Mariners Put the Wood to Angel Pitchers, 11-4

The first pitch of Saturday night’s game was the tip-off--a hard fastball, delivered high and outside, all the way to the backstop screen by the Angels’ Dan Petry.

It was not going to be a good night for Angel pitchers.

Again.

For the second time in as many games, the Angels surrendered more than 7 runs to the Seattle Mariners. Petry allowed eight runs, DeWayne Buice came on to serve up three more and by the time Ray Krawczyk finished up, the Angels had lost, 11-4, before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 27,136.

And for the second time in as many games, the Mariners broke the game open with six runs in the seventh inning, four courtesy a pair of 2-run home runs by Henry Cotto and Dave Valle.

A pattern has developed here. Including Thursday’s series-opening 11-6 Angel victory and back-to-back losses of 8-3 and 9-8 in Oakland, Angel pitchers have yielded 41 runs in the club’s last 5 games.

Consequently, the Angels have seen their record drop from 6-6 to 7-10 and their standing in the American League West slip to fifth, just behind the Seattle Mariners.

And this one couldn’t be blamed on the bullpen. Seattle already led, 8-3, before Buice happened onto the scene in the seventh inning.

Instead it was Petry, the most consistent of the Angel starters, who let this game get away. Taking an earned-run average of 3.44 into his fourth outing, Petry nearly equaled it before he could complete the first inning.

The first two Mariner batters, Mickey Brantley and Mike Kingery, reached base via a walk and a single, respectively. Two outs later, Ken Phelps deposited a 3-run home run over the left-field fence, his fourth homer of the season and third against the Angels.

An instant 3-0 Angel deficit.

The Angels managed to slice it to 3-2 by the end of the third inning, but in the top of the fifth, that dreaded Angel outfield defense conspired again against Petry. This time, left fielder Johnny Ray couldn’t run down a bloop hit over shortstop by Brantley and then--making matters worse--fired his infield relay into the Seattle dugout.

That allowed Rey Quinones to score from second base and Brantley to advance to third, from where he scored on an infield out by Kingery.

Still, the Angels were within two runs, at 5-3, entering the seventh inning, thanks to run-scoring doubles by Ray and Chili Davis and a first-inning balk by Mariner starter Mike Campbell (1-2), scoring Mark McLemore from third base.

Then came the top of the seventh . . . and the Angels bottomed out again.

Petry help kick-start the Seattle offense by surrendering a leadoff single to Harold Reynolds and then wild-pitching him to second. Brantley sacrificed but reached base safely when Petry’s throw to third base was not in time to erase Reynolds.

Kingery followed with a sacrifice fly to score Reynolds, and Cotto delivered his second home run of the season to score two more.

Suddenly behind, 8-3, Angel Manager Cookie Rojas felt he had no other choice than to tempt the fate and try the bullpen. Rojas called for Buice to end the inning, but before he could, Seattle would send home three more runs.

Alvin Davis and Phelps greeted Buice with hits, Davis scoring from third on an infield grounder by Jim Presley. Then, shades of Ron Hassey, another weak-hitting catcher went deep against the Angel bullpen, with Dave (.125) Valle sending a 2-run home run over the left-field fence.

The inning only ended when Angel second baseman McLemore made a leaping grab of a line drive off the bat of Quinones.

The Angels scored their final run in the seventh inning when Bob Boone doubled and Ray singled. It was Ray’s second run batted in of the evening and his eighth of the series.

But then Mariner relief pitcher Mike Jackson replaced Campbell in the bottom of the eighth and shut down the Angels the rest of the way, allowing only a harmless ninth-inning single to Schofield.

Angel Notes

Brian Downing missed his fourth straight game because of soreness in his left rib cage Saturday, but this time, he was little more than a pregame clubhouse visitor. At the request of team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum, Downing left Anaheim Stadium about 90 minutes before game time to undergo an X-ray examination at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. The Angels later announced that the X-rays were “inconclusive” and that Yocum will re-examine Downing today. There is concern that Downing may have cracked a rib while batting during last week’s series at Oakland. “A cracked rib is one one of things you look for with something like this,” Angel physical therapist Roger Williams said. A cracked rib, just by swinging a bat? “Sure, it’s possible,” Williams said. “You’ll hear of a pitcher with a stress fracture in one of his ribs from time to time. Brian said it started hurting him about three days ago, and it was still bothering him today. That’s when we decided to have it X-rayed.” . . . Yocum will also examine pitcher Greg Minton today. Minton, trying to rehabilitate a strained elbow ligament, threw before Saturday’s game for 12 minutes at what he called “80 to 85%” full velocity. Minton has been undergoing such workouts every other day and needs Yocum’s approval before stepping up his recovery program.

Lee Walls, the special outfield instructor used by the Angels during spring training, was back in uniform and with fungo in hand Saturday, although Walls insisted it had nothing to do with the three errors committed by Angel outfielders Friday night. “Since Chili (Davis) had a bad night last night, everyone assumes that’s why I’m here,” Walls said. “But the Angels called me a couple of days ago to come in for the weekend. I just couldn’t get a flight until today.” Walls hit fungoes to all Angel outfielders before the game, but concentrated on Davis, who made two errors the previous night in right field. For that, Walls partially blamed the grass at Anaheim Stadium. “The Bermuda grass here must be the toughest in the league,” Walls said. “I hit 100 balls out there and they bounced in all sorts of different directions.” But Walls also noticed some tentativeness on Davis’ part when fielding balls hit to his right. “In spring training, he had a lot of trouble going to his left,” Walls said, “so we worked a lot on that. Maybe, we worked on it too much, because now, he’s been having trouble going to right-center on balls. Today, I hit 50 balls to his right and he reacted real good.” . . . Entering his third week on the job, Cookie Rojas was asked what he liked most about managing in the major leagues. “The food after the game is great,” Rojas joked. Seriously, folks, Rojas finally replied: “What I like best is making the decisions on the field and getting involved in everyone’s problems. The hardest part about managing is that players win games and managers don’t win games--but managers can lose games. That’s the hardest part. You make a decision, and if it backfires, it hurts.”