Angel Losing Streak Finally Ends : Team Gets First Win Since Sept. 18 as White Sox Fall, 6-2

And on the 199th day, the Angels won again.

Sept. 18, 1988 may now be retired to the history book. So may the club-record losing streak that stood at 12 after last October’s season finale and was extended to 13 with Tuesday’s season-opening defeat by the Chicago White Sox.

With a long, cold winter sandwiched in between, it had been more than six months since the Angels had won a game that counted.

Brian Downing hit a leadoff home run Wednesday night at Anaheim Stadium, Chili Davis hit a three-run home run, Lance Parrish went four for four and Chuck Finley threw a four-hitter for 6 1/3 innings as the Angels defeated the White Sox, 6-2, before a crowd of 20,969.

The Angels (1-1) are at .500 for the first time since last Sept. 18, when their record rested at 75-75. Twelve losses later, that mark was 75-87 and the countdown to the streak-breaker began.

To reach such a milestone, the Angels used three managers. Cookie Rojas was fired after the first four defeats, and interim manager Moose Stubing went 0-8. Doug Rader was hired to alter the course in early April.

After beginning the 1989 season with a 9-2 drubbing by Chicago, the Angels finally got it right on Day 2. Opening a 3-0 lead after two innings, the Angels kept the White Sox at bay until Davis put them away with his home run in the seventh inning.

Interesting timing, that. Davis had been benched on opening day, giving way to Rader’s hunches and rookie Dante Bichette. Returned to the starting lineup on Wednesday night, Davis walked and scored in his first at-bat, singled in his second and homered in his third, a three-run shot off Chicago’s top relief pitcher, Bobby Thigpen.

Before Davis, though, there had been Downing, who gave the Angels a lead as quickly as possible--sending Chicago starter Eric King’s first pitch into the left-field seats.

For Downing, a weight-lifter’s leadoff man, it was the 18th leadoff home run of his major league career.

It also gave the Angels a lead they would never relinquish, setting up Finley for his first victory since last Sept. 2 and letting relief pitcher Greg Minton re-experience the feeling of saving an Angel win.

“There’s no significance (to the victory) outside of shutting you guys up,” Downing told a reporter. “There was absolutely no carry-over from last year to yesterday. But at least this takes all the negative talk away and we can get on to something more positive.”

The inning after Downing’s homer, the Angels added two runs to increase their lead to 3-0.

Finley, a luckless 9-15 in 1988, is 1-0 after limiting the White Sox to one run before giving way to Minton.

The only run Finley allowed came in the fifth, when Greg Walker doubled off the right-field fence, was singled to third by Carlton Fisk and came home on Dan Pasqua’s sacrifice fly.

That at-bat figures be the last in quite a while for Pasqua, Chicago’s starting left fielder. In the bottom of the sixth inning, while chasing a foul ball off the bat of Jack Howell, Pasqua slammed into the fence along the left-field box seats and broke a bone in his right wrist. Pasqua is scheduled to undergo a bone scan today at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood.

Finley would face five more batters before Rader replaced him with one out and one on in the seventh.

On came Minton, making his fifth appearance in seven days, including both regular season and exhibition games. Minton worked the final 2 2/3 innings for the save, allowing Chicago a final run in the ninth.

Both Finley and Rader credited a new pitch--the forkball--with an assist in Wednesday’s outcome.

“I worked with it all spring and I’m not going to give up on it,” said Finley, who estimated he threw one forkball out of every four pitches. “It’s the pitch that will get me over the hump.”

Rader agreed.

So, too, will the home-run ball. A frequent victim of offensive non-support last season, Finley was encouraged and excited by the two Angel homers struck in this game, especially Davis’, which he kind of called.

“I told Dr. (Lewis) Yocum (the Angels team physician) if they throw Chili a fastball, he’ll jump all over it,” Finley said. “He’ll unleash on it. He’s a big-play hitter.”

And that big play gave the Angels a 6-1 lead.

“We’ve got the kind of offense now that’s going to put some runs on the board,” Finley said.

Put enough of them up there and you’re going to win some games. After nearly 200 days, the Angels finally were able to relive the moment.

Angel Notes

Vance (Lucky) Lovelace, the rookie pitcher who made the Angel roster despite a 9.00 spring earned-run average and a twisted intestine, is feeling no after-effects from the ailment that hospitalized him for one day last week. “All the major tests came back negative or normal,” Angel Manager Doug Rader reported. “If it happens again, he’ll have to get a CAT-scan. The same thing happened to him about a year ago.” A twisted intestine can be a bothersome thing, Rader said. “To call yourself an ambulance at 3:30 in the morning, there’s got to be a lot of pain involved.” . . . Dan Petry, pitching in the bullpen to work his right shoulder into shape, was available for duty Wednesday night. “He’s on the list,” Rader said. “He’s making some progress. He’s coming along good.” . . . With his pinch-hit home run in Tuesday’s season opener, Claudell Washington became the seventh player in club history to homer in his first Angel at-bat. The others: Bob Cerv (1961), Ted Kluszewski (1961), pitcher Don Rose (1972), Frank Robinson (1973), Dave Machemer (1978) and Mark Ryal (1986). Washington’s home run matched his previous career total at Anaheim Stadium.

Chicago’s Carlton Fisk, who also homered Tuesday, has now hit 304 home runs as a catcher (324 overall). That’s within two of Yogi Berra and 23 of Johnny Bench, the all-time leader among catchers with 327. . . . Smalltown Boy: The press-notes bio White Sox starter Eric King lists the pitcher’s residence as Semi-Valley , Calif. . . . The Angels announced they had sold a total 18,001 season tickets for 1989. That’s a slight dropoff from the 18,424 they sold last year. . . . Bert Blyleven makes his Angel debut tonight on his 38th birthday. It will be Blyleven’s 606th career start and if he wins, it will mark his 255th career victory. Ex-Dodger Shawn Hillegas will start for Chicago.