Angels Give Up Runs, Not Game as Witt Weathers White Sox, 7-2

Streaks collided in the sixth inning of the Angels’ 7-2 victory over the White Sox Wednesday night, with Chicago center fielder Dave Gallagher bidding to extend the majors’ current longest hitting streak and the Angel pitching staff bidding to bump the storied duo of Ryan and Tanana out of the record book.

Heresy, you say? Well, after five shutout innings by Mike Witt, the 1989 Angels had run their string of consecutive scoreless innings to 29--dangerously close to the club record of 32 2/3 innings, set in 1974 by the staff anchored by Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana.

Gallagher’s quest was somewhat more modest. At stake was an 11-game hitting streak, nothing to notify Cooperstown about, but not bad for a team playing its 14th game of the season.

With Ozzie Guillen on second base and an 0-2 count on Gallagher, something had to give. History hung in the air as Witt sent a curveball headed for the dirt.

It never quite got there.

Gallagher dug the ball out and golfed a run-scoring single into center field, at once ending one streak and continuing another: Angel streak hits the wall at 29, Gallagher streak remains intact at 12.

And Ryan and Tanana ward off a rather implausible assault, the baton having been passed from Chuck Finley to Bert Blyleven to Kirk McCaskill to Bryan Harvey to Witt.

Angel Manager Doug Rader reserved his response for another four innings, waiting for relief pitcher Greg Minton to retire Gallagher in the bottom of the ninth for a more significant out--the final one.

“The only streaks you’re really cognizant of are in the W and L columns,” Rader said. “Twenty-nine, or whatever it is, is important, but four is even more so.

Four is where another Angel streak--consecutive victories--currently stands.

Before Gallagher drove home Guillen, the Angels were working on a 5-0 lead. After Guillen scored, and then Gallagher, the advantage shrunk to 5-2, and when the White Sox put two more runners on base in the seventh inning, Rader became keenly cognizant of the only streak that matters.

He moved swiftly, first summoning left-handed reliever Bob McClure to retire the left-handed-hitting Guillen, which McClure did on a ground ball to second base. Then, Rader called for Minton, a right-hander, to finish the inning.

Minton went Rader one further. He finished the game, completing 2 1/3 shutout innings to earn his second save of the season, tying him with Harvey.

“We gave up two runs, but we had the chance to give up five or six,” Rader said. “That’s a tribute to the guys in the bullpen. They did the job we needed them to do.

“The attention the starting pitching is getting is warranted and justified, but this has been a total staff effort.”

Rader had to dip into his relief staff when Witt (2-2), after 3 2/3 hitless innings, began to struggle, yielding eight hits in his next 2 2/3 innings.

“If Mike had continued to breeze along, we wouldn’t have had the need (to use the bullpen),” Rader said. “But I didn’t want to tempt fate.”

Witt claimed to be unaware of the record he and his fellow pitchers were nearing but knew he was following consecutive shutouts by Blyleven and the McCaskill-Harvey tag team.

“I wanted to pitch a shutout,” Witt said. “I wanted to pitch a no-hitter. Sometimes, things don’t work out.”

This time, Witt said he ran into problems when he tried to rationalize the whys and hows of the first few Chicago hits.

“Right now, I’m in some frame of mind where, if a guy hits a good pitch, I don’t give him credit for being a good hitter,” Witt said. “I tell myself, ‘That was a good pitch--and he hit. What do I got to do now?’

“Then I start nibbling and get out of the groove.”

Witt had the luxury of pitching with a lead, courtesy of Devon White’s three-run home run in the fifth inning, which followed run-scoring singles by Chili Davis and Lance Parrish in the fourth inning. The Angels later added unearned runs in the seventh and eighth innings to make a loser of Chicago starter Bill Long (1-1).

The shutout and the record got away, but Witt and Co. hung on and hung in for the victory, the Angels’ third in five games over the White Sox.

And about that drama-laden sixth-inning delivery to Gallagher?

“He hit a good pitch,” Witt said. “An 0-2 curveball and it wasn’t too far off the ground when he hit it.”

But it wasn’t quite good enough--and the ’89 Angels didn’t quite have enough to eclipse the ’74 Angels.

Ryan and Tanana can rest easy for a little while longer.

As well they should.

Angel Notes

The Angels have found a way to keep both second basemen, Johnny Ray and Mark McLemore, on the 24-man roster at the same time, at least temporarily. Manager Doug Rader said Wednesday that the Angels will place shortstop Dick Schofield, who has a strained chest muscle, on the 21-day disabled list and replace him with Ray, eligible to return from the 15-day disabled list. “Schoey’s not making very much progress,” Rader said. “If we put him on the disabled list, we can bring back Johnny, give him some at-bats and evaluate how much he’s capable of playing. Then, we’ll make a decision regarding Mark--what’s best for him and for the team.” Rader said the evaluation will take place in the next few days, with Ray easing his way back into the lineup by pinch-hitting, being the designated hitter and then playing some at second base. “We want to give him a couple of days of legitimate work and see how (the wrist) responds,” Rader said.

Add Ray: If and when Ray is deemed ready to return to the lineup, McLemore figures to return to Edmonton or the bench, .306 batting average notwithstanding. Rader said he has no plans to platoon Ray and McLemore--”That’s not really productive to anybody,”--and still regards Ray as his starting second baseman. “Johnny Ray still has not lost his job,” Rader said. “An injury should not make it possible for someone to lose his job. Even though Mac has done some good things for us, there has to be some deference to what Johnny has done over his career and, especially, last year. Those things haven’t changed since we made our decision in spring training.”

Rader was still miffed over the decision to postpone Tuesday’s game because of the threat of snow, which never materialized. In fact, Tuesday night in Chicago turned out to be a calmer evening than Monday, when the Angels and White Sox were allowed to play in 39-degree temperatures. “I begged those people to wait until 4 before they called it,” Rader said. When the decision was made at noon, Rader had to decide what to do with his starting rotation--and opted to bypass rookie Jim Abbott’s turn.