Armas Gives Angels Some Offense, Defense in a 4-2 Win

During their last series in Yankee Stadium, the Angels scored 29 runs in three games. Then they went south to Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, and their offense did the same.

The Angels lost two of three to the Orioles, scoring just six runs.

This weekend, the Angels scored 32 runs during a three-game sweep of New York. Monday night, the Orioles came to town, and the Angel offense was again on vacation.

This time, the Angels were able to make the most of six hits and hang on for a 4-2 victory in front of 21,974 at Anaheim Stadium.

The Angels have won five in a row. The Orioles, who have won just 16 games outside of Memorial Stadium this season, failed in their attempt to win back-to-back road games for the third time this year.

Angel starter Mike Witt, who has lost more games to the Orioles than any other team (11), went the distance for the ninth time this year. But it was far from a dominating performance. The Orioles had nine hits, but they launched at least twice that many rockets off Witt, the majority of which somehow ended up in an Angel’s glove.

Witt (11-12) wasn’t complaining. His previous three complete games resulted in losses.

“Nine hits is not a typical good game,” he said. “I was in a lot of tough situations and just happened to make the right pitch at the right time.

“My curve wasn’t there. I threw 75 to 80% fastballs. That’s probably not my game, but I’ll take them when I get them.”

Tony Armas, who started in left and moved over to center when Devon White hurt his ankle breaking up a double play in the third inning, hit his 13th home run of the season--his fourth home run in seven games--in the seventh inning to register his seventh run batted in over the last five games.

It was the eighth home run in August for Armas, but his defensive play in center field might have been a bigger factor.

He made a fine running catch of a line drive off the bat of Joe Orsulak in the sixth inning and snagged a shot by pinch-hitter Jim Traber a step in front of the wall for the game’s final out.

“Armas played some outstanding defense,” Manager Cookie Rojas said. “And offensively, he just keeps doing the job.”

Oriole left-hander Jeff Ballard (7-11) put in a commendable evening’s work, but he got a loss for his efforts.

He yielded just two hits in the first five innings. The Angels, however, scored twice in the third, but it wasn’t easy.

Just ask White.

Dick Schofield led off with a single to center and stole second. With one out, Jack Howell lined a single to right, with Schofield stopping at third. It was Howell’s seventh hit in 11 at-bats and his fourth in a row against a left-handed pitcher.

White walked to load the bases. Johnny Ray followed with a bouncer up the middle that second baseman Billy Ripken fielded near second. Ripken stepped on the bag and wheeled to throw to first just as the speeding White crashed into him. Ripken’s throw hit White in the helmet and caromed on one hop into the stands behind first base.

Schofield and Howell scored on the play, but White had to leave the game with a sprained ankle, not to mention a headache. X-rays--on the ankle--showed no sign of a fracture, however, and White’s availability will be determined on a “day-to-day basis.”

“Devon was hustling in there,” Rojas said. “That was a big play, even though he has a severly sprained ankle.”

Witt, who has pitched into the seventh inning in his last 11 outings, allowed just two hits through the first four innings, but the Orioles began to time his pitches in the fifth.

They scored just one run on three hits in the inning, thanks to R.C. Gonzales, who hit into a a bases-loaded double play with none out, and Brady Anderson, who was out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.

Baltimore batters hit four rockets--one for a single and three for outs, including that nice running catch by Armas in left-center--in the sixth inning. And they had two more hits in the seventh.

But Armas gave the Angels a 3-1 advantage in the seventh with a towering fly ball to left that stayed in the air so long, the suspense actually lasted a few seconds before the ball cleared the fence.

The Orioles got a run back in the eighth. Orsulak led off with a double to left-center, took third on Billy Ripken’s grounder to first and scored on Cal Ripken’s grounder to first.

The Angels scored again in the eighth, however, when Brian Downing’s two-out single to center brought home Thad Bosley from third.

Angel Notes

Right-hander Dan Petry was activated from the disabled list Monday night, and reliever DeWayne Buice’s contract was assigned to triple-A Edmonton. Manager Cookie Rojas said that Buice would “supposedly be back the 5th or 6th of September,” but that’s not the impression Buice got after a postgame meeting with General Manager Mike Port. “I don’t know what their plans are, but I guess I don’t fit into them,” said Buice, who is 2-4 with a 5.88 earned-run average and 3 saves this season. “They outrighted me. They took me off the roster.” Buice, however, could still be called up when the rosters expand Sept. 1. Petry, who has been sidelined since June 26 with an ankle injury, will start tonight. In three rehabilitation outings with class-A Palm Springs, Petry was 1-2, allowing 11 earned runs in 15 innings. He walked 11, struck out 11 and had a 6.60 ERA. . . . Chuck Finley, who was removed from Sunday’s game in the sixth inning with a 9-0 lead, said that there is absolutely nothing wrong with his arm. Rojas said he took Finley out because his velocity dropped off drastically, but Finley said he hadn’t been throwing hard all day. “I didn’t have . . . when I was warming up in the bullpen,” Finley said. “I was all over the place, in the dirt, off the screen. It was a compromise. I couldn’t throw hard and throw a strike, so I was just flipping the ball up there. I was sinking the ball, doing what I thought would keep me in the game. I don’t know where (Rojas) got that my velocity dropped off because it was never there to begin with.” Finley said he was upset when Rojas took him out because he wanted a chance at getting a shutout and also because he felt he was learning how to succeed when he didn’t have his best stuff.