Davis Lays Down Glove, Uses Bat to Beat Twins

Is baseball a great game or what? Only here can a person drop two fly balls in the outfield one night, scare the wits out of his teammates, drive his manager to chain-smoking, joke about some kid in the upper deck tearing up his baseball card . . . and then come back 24 hours later to win a game with a 10th-inning home run.

As Chili Davis knows, and appreciates, baseball is the most forgiving of sports.

One night after committing his 11th and 12th errors of the season, and nearly committing Angel Manager Cookie Rojas to the room with the soft walls, Davis laid down his glove, picked up a bat and homered off Minnesota Twins reliever Mark Portugal to give the Angels a 5-4, 10-inning victory Tuesday night at the Metrodome, extending the club’s winning streak to six games.

“Chili redeemed himself tonight,” Rojas said. “That’s the best thing about this game. There’s always one game after another.”

And there’s always another at-bat after every ball you bobble.

“After last night, I came to the park today and told myself, ‘Who are you . . . kidding? You’re not going to win any Gold Gloves anyway,’ ” Davis said. “If you’re not doing one thing, you’ve got to do the other. If you’re not fielding, you’ve got to hit.”

Davis got that chance after the Angels blew a 4-0, seventh-inning lead to find themselves in extra innings. With two outs in the 10th, Portugal threw a 2-2 changeup and Davis golfed it over the Metrodome’s right-field Hefty bag for his ninth home run and sixth game-winning hit of 1988.

Davis now tops the Angels in game-winning hits and shares the club’s home run leadership with Brian Downing.

He also made a winner of Greg Minton (2-1), his long-time teammate with the San Francisco Giants. Minton pitched 2 innings of one-hit ball to win a decision for the second time in four days, with Davis driving in two runs in that first victory.

“The thing I like about Chili is that he never gets mentally down,” Minton said. “A lot of guys would, if they’d made that many errors, but Chili knows he’s giving 100%. He’s just playing a little Dr. Strangeglove right now.

“But it never affects him too much. As long as he keeps swinging the bat, we’ll all be happy.”

Happiness has been in short supply in the Angel clubhouse this season, which made Tuesday’s home run doubly pleasing for Davis.

“What’s most gratifying is that it helped us win our sixth game in a row,” Davis said. “We’re playing very well on this road trip. We’re getting some breaks--and I consider this home run a break.

“We’ve dug ourselves a deep hole, but we’re working our way up to respectability. Hopefully, we can work back up to where Mr. Autry says we’re not a ‘lousy’ team anymore.”

Davis was referring to Angel owner Gene Autry’s published remark earlier this month in which he described the Angels as “a damn lousy ballclub.”

“He hurt my feelings when I read that,” Davis said with a grin. “We’re trying, Gene. We’re trying.”

Still, the victories don’t come easily. After six innings Tuesday, the Angels led, 4-0, thanks to a two-run home run by Devon White--his first home run and RBI since April 30--along with a run-scoring double by Johnny Ray and an RBI single by Downing.

But by the end of the seventh inning, the game was tied, 4-4.

Angel starter Kirk McCaskill lost his bid for a second straight shutout when, with one out in the seventh, he yielded a single to Kent Hrbek, a walk to Gary Gaetti and another single to Randy Bush. One out later, he surrendered a two-run single to Tim Laudner and he was out of the game.

Soon, he would lose his potential fourth win of the season, too.

Minton replaced McCaskill and walked the first batter he faced, Steve Lombardozzi, Minnesota’s .219-hitting second baseman. Dan Gladden followed with a bloop single to center field, scoring Laudner, and the Twins had rallied to tie.

It stayed that way through nine innings, with Minton retiring the last seven hitters he faced. Portugal, too, shut the Angels down through the ninth, so Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly sent him out to work the 10th inning as well.

Portugal got Wally Joyner on a quick ground-out, but walked Downing. Then, he got a break from second base umpire Mark Johnson, who called Downing out trying to steal second when television replays indicated Downing’s head-first slide had beaten the tag of Twin shortstop Greg Gagne.

Downing protested but to no avail. Two outs, no runners on base. Davis due up next.

That, of course, meant it would be Chili against Portugal. Not quite an international incident, or even a World Cup semifinal, but it was enough to determine the outcome of this baseball game.

Davis got his second chance with a hanging changeup. “He got it in a bad spot,” Davis said. “I didn’t really crush it, but it was enough to get out . . .

“I don’t think that was a pitch he wanted to throw. Oh well. Thank you very much, see you another time.”

And, as Davis can tell Portugal, there’s always another time.

Angel Notes

Chili Davis has played outfield in the major leagues for seven seasons, Greg Minton has personally witnessed at least parts of all of them, and neither can believe the sudden deluge of errors and botched balls. “To me, being this bad defensively is as surprising as it is to anybody else,” Davis said. “I’ve never been this terrible out there before. But I can truly say that all 12 errors have been hustling errors. An error’s an error, but on all of them, I’ve been charging the ball. I’m not trying to make errors.” And from Minton: “I was with Chili in San Francisco for six years and in that time, I maybe saw he make as many errors as he has this year. Mike Port and Gene Mauch asked me about Chili before we signed him and I told them, ‘He’ll drive in a lot of runs and he won’t hurt you defensively. He won’t make any great plays out there, but he won’t hurt you.’ So much for my scouting report.” . . . And what about that fan Davis said was tearing up his baseball card after Monday’s two-error performance? How did he take Tuesday’s game-winning home run? “He didn’t even come tonight,” Davis quipped. “He stayed home.”