Red Sox Walk All Over Angels and Clark, 6-2 : Rookie Pitcher Has Inauspicious Debut at Fenway as Hurst Wins Again

So, Terry Clark, 27-year-old Angel rookie pitcher, what did you think about your first visit to Fenway Park?

“You can’t write what I think,” Clark said after his 6-2 loss Monday night to the Boston Red Sox. And that certainly seemed understandable. Hundreds of pitchers who have gone here before Clark have thought the same thing.

From a pitcher’s point of view, there are many things to hate about this beloved old park. The Green Monster in left field, for one. The wide-open spaces in right-center field, for another. And then there are the weird angles of the outfield fences, which often play Ping-Pong with baseballs driven off them--and wreak havoc on a pitcher’s earned-run average.

Clark, however, said he paid no mind to such infamous locations during his first start at Fenway.

The location of his pitches, though . . . that’s another story.

“That was just a terrible outing,” said Clark, who walked six batters in 6 innings. “I did everything I cannot do as a pitcher--and that’s walk people.”

Two of them in the first inning led to three Boston runs. Clark got one quick out and then got into quick trouble by walking Marty Barrett and Dwight Evans in succession. A single to right field by Mike Greenwell followed.

Instant bases-loaded situation.

Clark responded to such a situation by wild-pitching home a run. Then he gave up a fluke double to Ellis Burks--the baseball striking the side of the third base bag and popping over Angel third baseman Jack Howell’s head.

Two more runs scored and Boston led, 3-0, giving starter Bruce Hurst all the runs he would need to win his sixth consecutive decision.

Hurst (15-4), who is 11-1 at Fenway, limited the Angels to four hits before he left after seven innings with discomfort in his left shoulder. Hurst is a rarity--a left-handed pitcher who can dominate at Fenway--and Angel Manager Cookie Rojas knew Clark wouldn’t have much margin for error.

“You can’t give Hurst too many runs to work with,” Rojas said. “The first inning was the key.”

Clark (5-2) exhausted his mistake quota in that inning, although he held the Red Sox scoreless through the next five innings.

Clark wavered again in the seventh--surrendering three more runs--and, again, a walk was the root of the evil.

With one out and Wade Boggs on second base, Clark walked Evans. Walk No. 6 would lead to Boston run No. 6 as Greenwell hit what can best be described as a bad-hop triple to right. The ball touched down in front of right fielder Chili Davis and then skidded away from him, rolling to the fence and enabling Boggs and Evans to score.

Greenwell later scored on a double by Todd Benzinger, the hit that ended Clark’s Fenway debut.

“Six walks,” said Clark, shaking his head. “I can’t ever remember walking six guys in my life.”

Clark insisted he wasn’t intimidated by Fenway and by that big, tall green wall that has unnerved so many first-time visitors to the mound here.

“The wall? I really didn’t know it was out there until somebody hit a ball off it,” Clark said. “I was too worried about throwing strikes.

“The wall didn’t bother me. To hit one over that wall, it’s going to be a home run in most parks anyway. I still have to throw my game. Tonight, I just didn’t have it.”

If you’re looking for complaints about the lay of Fenway Park, run, don’t walk, to Davis’ locker.

“There are spots in the outfield here where the grass doesn’t grow,” Davis said. “I don’t know about left or center field, but right field is really chopped up. There are a lot of hard spots out there.”

Davis was asked whether he thought Greenwell’s triple had hit one of those hard spots.

“I don’t think--I know it did,” Davis said. “That ball hit something and just took off. If I tried to catch that ball, I would have dislocated my back.

“This place is weird,” he continued. “Some people say they see beauty here. I don’t see much beauty in any stadium. If I want to look for beauty, I’ll look at a . . . flower garden.”

Fenway certainly doesn’t fit that description. For Clark and the Angels, anyway, this park was no bed of roses Monday night.

Angel Notes

Catcher Bob Boone started for the Angels but left the game in the fourth inning after he suffered back spasms from running out a ground ball. Boone was making his second start after he bruised his left thigh in New York last Tuesday. . . . Pitcher Kirk McCaskill, who is on the disabled list because of a nerve irritation in his right arm, underwent a series of tests Monday at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, including X-rays of his neck and arm and a vascular study of his arm. According to Angel team physician Lewis Yocum, preliminary results showed “there was nothing to send up a red flag over.” Yocum said he kept McCaskill on the same medication the pitcher has been taking for the past few days and plans to have a “definitive” prognosis today, after all examination results are in.