Angels’ Bullpen Not Much Help as Brewers Roll to 9-4 Victory

Moments after the Angels had lost their fourth game in a row Thursday night, former Angel general manager Buzzie Bavasi emerged from the clubhouse shaking his head.

“I’ve been watching them on TV and I came by to see if they’re really as bad as they look,” said Bavasi, who was en route to a school reunion in Indianapolis.

Well?

“They’re worse.”

The Angels, who had scored more than four runs just four times in the previous 20 games, got four in the fifth inning Thursday night, but it wasn’t half enough as the Milwaukee Brewers rolled to a 9-4 victory in front of 14,414 at County Stadium.

The Angels got a decent pitching performance from starter Chuck Finley and a modicum of offensive support, but this time it was the bullpen’s turn to blow one.

Finley left after surrendering a single and a double in the seventh inning, but he still had a 4-3 lead when he walked off. By the time Bryan Harvey got out of the inning, however, the Brewers had a 7-4 lead.

Greg Minton relieved Finley and yielded a run-scoring single to Paul Molitor, an intentional walk, and hit a batter to force in a run. Harvey gave up a run-scoring double before getting an inning-ending double play. Then Sherman Corbett came in to pitch the eighth and allowed four hits and two runs.

“I’m really throwing terrible now,” Minton said. “The plate looks like it’s about 3 inches wide to me. I honestly don’t know what’s going on. The first guy I hit all year has to come with the bases loaded. I’m struggling.”

He’s not alone.

Finley, who has become one of the Angels’ most consistent starters, saw his record drop to 3-7.

“I was basically working with one pitch (the fastball), but I felt all right. This is one of the first times I’ve come out with a lead . . . I don’t know, I can only do so much.”

Manager Cookie Rojas thought Finley did his part, but he wasn’t as pleased with the performances of some of his other players.

“Finley pitched a helluva game until the seventh,” Rojas said. “We gave them two runs and then we came back to take the lead. I was hoping he could get through the seventh and then we could go to Harvey for the eighth and ninth.”

A pair of walks and a balk hurt Finley in the fourth inning, but not as much as yet another misplay by right fielder Chili Davis. With one out, Finley walked Rob Deer. He struck out Glenn Braggs before walking Greg Brock. Then second base umpire Durwood Merrill called the balk, Finley’s sixth of the season.

Joey Meyer followed with a line drive to right. Davis took one step in before retreating as the ball sailed past him to the wall.

“It was a line drive, yes, but that ball should have been caught,” Rojas said.

The Angels rallied in the fifth, however. Bob Boone stroked a one-out double into the gap in right-center, and Dick Schofield followed with a run-scoring single to center.

Chico Walker walked and then Wally Joyner hit a drive to right-center that Braggs ran down and caught on the warning track. Braggs’ momentum carried him to the wall and Schofield tagged up, went to third and kept going. Shortstop Dale Sveum’s relay throw almost hit Joyner, who had rounded first and was heading back across the diamond to the dugout. But it wasn’t close to getting Schofield.

Johnny Ray followed with a single to right to score Walker, and when Brian Downing walked, Brewer Manager Tom Trebelhorn brought in Paul Mirabella to replace Odell Jones. Davis singled to right to drive in Ray, and Howell walked to load the bases, but George Hendrick, who struck out to start the inning, grounded to third to end it.

The Brewers got another run in the fifth. Molitor and Juan Castillo singled, and Castillo scored as Yount was grounding into a double play. But the Brewers broke open the game in the seventh.

“Finley got them 1-2-3 in the sixth and then, all of sudden, there’s two on and no out in the seventh,” Rojas said. “I brought in Minton, hoping to get a ground ball.”

What he got instead were just balls. Minton not only couldn’t throw strikes, he didn’t have much on the balls. When he hit Deer with the bases loaded, the ball stuck in the crook of the Brewer left fielder’s right elbow. Deer looked down, straightened his arm, let the ball fall to the ground and jogged to first.

“He’s my next-door neighbor (in Mesa, Ariz.),” Minton said. “I’ll never hear the end of this.”

The Brewers’ Don August, a 24-year-old right-hander who lives in Mission Viejo and pitched at Chapman College, arrived in Milwaukee at 2 p.m. Thursday. He made his major league debut about seven hours later and had his first win an hour after that.

Angel Notes

Manager Cookie Rojas has heard and read speculation that he may soon be out of a job, but he says he ignores it. “When I came into this job, I knew that (being fired) would happen,” he said. “It’s just a matter of whether it’s tomorrow or 10 years from now. But I can’t worry about that because I have no control over it, so I just block it out.” Rojas also said that this season hasn’t been a fair test of his managerial abilities. “When you have this many injuries, when you have hitters who are having off years, when you have pitchers who are supposed to be consistent winners having off years, what can you do? Remember, when (Gene Mauch retired) it happened, boom . You’d like to have the chance to mold the team to the way you do things, the way you think. You have to be patient.” The question, of course, is how much patience owner Gene Autry and General Manager Mike Port will exhibit.

The Angels’ roster, which already bears a striking resemblance to the one triple-A Edmonton started the season with, added another Trapper Thursday. Infielder Gus Polidor, who has been suffering from a slight muscle strain in his rib cage, was optioned to Edmonton and the contract of third baseman/outfielder Joe Redfield was purchased from the Trappers. Polidor had 4 hits in 20 at-bats and had played in 23 games. “I needed to get someone I can use,” Rojas said. “If (utility infielder Junior) Noboa gets hurt, I’m in trouble and the disabled list is already loaded.” Polidor, however, said last weekend that he felt better and the injury only bothered him when he swung a bat. Redfield, who hit .321 with 30 homers and 108 RBIs last season at double-A Midland, Tex., was hitting .281 with no home runs and 15 RBIs at Edmonton. . . . Donnie Moore, on the disabled list with a tender right knee, pitched two innings Wednesday for Palm Springs. “He pitched very well,” Rojas said. “He had good velocity and threw only 14 pitches in two innings, but Roger (Williams, team physical therapist) said he had some soreness this time.”