Boone Leads Angels Past Royals

Bob Boone may want to frame a picture of this town’s baseball stadium and hang it on his wall.

California’s veteran catcher went 3 for 4 Monday night to help the Angels beat Kansas City, 4-2. The three hits boosted his season average to .302, which pales in comparison to the .833 he’s hitting at Royals Stadium.

“Without question, this is one of the prettiest stadiums in all of baseball,” said Boone, who is 10 for 12 in Kansas City this season. “But pretty doesn’t help you hit. This stadium has been very good to me.”

The Angels trailed 3-2 going into the eighth but mounted a two-run, two-out rally with the help of Bo Jackson’s error in right field.

After Charlie Leibrandt, 10-12, walked Brian Downing with two out, Wally Joyner doubled home the tying run, and then scored the go-ahead run when Jackson, starting in right field for the third time this year, dropped Chili Davis’ fly ball near the warning track.

“It wasn’t a hard catch,” Jackson said as he disappeared into the showers. “But when you haven’t played right field all year and they stick you out there, it’s not like you’re in your own back yard.”

An RBI single by Johnny Ray in the ninth gave California an insurance run.

The winner was Willie Fraser (11-10). Reliever Brian Harvey got the final two outs for his 15th save.

Kevin Seitzer walked with one out in the Royals’ first, stole second and went to third on Boone’s throwing error. Pat Tabler doubled him home for a 1-0 lead.

The Royals had one run to show for a single, double and triple in the second inning. Jackson doubled leading off but was cut down by Boone trying to steal third.

One out later, Jamie Quirk singled into center and then came home on Bill Pecota’s third triple of the year. But Pecota stayed at third as Willie Wilson popped out to end the inning.

In the Angel fourth, Downing grounded a single up the middle and one out later went to second on an infield out. With two out, George Hendrick singled, allowing Downing to score.

Fraser ran his career record at the park to 3-0, with 2 complete games coming before this 8 inning effort.

“It’s a big park, and I don’t think the ball carries too well,” he said. “With all the homers I’ve been giving up, I don’t have to worry about that here. I can keep going right at the hitters.

“The first two innings, I didn’t have the forkball. It was just fastball-slider and they were able to look for one or the other.”

He also was pleased about raising his record above .500, saying, “That’s great. Everything about tonight was good. A good night.”

Boone said of Fraser: “Early, he was all over the place. Then he settled down. He was never perfect, but he had good stuff and kept the ball around the plate.”

“We’ve played good ball here,” California Manager Cookie Rojas said. “We’ve gotten good pitching and timely hitting.”

Dante Bichette and Domingo Ramos made their debuts for the Angels after being called up from Edmonton.

“I’m real excited to be here,” said Bichette, who lined out hard to right field in his first major league at-bat, in the eighth inning. “I’m glad I was at least able to make good contact, after he (Leibrandt) got those two strikes on me pretty fast.”

Ramos started at third base and went 1 for 5. He is a major league veteran of four seasons with Cleveland, where he played earlier this season, hitting .261.

After the game, the Angels announced that five more players from Edmonton are being recalled in time for tonight’s game: infielder Gus Polidor and pitchers Rich Monteleone, Urbano Lugo, Mike Cook, and Vance Lovelace.