Balboni’s Homer in 9th Stops Angels’ Streak

Angels’ road winning streak, a club-record 11, continued for 8 1/2 more innings Wednesday afternoon, weathering everything the Kingdome and Cookie Rojas could throw at it.

It survived Rojas’ about-face decision to start pitcher Kirk McCaskill on three days’ rest--and the subsequent seven Seattle runs McCaskill allowed in the first two innings.

It survived another Rojas-instructed intentional walk--and the immediate two-run single by Steve Balboni that followed.

It survived Seattle’s hard-throwing left-handed starter, Mark Langston, who struck out seven in the first four innings.

It survived Rojas’ decision to bench Johnny Ray and keep Jack Howell in the lineup against Langston, who had struck out Howell seven times in their last seven encounters--a streak that reached eight before Howell broke it with, of course, a home run to straightaway center field.

But it could not survive a hanging forkball by Bryan Harvey in the bottom of the ninth.

Harvey’s home-run pitch to Balboni with one out gave the Mariners an 8-7 victory before 9,574 fans at the Kingdome, handing the Angels their first loss in eight games and their first road defeat since July 5.

It was, though, as Rojas would say, one hell of a run, 11 straight victories in such varied ports of call as Toronto, Cleveland, Chicago and Seattle. It didn’t often make sense--Angel opponents averaged nearly 5 runs in those 11 games--but the streak didn’t die easily, as the Angels erased a 7-2 deficit Wednesday only to leave the bases loaded in both the eighth and ninth innings, setting the stage for Balboni.

“We came back again today, make one mistake . . . and we have to pay for it,” said Harvey (4-4) the Angels’ top relief pitcher.

Actually, the Angels made a good many mistakes but were able to camouflage the early ones under another heavy round of home runs. In six innings, they peppered the outfield seats with three two-run homers--by Chili Davis in the first inning, then by Howell in the fourth and by Howell again in the sixth.

Along with Wally Joyner’s pinch-sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, those home runs allowed the Angels to wipe up the mess caused by rushing McCaskill back to the mound, turning a 7-2 Seattle runaway into a 7-7 tie.

And the Angels had two glorious opportunities to snap that tie in the eighth and ninth innings.

In the eighth, they loaded the bases on three singles against Mike Schooler, Mariner rookie reliever, and left them loaded when Howell struck out and Ray, called upon to pinch-hit for Gus Polidor, lined to left field.

In the ninth, they loaded the bases again against Schooler--this time with no outs--before Davis hit into a force play at home and Tony Armas grounded into a double play.

“Well, we made a game of it, any way,” Joyner said. “We had our chances, they had their chances . . . “

Joyner let the sentence trail off, similar to the course of the Angel offense this afternoon. But he made his point. The Angels had little business toying with victory in a game they all but threw away in the first two innings.

Call it Cookie’s folly, Rojas’ plan to pitch McCaskill on three days’ rest after swearing, just a week earlier, that McCaskill’s surgically repaired right arm would never see the light of such a start. Rojas, looking ahead to the Angels’ Aug. 11-14 series against first-place Oakland, decided to move up McCaskill so he would be on schedule to pitch against the Athletics.

Rojas’ rationale: McCaskill had worked “just two innings” in his previous start Saturday afternoon in Chicago. In that start, in actuality, McCaskill threw 64 pitches and faced 17 batters, leaving with no outs and two runners on base in the third inning.

This time, McCaskill lasted just one-plus inning, allowing four runs in the first inning on RBI singles by Alvin Davis and Jay Buhner and a two-run double by Balboni. McCaskill opened the second inning by facing three batters and letting each reach base--soon to score after Stewart Cliburn’s intentional walk to Davis and Balboni’s ensuing single.

“I was out of sync, out of whack,” McCaskill said. “It was embarrassing.”

But McCaskill skirted defeat when another Rojas maneuver--starting Howell at third base with Langston pitching--paid off with two surprising home runs.

The book on Howell is that he doesn’t hit left-handers--and Langston is perhaps the most vexing left-handed pitcher Howell has faced. On April 24 in Anaheim, Langston struck out Howell four times, extending his personal strikeout streak against the Angel hitter to seven straight.

Langston made it eight in a row with a second-inning strikeout Wednesday, but in the fourth inning, Howell cleared the center-field fence with a two-run home run that pulled the Angels within 7-4. Then in the sixth inning against Seattle reliever Mike Jackson, Howell forged a 7-7 tie with another two-run home run, this one to right field.

“You never know about this game,” Rojas said, with a smile. “I just felt Howell (who had two singles twice Tuesday night) was getting in a groove.”

During this 6-1 trip through Chicago and Seattle, Rojas had played most of his hunches to near-perfection. And on the final day of the trip, he was all even again at 7-7 entering the bottom of the ninth.

Then, Rojas makes the obvious move, the easy move, the automatic move--sending Harvey, the rookie bullpen stopper, in to pitch the late innings of a close game.

And the sure thing results in a game-winning home run by Balboni.

Baseball is a funny game.

Angel Notes

In anticipation of Jack Howell’s imminent confrontation with Mark Langston, Wally Joyner and Angel bullpen catcher Rick Ragazzo held a secret pregame ceremony to change Howell’s luck against the Seattle left-hander. “Rick picked out a new bat for me, and Wally got ahold of it and did a few funny tricks with it,” Howell said. “It was just their way of telling me not to take life so rough.” According to Ragazzo, this ritual entailed placing a sanitary stocking over the bat and then burning it. Whatever, it paid off in two home runs. “I’ll be using it again (Friday),” Howell said with a grin. . . . Gus Polidor, who usually starts in place of Howell against particularly difficult left-handed pitchers, was in Wednesday’s starting lineup--but he was filling in for Johnny Ray and not Howell. “I started against Langston three consecutive times,” Howell said. “If (Manager Cookie Rojas) didn’t take me out last time, I didn’t think he would this time. He also started George (Hendrick) at first base, and he doesn’t seem to like holding both Wally and me out of the same game. That’s been his system, anyway. So I figured I’d be playing.”