Here’s a Switch: Fraser Throws a One-Hitter : Davis’ Seventh-Inning Homer Breaks Up No-Hit Bid, but Angels Win, 2-1

The way Willie Fraser has been pitching this season, you’d figure they would be playing night games at Wrigley Field and the Oilers would trade Wayne Gretzky before this guy threw a no-hitter.

Well, two “miracles” out of three are enough for one week. Fraser had to settle for a one-hitter Wednesday night after holding Seattle hitless for six innings as the Angels beat the Mariners, 2-1, before a crowd of 24,653 at Anaheim Stadium.

First baseman Alvin Davis ended Fraser’s no-hit bid with a leadoff homer to right field in the seventh inning. Still, this was only the 13th one-hitter in Angel history and the first since Kirk McCaskill’s against Texas on June 25, 1986.

Fraser (8-10), who was one of three rookies to complete five games last season and led the majors in innings pitched by a rookie (176) has struggled through most of 1988. He went the distance this time, but it was only the second complete game in his last 33 starts.

Fraser, of course, hasn’t been fretting over complete games recently. He has just been trying to pick up a victory here and there and get his earned-run average below 6. His last win was July 29 in Chicago, and the one before that came more than three weeks earlier.

“I was aware of the no-hitter after five innings,” Fraser said, “but I’m accustomed to giving up homers, so after Davis hit that one out, I just told myself to go back in there and get the next hitter. I knew I still had good stuff.”

Fraser, who has allowed 49 runs in the first 3 innings of his 22 starts, went back to his old grip on his forkball, and the difference was most evident.

“The first three innings, I had a vicious forkball,” he said. “I was putting that forkball in the hitters’ minds, getting ahead in the count and giving my other pitches a chance to work.

“Getting through the first four was a victory in itself. I’ve been getting in trouble in the first, second or third, and then I’m finished by the sixth. This time, I knew I was in a groove and I was pumped up, but I didn’t want to get out of control.”

His teammates didn’t exactly give him much support, and when Rey Quinones sent Tony Armas up against the wall in left field in the seventh inning, Fraser--who came into the game with a team-leading 24 home runs allowed--probably wasn’t the only one holding his breath.

He had flirted with the gopher ball in the first, second and fifth innings, already. Harold Reynolds flied to the warning track in dead center in the first, and Jim Presley sent center fielder Devon White back to the fence on his first two at-bats.

“I think Willie was more concerned with the ‘W’ than the no-hitter,” Rojas said. “We didn’t make it very easy for him, but we got one more run than the other guys, and that’s all it takes in this game.”

The complete text of the Angels’ offense could be found in “The Trials and Tribulations of Left Fielder Mickey Brantley, Vols. I, II and III.

Jack Howell opened the third inning with a walk and took second on Bob Boone’s sacrifice. One out later, Seattle starter Scott Bankhead, who turned in a complete-game five-hitter, walked White. Johnny Ray followed with a single to left. Howell was going to try to score, but it appeared Brantley would get him easily with a decent throw to the plate.

Brantley, however, managed no throw. He double-pumped, trying to get a grip on the ball, and then dropped it at his feet as the Angels took a 1-0 lead.

“I just couldn’t get the ball out of my glove,” Brantley said. “If I get it out, he’s gone.”

With one out in the fifth, Dick Schofield hit a line drive to Brantley’s left. Brantley faded over and said he lost the ball in the lights. It caromed off his glove and rolled to the warning track for an error as Schofield coasted into second.

Then White hit a high fly down the left-field line, and Brantley attempted to make a diving catch. This wasn’t his night, however, and he came up empty as Schofield scored to make it 2-0. This one was ruled a double, however.

“If we do the little things right . . . if the first ball comes out of my glove and I don’t lose the other one in the lights,” Brantley said, “then we win, 1-0.”

But the door was open, and the rest was left up to Fraser, who was up to the task.

“It had to be a hell of a confidence-builder for him,” Rojas said. “He got ahead and challenged the hitters. He seemed to trust his stuff tonight.”

As Fraser is the first to admit, it’s hard to trust your pitches when they keep ending up as souvenirs on someone’s dresser. He hopes this is the beginning of a long, hot streak, but right now he’s just counting his blessings.

“There were times when the Angels could have sent me down (to the minors),” he said. “But (pitching coach Marcel) Lachemann has stuck up for me all the way.

“This win will wipe out some of the frustration . . . for tonight and maybe tomorrow, anyway. But I’ll look in the paper and see that my record is 8-10 and that my earned-run average is still around 6 and I’ll know I’ve got a long way to go.

“But, yeah,” he said, a wide grin splitting his face, “this one will sugar-coat it for a while.”

Angel Notes

Manager Cookie Rojas was sitting in his office Wednesday afternoon, looking at the schedule and probably contemplating taking one of the pain relievers sitting on his desk. “I’ll tell you,” he said, shaking his head, “going into Oakland and New York with just three guys in the bullpen is going to be no fun. No fun.” Rojas, of course, was referring to the fact that right-handed relievers Donnie Moore (broken finger) and Greg Minton (bruised foot) were both ailing. As it turns out, Rojas will have at least four relievers. An hour later, Moore was placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to August 8. DeWayne Buice will be recalled from Edmonton and join the team in Oakland today.

Moore broke the tip of the ring finger of his right hand Sunday while trying to field a ground ball. “The finger specialist I saw today said I could try to throw on Saturday,” Moore said before a meeting with General Manager Mike Port, who informed him he would be put on the DL.

Moore, who has been on the DL five times since the beginning of the 1986 season, was asked if this injury was particularly frustrating since it came at a time when he was just regaining his rhythm. “That’s life,” he said. He wasn’t quite so philosophical after finding out he was being placed on the DL, however. He took a copy of the release issued by the public relations department out of a reporter’s hands, read it, and threw it up in the air.

The release said Moore was going on the disabled list, but it also included: “No further roster adjustments were announced.” Rojas, however, told reporters during batting practice that Buice would “probably be called up.” And a little later, he said “Buice will join us tomorrow in Oakland.”