Moore Seems to Be Less as the A’s Leave Angel Bullpen in Tatters, 9-8

Nice-guy adjectives are almost unfailingly applied to Cookie Rojas. He has been described as easygoing, patient and tolerant, almost to a fault.

That was before he had to manage the Angel bullpen.

Every man has his breaking point, and Wednesday afternoon, after only two weeks on the job, the Angel manager reached his, watching Donnie Moore serve up another game-winning home run and turn a three-run eighth-inning Angel lead into a 9-8 loss to the Oakland Athletics.

“We can’t keep losing three- and four-run leads in the eighth and ninth innings,” fumed Rojas after Ron Hassey’s three-run homer had dealt the Angels their third straight defeat. “This is getting old.

“We’ve been scoring enough runs to win and we’ve been coming from behind, but we can’t hold them with the bullpen, that’s for sure. And if you can’t stop them with the bullpen, you ain’t got a chance.

“We have to find somebody who can do the job from the damn bullpen. . . . That may come from the outside, or from our own organization, but if we can find somebody who can do the job, hell, we’ll bring him in.”

Hello, Brian Harvey? This is Mike Port calling . . .

Rojas said he would meet today with Port, the Angels’ general manager, and Marcel Lachemann, the team’s pitching coach, to determine what to do with a bullpen that:

--Has blown 6 save opportunities in 14 games, including 3 in 4 outings by Moore.

--Has lost four games during opponents’ last turns at bat.

--Has an earned-run average of 7.89.

--Has allowed 39 hits, including 6 home runs, in 29 innings.

--Contributed to this sweep in Oakland by balking in the winning run Monday and allowing four-run eighth innings both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Harvey, the hard-throwing Edmonton reliever, would appear to be the Angels’ best option at the moment. Short-relief pitching is scarce on the trade market. And Greg Minton’s sore right elbow may not be healed for at least another two weeks.

There have been signs all along that the Angel bullpen is in need of a transfusion, but Wednesday’s loss might have been the last straw. The Angels overcame an unusually sloppy start by Mike Witt, who allowed 16 baserunners and 5 earned runs in five-plus innings, and took an 8-5 lead into the eighth. But Stewart Cliburn and Moore chucked it all away.

Cliburn, who relieved Witt in the sixth inning, opened the eighth by allowing a single to Carney Lansford. Then Rojas’ torture began.

Rookie Doug Jennings, who had already struck out four times in the first five innings when Cliburn worked the count to 0-2, then threw four straight balls.

Jose Canseco’s full-count single scored Lansford from second base, and Cliburn was out of the game.

In came Moore, who had thrown just three pitches in his last appearance Saturday in Seattle--enough to yield the tying and winning singles.

Moore’s assignment: Retire Mark McGwire, Dave Parker and Hassey.

In something of an upset, Moore struck out both McGwire and Parker, hitters who combined for 75 home runs in 1987.

“He was throwing the . . . out of the ball,” Angel catcher Butch Wynegar said.

Against Hassey, who took a .120 average into Wednesday’s game, Moore wasted a pitch outside, then tried to go outside again.

And then, he wasted another Angel lead.

“Down the middle,” was Wynegar’s assessment of the fateful pitch. “It was a good pitch to hit.”

Hassey hit it over the right-field fence.

“This is getting kind of old,” said Moore, who had given up a three-run homer to McGwire in the ninth inning of an 8-6 Angel loss in Anaheim April 9. “Losing leads in the eighth and ninth innings is getting old.

“I’m dejected. It’s tough to keep going out there with nothing going right. But I just got to keep doing it. Last year was like an off-year for me (Moore missed most of it because of a bone spur in his back). I’ve still got to get back into the swing of it. If I can consistently keep pitching the way I did to (McGwire and Parker), that would be encouraging.”

Moore was asked if that was part of the problem Wednesday--if after striking out McGwire and Parker, he might have let down against the slumping Hassey.

“That’s BS,” he snapped. “I’ve been struggling the way it is. I’m not going to take anybody lightly. I’m not going that good to take a hitter lightly.”

And the Angels aren’t going good enough to win despite knocking A’s starter Bob Welch from the game in the sixth inning, amassing 10 hits, rallying from a 4-1 deficit and staging a five-run outburst in the top of the sixth inning.

“I wish I knew how many runs we’ve given up when we’ve had leads in the eighth inning,” Rojas said. “We haven’t been able to close it, that’s no secret.”

Speaking on behalf of the bullpen, Cliburn preached patience.

“The bullpen is struggling right now, but there’s a long ways to go. It’s a long season,” Cliburn said. “This game wasn’t our whole season.”

Angel Notes

Next to Donnie Moore’s home-run pitch to Ron Hassey, the most-discussed pitch in the Angels’ clubhouse Wednesday afternoon was Stewart Cliburn’s 2-2 delivery to Doug Jennings in the eighth inning. “We had a guy struck out, but the umpire (Rick Reed) called it a ball,” Angel Manager Cookie Rojas groused. Cliburn then walked Jennings to set the stage for Oakland’s 4-run rally. “I thought it was a strike,” Cliburn said. “It was right down the middle, knee high. That turned out to be a big turning point in the ballgame. That would have given us one out with a 3-run lead. That would have made all the difference in the world.”

With that out, along with Moore’s strikeouts of Mark McGwire and Dave Parker, Hassey would have never made it to the plate in that inning.

Another perspective on the critical pitch was provided by Angel catcher Butch Wynegar. “It was close, a borderline pitch,” he said. “Rick and I talked about it and I thought he could have rung it up (as a strike). But I couldn’t complain too much. It was close.”

Rojas was not in the mood for the postgame questions of an Oakland radio reporter, laying on the sarcasm thick and heavy with his responses. Reporter: “What do you think about the A’s?” Rojas: “The A’s are awesome . Really awesome. Damn, am I worried about the A’s.” Reporter: “Is it really tough to lose a game like this?” Rojas: “No, I’m going to have a cake and put some candles on it and celebrate after the ballgame.” End of interview.

Mike Witt pitched to 30 batters in his 5-plus inning stint, allowing 16 to reach base. Witt gave up 10 hits, 5 runs, 5 walks and hit a batter, leaving the bases loaded in both the fourth and fifth innings. “Witt started very slowly and threw a lot of pitches,” Rojas said. “But he kept us in the ballgame--still.” Witt left the game with an 8-5 lead.

Mark McLemore was scratched from the starting lineup because of the flu, but pinch-hit for his replacement, Gus Polidor, and contributed to the Angels’ 5-run sixth inning. McLemore’s pinch-walk with the bases loaded brought home Jack Howell and McLemore later scored himself on a single by Dick Schofield. . . . Johnny Ray drove in three runs with two sacrifice flies and a single. Wynegar scored three times, each time on a close play at the plate, which meant a hard day for his aching feet. “The ground here is really hard,” Wynegar said. “It’s like a rock. Not only are my feet hurting, but my whole body got a workout.”