Jim Abbott Gets His First Win : Angels Finally Score for Rookie in 3-2 Victory Over Orioles

Jim Abbott has spent his life bucking the odds, but when you’re a pitcher and your team doesn’t score, the odds against winning are such that even a man blessed with Abbott’s tenacity can’t overcome them.

In his first two outings as a professional, Abbott’s teammates welcomed him to the big leagues by failing to score. The last time a team scored behind him in a game that counted, Abbott was pitching in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Monday night in Anaheim Stadium, Abbott got start No. 3 and the Angels managed to score three runs. And this time, their rookie sensation--with help from relievers Greg Minton and Bryan Harvey--made them stand up as the Angels beat Baltimore, 3-2, in front of 22,213.

The season is less than a month old, but it must have seemed a lot longer to the Japanese television crews that have hung on Abbott’s every pitch. And it certainly felt longer to Abbott.

“We went on that 10-day road trip and I didn’t pitch at all because of (the threat of snow) in Chicago,” Abbott said. “I wasn’t contributing and sometimes you feel like you don’t belong.

“You can critique this outing all you want, say it wasn’t the best of performances, turn yourself upside down, but I feel great.”

Abbott wasn’t the only one. The crowd roared when it was announced he was the winning pitcher after the game. And Manager Doug Rader, the man who said all along this 21-year-old wunderkind was ready for the big leagues, was all smiles.

“Vindication is not the right word for how I feel,” Rader said. “Relief is.”

Abbott had a bit of trouble holding runners on (the Orioles stole three bases in the third inning) and throwing strikes (he walked three in the third), but he allowed just four hits and two runs in six innings en route to his first victory after two losses.

The Angels ended their lackluster offensive support of Abbott in a hurry. They scored one run in the first inning.

Claudell Washington, who is obviously enjoying his new role as leadoff hitter, slapped a single to center. Washington was three for four Sunday in the leadoff spot and had two more hits Monday night. Johnny Ray, back fro the disabled list, followed with a single to left. Then Washington, who said Sunday that there were still “a few bags in these old legs,” was as good as his word and stole third.

Devon White, who leads the team in RBIs with 13, scored Washington with a soft-swing looper to right. Then a hit-and-run play deteriorated when Brian Downing couldn’t get his bat on a low pitch from Dave Schmidt, who went the distance for Baltimore. Ray was out by about 15 feet at third. Downing, and then Wally Joyner, grounded out to end the inning.

“I knew they’d score,” Abbott said. “Those things even out. I was just upset that we got the lead and I gave it up.”

Baltimore tied the score, 1-1, in the third, an inning when only one Oriole got an official at-bat. With one out, Brady Anderson walked, then stole second and third. Abbott, who had walked only five batters in his first 12 2/3 innings, walked both Phil Bradley and former Dodger Mike Devereaux to load the bases.

Cal Ripken drove in Anderson with a sacrifice fly to right, but Bradley was thrown out at the plate when he tried to score on an aborted double steal.

The Orioles took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on a double by Randy Milligan, an Abbott wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Larry Sheets.

The Angels responded with a two-run inning.

Lance Parrish led off the fifth with a towering home run to left, his first as an Angel and his first since he hit one against St. Louis last Sept. 14 while with the Phillies. One out later, Kent Anderson hit a shot that rocketed between the legs of third baseman Craig Worthington and was ruled a double. Washington hit a single to right and Anderson scored on Ray’s groundout.

Abbott had thrown 97 pitches and was willing to admit that his arm was a little tired--”emotionally, I wanted to stay out there, though”--when Rader decided to start the seventh with Minton.

Minton retired the side in order in the seventh and got the first two Orioles he faced in the eighth before Bradley blooped a single to right and pinch hitter Joe Orsulak lined a double that hit the right-field line. Rader had Minton walk Ripken to load the bases before signaling for Harvey.

Harvey took the count to 3-1 before striking out pinch hitter Jim Traber. The ninth was anti-climactic: He retired the side in order.

“The eighth wasn’t a real comfortable time for any of us,” Rader said, “because everyone understood the significance of it. Abbott really did deserve to win.”

Abbott watched the eighth alone in the training room with an ice pack for company. He admitted to a momentary lapse in stoic baseball tradition when Harvey struck out Traber.

“I jumped up and down a little,” he said, smiling. “I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t out there in the dugout. I’ve been taking a lot of flak for acting like a rookie.”

That kind of ribbing will be easier to take. He’s a contributing rookie. And he’s got the ball to prove it.

But Jim Abbott is no ordinary rookie with a 1-2 record. He had to hold the ball up several times so the Japanese TV crew could get just the right angle.

Angel Notes

Johnny Ray, who pinch-hit Sunday after being sidelined 19 days with a sprained left wrist, took extra batting practice Monday and then informed Manager Doug Rader he felt ready to play. Rader decided to start Ray at second base and the veteran responded with a line-drive single to left in the first inning, a line-out to second and a run-scoring groundout in the fifth. . . . More Injury Updates: Dick Schofield took some ground balls Monday afternoon and then left for Springfield, Ill. to visit his father, who is recovering from gall bladder surgery. Rader wasn’t worried about Schofield’s rehabilitation being set back because “he can’t do hardly anything, anyway.” Schofield, who is suffering from a strain or minor tear of a chest muscle, is eligible to return from the 21-day disabled list May 3. “That’s academic, though,” Rader said, “because he’s not close to being ready.” . . . Tony Armas, who has been out since April 9 when he strained his left hamstring, is eligible to come off the 15-day DL today, but is still about a week away, according to the Angel training staff.

Say It Ain’t So Dept.: Wally Joyner was once the darling of Anaheim Stadium, home of Wally World-mania in 1987. But these days, with his average hovering around .200, he has lost his halo, so to speak. Joyner was heartily booed by the Anaheim Stadium crowd when he struck out on a particularly feeble swing in the sixth inning. . . . Rader, a firm believer in the grin-and-gut-it-out philosophy as a player, isn’t sure if the new age of baseball medicine is a blessing or a curse. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” he said. “You want to give them the best medical attention available, but sometimes I think there’s so much emphasis put on it that guys who should be playing aren’t.” . . . The Angel offense, which was supposed to be formidable, has been floundering. Going into Monday’s game, the Angels had left 131 runners in scoring position (more than seven per game) and only 10 of the 31 Angels who had reached third base with less than two out scored.