Angels Squeeze Out Victory Over Brewers : Ray’s Bunt Wins an 11-Inning Marathon After Nearly 4 1/2 Hours, 6-5

The Angels had 12 hits and 3 of their pitchers combined to strike out 15 Milwaukee Brewers Sunday, but it took 4 hours 23 minutes, 11 innings, a 2-base error, a sacrifice bunt and a squeeze play to end the Angels’ 6-game losing streak.

And even then, they had to hold their breath for a few seconds as center fielder Tony Armas retreated to the warning track to catch a drive off the bat of Glenn Braggs that finalized their 6-5 victory over the Brewers in front of 47,303 at County Stadium.

In the top of the 11th, Milwaukee pitcher Chuck Crim fielded Darrell Miller’s slow roller and threw it over the head of first baseman Joey Meyer, and Miller ended up on second. Dick Schofield sacrificed, and, after Brian Downing was hit by a pitch, Johnny Ray put down a perfect squeeze bunt that momentarily halted the Angels’ plunge into the abyss of the American League West.

But starter Kirk McCaskill, for one, doesn’t think one victory means all that much. Especially this one.

“The problem with this team is that we’ve been trying to back into things,” he said. “We’re letting things happen instead of taking charge. It’s going to take a lot more than one game to turn things around.

“We need to play consistent baseball and we need a new attitude. We need a killer instinct and it has to start with the first pitch every day. Even today, there was that feeling that we didn’t take control.”

McCaskill struck out 9, walked 3 and allowed 2 runs in 6 innings Sunday, but he considers himself a prime offender.

“I worked out of some situations, but I shouldn’t have gotten into them,” he said. “I was part of it. I didn’t go out there and nail it down.”

The Angels scored twice in the first inning on an error, two singles and a sacrifice fly. But Brewer third baseman Paul Molitor, who had four hits, an intentional walk and scored three runs, hit McCaskill’s first pitch of the game over the wall in right-center to cut the Angel lead to 2-1.

The Angels responded with three runs in the fourth. Tony Armas beat out a grounder to short and, one out later, Miller hit a home run to left-center. It was Miller’s first homer since last Oct. 2.

When Downing walked, Milwaukee Manager Tom Trebelhorn replaced starter Chris Bosio with Mark Knudson. Ray greeted Knudson with a run-scoring double to left.

The Angels had at least one runner in every inning after that except the ninth--when former Angel Mark Clear struck out the side--but they couldn’t push across a run until the 11th with three hits that wouldn’t have reached shortstop if they were strung end to end.

The Brewers, meanwhile, scored once in the fourth, two in the seventh, one more in the ninth and stranded two runners in four of the last six innings. Milwaukee batters were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position.

Bryan Harvey, who brought an 0.36 earned-run average into the game, had his only shaky outing of the season after replacing McCaskill. In the seventh, he gave up a single to Molitor, a triple to Robin Yount and then unleashed a wild pitch to allow Yount to score.

Harvey hit Rob Deer--who homered in the fourth--to open the eighth and yielded a single to Braggs before striking out the side. Molitor doubled to open the ninth and eventually scored on Yount’s sacrifice.

DeWayne Buice, who got the victory, came on to strike out Deer and Braggs to end the inning. Buice gave up three walks but held the Brewers off in the 10th and 11th.

“Pretty exciting wasn’t it, boys?” was the greeting Angel Manager Cookie Rojas had for a group of reporters who approached his locker after the game.

“McCaskill pitched a hell of a game, but I thought he was losing a little something in the sixth,” Rojas said. “Harvey hasn’t had much work lately and his control was off, but Buice did an outstanding job.”

Rojas fined himself $100 for not taking the advice of coach Bobby Knoop, who suggested that first baseman Wally Joyner should guard the line in the ninth. Rojas decided to have Joyner stay in his normal position, and Molitor promptly lined a double down the line to open the inning and ended up scoring the tying run.

“We should have won it in nine,” Rojas said. “It was my screw-up, totally. McCaskill should have had the win. That’s what hurts the most.”

Rojas said he didn’t mind paying $100 for the victory, though.

“It was . . . worth it,” he said, smiling for one of the few times in recent weeks.

Angel Notes

Before Sunday’s game, Manager Cookie Rojas said he was starting Darrell Miller again at catcher in place of veteran Bob Boone to “add some offensive pop and speed to the lineup.” He got what he was looking for. Miller homered, singled to left, beat out a grounder to short and was hustling down the line when Brewer pitcher Chuck Crimm threw the ball away at first base in the 11th inning. The Brewers stole four bases Sunday, however. “They stole some bags, but they weren’t meaningful steals,” Miller said. On the game-winning squeeze bunt by Johnny Ray, Miller said, “It was immaculate execution by Johnny and a good call by Cookie. I don’t think they were expecting it. And I was so exhausted, I sure wasn’t going to tip it off.”

Reliever Bryan Harvey said he felt good when he came in and didn’t think the fact that he hasn’t pitched much recently was a factor. “I just wasn’t throwing strikes and I’m not sure why because I felt fine,” he said. “But you can’t get behind hitters up here. I had to throw fastballs for strikes, they were sitting on them and they hit them hard.” . . . George Hendrick, judge and treasurer for the Angels’ kangaroo court, was waving the $100 bill that Rojas gave him after the game, offering it as a reward to “whoever gets the game-winning RBI tomorrow.” . . . DeWayne Buice on Glenn Braggs’ game-ending shot to deep right-center: “I didn’t think he hit it hard enough (to go out.) . . . Well, he hit it plenty hard, but he hit it too high.”