s grounder into an error.

One out later, Buice walked Jose Canseco to bring up Baylor.

Controversy soon followed.

First, the Angels argued that Buice hadn’t balked at all.

“I looked at it on the tape, and it certainly didn’t look like a balk,” Buice said. “I certainly wasn’t trying to deceive any runner.”

Rojas: “If you deceive a runner on first base who’s trying to steal, then it’s a balk. But who’s going to deceive a runner when the bases are loaded?”

Then, there was the furor of Scott calling a balk at such a critical juncture.

“You shouldn’t lose a game on a balk,” Rojas said. “These guys were playing like hell, hustling their butts off, and we lose on a damn balk. If Baylor gets a base hit and they beat us, fine. But no one should win a game on a balk.”

Of course, without the new balk rule, the Angels would have had only three runs Monday. Athletics’ starter Curt Young balked home McLemore in the third inning to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.

No club in baseball has been hurt more by the balk than Oakland. There’s a reason the Athletics entered this game with a 6-6 record--and a major league-leading 18 balks is as good as any. When Young balked again Monday, it tied the A’s club record of 19, set in 1986.

This is just 13 games.

The Angels could have used more balks from Young. Aside from Joyner’s first-inning RBI single, the Angels botched every other scoring opportunity during the first seven innings--with two runners getting thrown out at the plate.

In the second inning, the Angels had Jack Howell on third and Bob Boone on first when Dick Schofield struck out with a running play on. Boone broke for second, and Oakland catcher Steinbach fired a throw to second baseman Hubbard. Boone then pulled up and Howell took off for home.

Hubbard immediately threw home and his relay easily beat Howell, who retreated toward third and was eventually tagged out by third baseman Lansford.

In the fifth inning, the Angels had Johnny Ray on first base with two outs. And again, Howell was involved in an out at the plate.

Howell hit a chopper to the left of the mound, over a leaping Young to a charging Walt Weiss, the Oakland shortstop. Weiss’ running throw pulled first baseman Mark McGwire off the base, and McGwire tried to make a sweeping tag of Howell.

But McGwire’s sweep was much too grand, with the ball squirting loose from his glove and rolling down the right-field line. This encouraged Ray to attempt to score from first.

Ray, hardly the fastest of the Angels’ baserunners, finished second to McGwire’s long relay, Steinbach tagging him on the leg for the inning’s third out.

That play kept the score at 2-1 and bought the A’s enough time to tie to score in the seventh inning. There, they got the run on Lansford’s infield single off Petry’s glove, a wild pitch by Petry and a single to left by Canseco.

Then, Petry and the Angels ventured into the eighth inning, where the dreaded balk rule--and another defeat--awaited them.

Angel Notes

Devon White missed his first start Monday night because of an inflamed right knee. White injured the knee while sliding during the Angels’ 5-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox last Wednesday but had been trying to play on it. “It started to act up on the (artificial) turf in Seattle,” White said. “It’s a little stiff, but I could play on it.” Said Angel Manager Cookie Rojas: “If I need him, he’ll be out there. But I didn’t want to take a chance on a rainy day like this and have him slip on it.” . . . Tony Armas started in White’s place, taking a .412 average into the game. Armas was coming off a 3-hit game in Seattle Sunday, his first 3-hit outing since Aug. 21, 1986, when he was still with the Boston Red Sox. . . . Greg Minton threw again for 15 minutes before Monday’s game, with Angel physical therapist Roger Williams calling it “a pretty good effort. He threw all fastballs and said he felt good. He’s making some progress.”