Witt Gets Little Backup as Angels Lose to Athletics

Back spasms were the least of Mike Witt’s troubles Tuesday night. Defensive spasms, that’s what really hurt.

Witt, the Angel pitcher who wrenched his back a week ago trying to pull up his socks, had his return to the rotation sabotaged by a defense that couldn’t pick up a baseball. Witt’s back held up fine during the seven innings he pitched. But Angel gloves let him down in the fourth inning as three errors and four unearned runs helped turn his comeback into a 6-2 loss to the Oakland Athletics in Anaheim Stadium.

While a crowd of 35,838 looked on, Angel second baseman Johnny Ray committed two errors and center fielder Devon White added another to lowlight an inning that erased all the progress the Angels had forged in Monday’s 2-1 victory over the Athletics.

Today, the Angels are again three games below .500 and again 12 games behind first-place Oakland, missing a chance to tie the Kansas City Royals for third place in the American League West standings.

Witt (7-10), pitching for the first time since July 15, took a perfect game into the fourth inning. Then, he opened the fourth by striking out Luis Polonia.

That’s where imperfection took hold--and didn’t let go until the entire Oakland lineup got a turn to bat.

Angel catcher Darrell Miller failed to scoop Witt’s third strike to Polonia out of the dirt, and by the time Miller beat the ball into submission, Polonia was standing on first base. That gave the A’s a chance to play hit-and-run--and hit-and-run they did, with Carney Lansford singling behind Polonia and Polonia sprinting to third.

Witt came back to strike out Jose Canseco, with Miller catching every pitch. Witt also retired Mark McGwire on a high fly ball to right field, but the out was long enough to enable Polonia to tag and score from third.

So Oakland led, 1-0, but the damage appeared minimal. Especially when the inning appeared to be over on Ron Hassey’s routine grounder to Ray.

But nothing was routine for the Angel defense in this inning and Ray’s glove clutched only air. Error No. 1, runners on first and second, two outs.

Dave Henderson, Angel villain of playoffs past, batted next and lined a single to right-center. Lansford scored, Hassey hustled toward third and Angel center fielder White skipped a throw into third base.

And the ball kept skipping, beyond the reach of Angel third baseman Jack Howell. Error No. 2. Hassey rounded third and Witt, backing up the play, fired home a high relay to Miller. Hassey scored and Henderson pulled into third.

Stan Javier followed with a ground ball to Howell, who one-hopped a throw to first base. Javier beat the bouncing ball for a single, and Henderson gave Oakland a 4-0 lead.

A double by Tony Phillips made it 5-0, but before the play was over, Ray had his second error of the inning, bobbling the outfield relay and allowing Phillips to advance to third. Witt, however, finally stranded Phillips when Walt Weiss hit a grounder that Ray finally fielded cleanly.

Five Oakland runs. Three Angel errors. Four unearned runs.

It was, as Angel Manager Cookie Rojas might say, one hell of an inning.

And its ugly glare overwhelmed the remainder of Witt’s stint--three decent innings, marred only by Lansford’s solo home run in the seventh inning.

Witt also loaded the bases in the sixth on a single by Henderson and two walks, but he got out of the predicament by retiring Polonia on a grounder to first. After sitting out 10 days, Witt lasted 7 innings, gave up 6 hits and 2 walks. He also gave up only 2 earned runs.

But about those other 4 runs. . .

“One bad inning, that blew the game,” Rojas said. “Witt pitched with good control and good command. We just gave them too many outs in that one inning.”

Rojas went as far as to second-guess Ray on his first error, coming on Hassey’s grounder. Hassey, Oakland’s backup catcher, is no sprinter and was still chugging down the first-base line with the ball resting between Ray’s legs. Ray never made a second grab at the ball, and Hassey was safe without a throw.

“Maybe he should’ve thrown to first, anyway,” Rojas said.

The missed third strike was also a crippler, officially charged to Witt as a wild pitch. More than turning an out into an Oakland baserunner, it also set the tone for the mess that was about to become the fourth inning.

Miller maintained that he played the ball right.

“I try to block everything,” he said. “My eyes were open and my head was down. I played it perfectly . . . and it bounced away from me.”

Witt didn’t meet with reporters afterward, but Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann attempted to shrug off the team’s defensive collapse.

“Errors happen in baseball,” Lachemann said. “Sometimes a pitcher hangs a pitch, and that’s a mistake, too.”

The Angels never recovered from these mistakes. Down, 5-0, they managed to score two runs against Oakland starter and winner Storm Davis (9-4) and relievers Rick Honeycutt and Gene Nelson.

In the fourth inning, Chili Davis walked and Thad Bosley doubled him home. In the seventh inning, Miller hit a single off Davis, White hit a double off Honeycutt and Ray brought home the run with a grounder to shortstop.

The Angels totaled eight hits, including Brian Downing’s ground-rule double in the sixth. With the hit, Downing became the Angels’ all-time leader in total bases with 2,114.

They also totaled four errors, with Dick Schofield kicking another ball in the fifth inning. And those were easily the most significant numbers on this evening.

Angel Notes

Dan Petry threw for 15 minutes on the sidelines before Tuesday’s game, worked up a sweat and didn’t even re-aggravate the sprained ligaments in his right ankle. “Very encouraging,” Angel Manager Cookie Rojas said. “He threw the ball good and only felt (a twinge) in his ankle a couple of times.” Said Petry: “I didn’t really try to test it. I didn’t throw as hard as I can. I wanted to take it till just before it started hurting.” Rojas said Petry will accompany the Angels on their upcoming seven-game trip to Chicago and Seattle, but there are still no plans of re-activating him soon. “I can’t tell you when I might be ready,” Petry said. “I thought I was close a week ago. There’s no way to tell. It could be 10 days, 2 weeks, 11 days. Two days after I hurt it, I was running on it and it didn’t seem that serious. That was five weeks ago.” Petry injured the ankle June 20 in Minnesota and has been on the disabled list since July 1, although he says: “I think I could’ve hit on it three weeks ago. I know I can run on it now. It’s just the particular motion it takes to pitch that’s the problem.”