Injuries Don’t Hurt Much as Angels Defeat Indians, 8-5

This new Angel way to play baseball--win a game, lose a player--has at least been fortuitously timed. The All-Star break looms one day away, which means the Angel roster just might hold up long enough to get there.

Before the Angels completed their fourth straight victory Saturday, an 8-5 decision over the Cleveland Indians at Municipal Stadium, they were so depleted that they had to use players who weren’t supposed to play.

Angel Manager Cookie Rojas didn’t intend to use Jack Howell, still shaken by his Friday night beaning by Bud Black. But there Howell was at third base, knot above his right ear and all, lending ninth-inning defensive support with an Angel lead in doubt.

And Rojas wasn’t planning to use reliever Donnie Moore, who strained his right hip flexor during Friday night’s donnybrook. But with Stewart Cliburn also injured (strained rib-cage muscle) and Bryan Harvey fading with exhaustion, Moore was out on the mound in the bottom of the ninth, summoned to record the final two outs.

With one out, one run in and two Indians on base, Moore replaced a faltering Harvey, inheriting a 2-and-0 count against Joe Carter.

Moore made three pitches to Carter, fifth in the American League in runs batted in. Each was a strike and Carter was out. Moore threw two more strikes to Mel Hall, Cleveland’s cleanup hitter, who grounded the last one to second base for the game-ending out.

Chalk one up for the walking wounded. Since embarking on this trip through Detroit, Toronto and Cleveland nine games ago, the Angels have won six times. In the process, they’ve also lost six players for varying lengths of time.

On June 30, the Angels left Anaheim with second baseman Mark McLemore, relief pitcher DeWayne Buice and catcher Butch Wynegar already on the disabled list.

Since then:

--Dan Petry tried to warm up in the bullpen on his sprained right ankle, couldn’t and was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

--Chuck Finley tried to warm up in the bullpen with his hyper-extended left thumb, couldn’t and was shelved through the All-Star break.

--Darrell Miller strained ligaments in his right knee with a hard slide at home plate in Toronto and was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

--Dick Schofield also took a tumble at home in Toronto, separated his right shoulder and hasn’t played in three days.

--Howell was beaned Friday night.

--Moore injured his hip during the bench-clearing melee that ensued shortly thereafter. “Guys were wrestling and pushing and somebody stepped on my shoestring,” he said. “My leg was going one way but my foot got pulled another and my leg got extended.”

--Cliburn pulled a rib muscle while warming up in the same game and hasn’t thrown a ball since.

“The disabled list is like the Yellow Pages,” said Rojas, now ticking off the minutes before Monday’s All-Star break.

“Those three days are going to be good for us,” he said. “Maybe those guys who have some injuries can get themselves healed. So far, we’ve done a hell of a job replacing those who are hurt.”

And doing so in creative fashion.

With Schofield out, backup third baseman Gus Polidor has had to start at shortstop. With Howell out, Rojas was left without his regular third baseman, too, so he’s had to use Doug Davis, a catcher, at third the past two days.

Davis was recalled from Edmonton ostensibly to replace Miller.

Last season at double-A Midland, Davis served as an emergency third baseman on two different occasions. That was enough experience to get him into two big league ballgames.

“Cookie asked me (Friday night) if I ever played third before,” Davis said. “I wasn’t going to tell him no.”

So this is how Davis has broken in as an Angel--at a position so strange to him, he didn’t even have the proper equipment. Bringing only his catcher’s glove with him, Davis has been playing with Howell’s--or, at least making the attempt.

The going has been rocky so far. Julio Franco opened the bottom of the first inning with a hard chopper that bounced over Davis’s head. In the fifth inning, Davis dropped a throw from pitcher Mike Witt for an error that led to an unearned run. And in the sixth, Carter, the Indian slugger, laid down a bunt that skipped off the rookie’s bare hand for a scratch single.

For reasons such as these, Howell volunteered to play in the ninth inning.

“Howell came to me and said, ‘I can play defense for you,’ ” Rojas said. “I didn’t really want to use him, but the kid is new at third base, and Howell is our regular third baseman.”

Moore made a similar gesture in the seventh inning, when a struggling Witt allowed four singles and prompted Rojas to make a pitching change.

“I asked him how he felt,” Rojas said, “and he said, ‘I can give you one good inning.’ ”

Rojas took Moore up on the offer with two out in the ninth and Harvey’s fastball wilting in the Cleveland heat. After winning Wednesday’s game in Toronto and saving Friday’s game, Harvey replaced Witt with one out in the seventh. In 2 innings, Harvey faced 10 batters and surrendered 5 hits, including 3 in the ninth.

In came Moore, who inherited runners on first and second. Sore hip or no, Moore threw five pitches--all strikes--and clinched his third save of the season.

Moore shrugged off those pitches as something that simply had to be done.

“Hell, we need help,” he said. “Cliburn couldn’t pitch. He was supposed to come in (Friday night) after I got hurt, but he starts holding his side after only a couple pitches.

“So they sent me in for him and my hip was killing me. . . . But today, I got the leg wrapped and it felt good.”

Good enough to stand on for five pitches, anyway. And now, the All-Star break beckons, just a day away. Get through one more game and the Angels can rest all their strains, sprains and pains for three sorely needed days.

Angel Notes

Kirk McCaskill, former professional hockey player, wasn’t impressed by Friday night’s king-sized pushing match. “I wasn’t a fighter in hockey, but I’ve come off the bench and seen some good ones,” he said. “These, everyone just kind of stands around. I like that better. This one was more like a rugby scrum. I kept expecting someone to break out of the pack with the ball.”

The Angels scored 8 more runs Saturday, bringing their three-game total in Cleveland to 25. Tony Armas drove in 4 runs with a three-run home run off Tom Candiotti and an eighth-inning single off loser Doug Jones (1-2). For Armas, it was his first 4-RBI game since Sept. 7, 1986, when he drove home four runs against Minnesota as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Chili Davis also drove in three runs with two singles and a bases-loaded walk, lifting his RBI total to 53.

Jones, the 30-year-old relief pitcher who recently set a major-league record by saving 15 games in 15 consecutive appearances, lost for the first time since May 1--and didn’t record an out. Thanks to two errors by Cleveland first baseman Willie Upshaw, Jones faced 5 batters and retired one, allowing 3 hits, 1 walk and 3 runs (2 earned). In between losses, Jones was 1-0 with 16 saves and a 0.79 ERA.

On June 15, the Angels were 24-40 and 16 1/2 games out of first place. Since then, they’ve gone 16-6 to climb within 6 games of .500 and 12 1/2 of first-place Oakland. The Angels are 6-3 on this trip, 6-1 in their last 7 games.