Athletics Turn Up a Pair of 4s and Beat Angels Again, 8-3

An Angel pitcher balked again Tuesday night, but this time, it didn’t decide a baseball game.

This time, the Oakland Athletics took care of the outcome the old-fashioned way, earning an 8-3 victory in front of 8,183 rain-soaked fans at Oakland Coliseum by putting together a pair of four-run innings against Angel pitchers Chuck Finley and Ray Krawczyk.

Four runs in the second inning and four more in the eighth inning distanced the A’s from the Angels, giving Oakland its fourth triumph in five games against its downstate rival.

Finley (1-2), coming off a 5-2 win over Chicago in his last start, pitched six more shutout innings Tuesday. Trouble was, he attempted to pitch eight.

Presented with a 1-0 lead entering the second inning, Finley walked the first two batters he faced to lay the groundwork for Oakland’s first 4-run outburst.

Then, after retiring 16 of 17 hitters following those four runs, Finley opened the eighth inning by serving up a single to Tony Phillips and a walk to Carney Lansford--starting the process all over again.

Despite four strikeouts and a botched play in right field by Chili Davis, the Angels trailed, 4-3, entering the eighth. Hold the A’s here and maybe Finley could finagle a win out of an early Angel mess.

But by allowing the first two hitters, Phillips and Lansford, to reach base, Finley pitched himself into a corner. And he made the situation worse by balking, which moved both runners into scoring position.

That left first base open, and Angel Manager Cookie Rojas ordered Finley to intentionally walk Canseco with a 2-and-2 count to load the bases and set up a potential double play.

For one batter, Rojas’ strategy worked. Third baseman Jack Howell got that double play by diving to spear a sharp grounder by McGwire, then stepping on third base for one out and firing home for another.

Finley had a chance to pitch out of the inning, but Parker spoiled it with a double into the gap in left-center. And with that, Finley pitched himself out of the game.

Krawczyk came on to issue back-to-back doubles to Steinbach and Baylor, bringing home three more Oakland runs and breaking the game open.

“The eighth inning killed me,” Finley said. “I made a good pitch to McGwire, and Jack turned the double play. Then I come back and make a terrible pitch to Parker. He should have never got a pitch like that.”

Rojas, however, insisted that Finley “pitched a hell of a game.”

“He almost got out of that eighth inning before he hung a curveball to Parker. And we gave them a run when Davis misplayed that ball in the second inning.”

The A’s had already scored three times in the second inning when, with two outs and Don Baylor on first base, Phillips lined a hit into right field. Davis charged the ball, tried to one-hand it--and then appeared to almost sidestep. The ball skittered underneath his glove for a generously scored triple, enabling Baylor to score all the way from first.

“He should have played that ball safely,” Rojas chided. “Why take a chance on letting the ball go through and giving them a run?”

Davis refused to comment on his performance afterward, but his batting line (0 for 4 with four strikeouts, three runners left in scoring position), the play in right and the boos from the stands for the former San Francisco Giant said enough.

Finley, kindly, offered Davis a way off the hook.

“That’s a part of the game,” Finley said of Davis’ fielding faux pas. “You can also say, ‘If I hadn’t done this and I hadn’t done that, we might’ve won.’

“There might be 100 times this year when he is going to make a great play and save it for us.”

Winning pitcher Dave Stewart (4-0) lasted seven innings, encountering more trouble with the new balk rule than his own control. He finished the evening with more balks (3) than walks (2), bringing the A’s season total to 21--already a club record--and his own balk total to eight in four starts.

Stewart balked twice in the third inning, contributing to one Angel run. After Dick Schofield led off by reaching base on a fielding error by shortstop Weiss, Stewart balked him to second. From there, Schofield scored on a single by Ray. Stewart also balked Ray to second, but left him there by inducing Wally Joyner into an inning-ending groundout.

Joyner drove in the Angels’ first run with a first-inning double, scoring Ray, who had singled. It was Joyner’s fourth RBI of the series and sixth of the season.

The Angels’ third run came in the seventh when Bob Boone and Bill Buckner walked, Mark McLemore sacrificed and Ray hit a sacrifice fly to center. but pinch-runner Gus Polidor, then representing the tying run, was left at third base when Davis struck out.

It was Davis’ fourth strikeout of the night, the kind of night that caused Davis to leave the Bay Area in the first place--rain, cold and hooting from the fans. If he can make it through today’s series finale, Davis can steer clear of this place until mid-August.

Angel Notes

Monday night’s game-losing balk call against relief pitcher DeWayne Buice was still on the minds of the Angels Tuesday evening. Said Dan Petry, who pitched the first seven innings, left with a 4-2 lead and emerged with no decision: “I think the situation should be reevaluated. The balks are getting out of hand. I was thinking before (Monday’s) game, ‘Geez, wouldn’t it be nice to play a whole game without a balk?’ And then the game is decided on one. The actual rule says that if you’re trying to deceive a runner (by quick-pitching), yes, it should be a balk. But the situation last night, with a bases loaded, who’s Buice trying to fool? Nobody. That’s why the situation should be reevaluated.” After complaining of lower back pain, Donnie Moore flew back to Los Angeles Tuesday morning to undergo examination by Angel team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum. Moore had a bone spur surgically removed from the same area last October, but Yocum diagnosed the latest ailment as a mild muscle strain. Moore returned to Oakland in the afternoon and was in uniform by game time. . . . Wally Joyner, doing a little pregame scoreboard watching, noticed the Baltimore Orioles went down to their record-tying 13th straight defeat. “They’re probably saying, ‘That’s OK, just wait till we play the Angels. We’ll get one then,’ ” Joyner quipped. “They beat us like a stepchild when we go in there.” Joyner is only a third-year veteran, but he knows his Angel history. The Angels are 70-112 overall at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium and 9-21 since 1983. . . . Petry, on the Oakland A’s: “You hear all this hoopla about them and they’re still a good team, but nobody can prove to me that they’re a better team than we are.”