Armas Hits Homer Off Clemens as Angels Win

Feeling marooned in Manager Cookie Rojas’ left-field platoon, Tony Armas found what he was looking for Wednesday night--namely, his name on an Angel lineup card with a right-handed pitcher starting for the Boston Red Sox.

There was one catch, however.

The pitcher was Roger Clemens.

“It’s like (Rojas) was thinking, ‘You want to play tonight, go face that guy,” Armas said with a laugh.

If Rojas intended to make a point with his unhappy outfielder, Armas quickly supplied the counterpoint. In his first at-bat against Clemens, Armas drove a two-run home run into the screen above the Green Monster in left field, sending the Angels on their way to a 4-3 victory before 32,522 fans at Fenway Park.

With the victory, the Angels:

--Averted a sweep in Boston while closing out their exhausting August trip through Oakland, New York, Baltimore and Boston with a record of 5-8.

--Dealt Clemens (15-9) his fourth consecutive defeat, a career first.

--Finally made a 10-game winner of Mike Witt (10-12), who called his 8-plus-inning performance “as good as I’ve thrown all year.”

Armas also benefited by hitting his fourth home run of the trip, bringing his season total to 11.

Three of those home runs came against right-handed pitchers. Two of those pitchers were named Dave Stewart and Roger Clemens.

Armas, who usually starts only against left-handed pitching, splitting time with Thad Bosley, began complaining about his part-time deployment in Oakland and continued the chorus in Boston. He raised the possibility of leaving the Angels after the season, telling reporters, “I don’t think I want to come back. For what--to play once a week? I think I can still play this game.”

Several Boston newspapers printed these sentiments in Tuesday’s editions, after Armas homered against Red Sox left-hander Bruce Hurst Monday night.

Tuesday night, Armas was in the starting lineup against Mike Boddicker, a right-hander.

Wednesday night, Armas started again against a right-hander.

Could Rojas, perchance, have been swayed by something he read?

“I don’t go with what’s in the newspapers. I go with what I think,” Rojas said.

And Rojas said he thinks Armas has been receiving a fair opportunity. Including Wednesday, Armas has appeared in 101 games--one fewer than Brian Downing and 10 more than Bob Boone.

“I think he’s started a lot of games,” Rojas said tersely. “I think that’s good.”

Armas, not often given to controversy, tried to quash the issue after collecting his fourth game-winning hit of the season.

“I’m not going to talk about that anymore,” he said with a smile. “From now on, I’m keeping my mouth shut.

“I don’t want to say anything bad about him. If he’s going to play me, fine. If not, I’ll just wait for my chance.”

Armas’ two-run home run gave the Angels a 2-0 lead against Clemens in the second inning. Wally Joyner made it 3-0 with a run-scoring single in the third inning.

And that’s how Clemens left--trailing, 3-0, after throwing 97 pitches and allowing 5 hits in 6 innings.

Bothered by a strained muscle in his lower left rib cage, Clemens was making his first start in 10 days. Both Armas and Witt could tell something was amiss with the American League’s two-time Cy Young Award winner.

“The way I’ve seen him throw before, that was not the same stuff,” Armas said. “The velocity he used to have before on his sharp breaking ball, he didn’t have tonight.”

Nor was his fastball up to snuff with the Clemens heater of past seasons.

Said Witt: “It looked like he was favoring (the rib cage). You could tell on his follow-through.

“I’m sure he felt the same way as I did, after I hurt my back. If you can stand up and walk upright, you feel you’re good enough to go out there. And 80% of Roger Clemens is still better than most pitchers.”

But because Tony Armas got 100% of one second-inning fastball, Clemens wasn’t better than Witt Wednesday night.

Angel Notes

Bryan Harvey called his 13th save of the season “my hardest one yet.” Harvey entered the game after Mike Witt opened the ninth inning by yielding consecutive doubles to Mike Greenwell and Ellis Burks. Then, Harvey retired Todd Benzinger on a fly ball and, as he put it, “it got real nervous. It wasn’t at first, but it sure ended up that way.” Harvey surrendered a run-scoring single to Jim Rice and then a high fly to deep left field by Larry Parrish--a ball that wound up in left fielder Tony Armas’ glove. Rich Gedman singled to right, moving the tying run to third base, before Jody Reed ended the game on a grounder to shortstop. It was a rough ride, Harvey agreed, complete with a couple of bouncing forkballs that sent Angel catcher Darrell Miller hopping. “I was reaching back for something extra, but I still couldn’t do anything except throw the ball in the dirt,” Harvey said. “Anytime there’s a guy on third and you have a forkball pitcher, it makes it a lot tougher on the catcher. But Darrell got out in front of ‘em all.” . . . Dan Petry completed what figures to be his last rehabilitative pitching assignment with Class A Palm Springs Tuesday night. In an 8-2 win over Visalia, Petry worked 6 innings, allowing 2 runs and 7 hits. He threw 94 pitches and struck out 5.