Angels Are Given 6 Runs in a 7-5 Victory

Angel Manager Cookie Rojas was sitting in the dugout Saturday afternoon when he was asked--for the umpteenth time in the last few weeks--the reasons behind his team’s turnaround. He patiently enumerated the factors in the surge that had lifted the Angels to 32 victories in their previous 45 games, making sure to mention starting and relief pitching, hitting and, as always, his personal favorite:

“Devon White’s return to center field has solidified our outfield play.”

One batter into Saturday night’s game, that theory was blown out of the water, White having made two errors on one play. Two batters into the game, right fielder Chili Davis was the not-so-proud possessor of the Angel record for most errors by an outfielder in a season when he committed his 15th.

By the fourth inning, the Angels had made four errors and were rekindling nightmarish memories of a couple of months ago when Angel gloves so often went clank in the night.

But things keep falling into place for the Angels these days, and before long, this faux pas fever had spread to the left side of the White Sox infield. The Angels scored six unearned runs in the fourth inning and then managed to hold on for a 7-5 victory before a crowd of 47,967 at Anaheim Stadium. Make it 33 of 46 and still rollin’.

“Earlier in the year, that start would have been a lot more devastating,” Rojas said, “but that was when we were scoring 2.3 runs a game. Now, we know we’re going to come back and score more runs.”

Chicago’s Dave Gallagher started the ball rolling in the first inning with a single to center field and kept going to second when White bobbled the ball. White’s throw to second base hit the sliding runner, and Gallagher kicked the ball into the left-field corner. Pele couldn’t have made a more accurate shot, and Gallagher was able to get up and race home unchallenged.

That brought up Steve Lyons, who hooked a line drive into the right-field corner. The ball caromed off the wall. The ball caromed off Davis’ glove. Ken Hunt, who had 14 errors in 1961, was no longer an Angel record-holder. And Lyons was on third base.

“I won’t talk about anything negative,” said Davis, who was wont to make light of his earlier errors. “Things are going so well for us right now that I don’t care if I make a million more if we keep winning.”

Later, the Angel infield got into the act. Johnny Ray booted Dan Pasqua’s fourth-inning grounder, and the White Sox loaded the bases on two walks with one out.

But a former Angel minor leaguer made a baserunning blunder to help his former organization. Sap Randall, who was on first, tried to run past Ozzie Guillen’s ground ball before it went into right field, but the ball hit Randall in the ankle. Fred Manrique flied to center to end the inning.

“Defensive lapses are part of the game,” Ray said. “You can’t dwell on human errors. They’re going to happen. You just have to try to overcome them like we did tonight.”

The Angels certainly made the most of their gift opportunities in the bottom of the fourth, scoring six runs on just three hits.

Davis had a one-out single to center. With two out, Jack Howell walked. Bob Boone then hit a hard grounder off shortstop Guillen’s glove to load the bases, and Dick Schofield bounced one to third that Lyons fumbled as Davis scored.

White, who had three hits, redeemed his first-inning foul-ups with a two-run single to center. And Ray did likewise, slamming a three-run home run to right field.

Chicago starter Melido Perez left the game at this point because of a “stiff right shoulder,” but then having to get five outs in an inning is enough to make any pitcher sore.

Angel starter Terry Clark, meanwhile, tied Bo Belinsky’s Angel record of five consecutive wins at the beginning of a career. It wasn’t exactly an artful outing, but then this wasn’t a very pretty game.

Clark staggered through six innings, giving up at least one hit in each.

“We had a long night last night and I was struggling, and they (the fielders) were struggling,” Clark said. “Luckily, I happened to make some good pitches when I had to, and they made some good plays when they had to.

“I was pretty shaky all night. Every time I looked around, there was a guy on second or third with one out. I just couldn’t find a rhythm.”

Clark, who had allowed just seven extra-base hits in his 34 major league innings before Saturday night, yielded consecutive solo homers to Harold Baines and Pasqua in the fifth as the White Sox cut the Angels’ lead to 7-4.

Left-hander Sherman Corbett, making his third appearance in two days, came in to pitch the seventh and faced four batters.

Lyons singled, Baines walked, and then Pasqua and Daryl Boston both hit deep fly balls. Pasqua’s sent Lyons to third, and Boston’s moved Lyons home . . . and the White Sox within two runs.

But reliever Greg Minton came in to close the door, and the Angels had another win, proving that when you’re hot, sometimes bad is good enough.

Angel Notes

The Angels and the White Sox battled for more than seven hours Friday night--and part of Saturday morning--and ended up splitting the first double-double (double extra-inning doubleheader) in Angel history, a span of 4,418 games. Jack Howell’s run-scoring single in the 10th inning of the opener lifted the Angels to a 6-5 victory, but their 10th-inning rally fell short in the 5-4 loss that followed.

The Angels took a 3-0 lead after two innings of the nightcap. Chili Davis had a run-scoring double in the first inning, and the Angels collected four singles and two runs in the second. Angel starter Willie Fraser held Chicago hitless for three innings, but two singles, a walk and Ozzie Guillen’s two-run triple tied the game in the fourth. Daryl Boston hit a solo homer off Fraser in the sixth, but the Angels again tied the game, 4-4, on George Hendrick’s pinch single in the seventh.

Dave Gallagher and Steve Lyons hit consecutive two-out doubles off reliever Greg Minton to give the White Sox the margin of victory in the 10th. “We just keep coming back,” Angel Manager Cookie Rojas said Saturday, “even when we don’t win. We’re in one of those grooves where you just know you’re going to get hits. Everybody seems to be doing something to help and, above all, they believe they can do it every night.”

A reporter stopped George Hendrick as he entered the clubhouse Saturday and pointed out that the shirt he was wearing had a “Los Angeles Times” banner in the design. “I never noticed that,” said Hendrick, who usually doesn’t speak with the media. “I just liked the way it went with these pants. Now you show me that. I worked 18 years to develop this rep. This kind of thing could wipe it all out. I’m going to have to fine myself for this.” Hendrick is presiding judge of the Angels’ kangaroo court. . . . Rojas, who used pinch-hitters for both Gus Polidor and Dick Schofield in the second game Friday night, said he would have used Howell at shortstop and Wally Joyner at third base if the Angels had tied the game in the 10th. “He (Joyner) can pick it at first, so he can pick it at third,” Rojas said.

STILL UNBEATEN Terry Clark became the first Angel rookie in 26 years to win his first five decisions, matching Bo Belinsky’s 5-0 start in 1962.

Date Score Record July 7 Angels 7, Indians 1 1-0 July 17 Angels 4, Tigers 0 2-0 July 22 Angels 7, Indians 4 3-0 Aug. 1 Angels 8, Mariners 4 4-0 Aug. 6 Angels 7, White Sox 5 5-0