A Victory by a Nose for Angels

The secret to the Angels’ quick start is out.

They stink.

The Blue Jays rallied to take a 4-3 lead with a four-run eighth inning Saturday, but after Glenn Hoffman walked leading off the ninth, Bert Blyleven told his teammates on the bench, “They can smell us coming.”

The Angels, the team that can do little wrong these days, scored twice in the ninth to beat Toronto, 5-4, before 39,123 fans at Exhibition Stadium. It was the Angels’ 14th victory in their last 18 games, putting them within one game of first place in the American League West.

“We’ve got some real professionals on this team,” Manager Doug Rader said. “I don’t mean anything derogatory to the people who were here before, but we’ve got some guys on this team now who maintain. When things get a little sour, they don’t go in the dumper.”

The sweet smell of success certainly was nowhere in the air after the eighth. The Blue Jays chased starter Mike Witt and relievers Greg Minton and Rich Monteleone before Bob McClure could restore order 10 batters later.

Witt’s string of 17 scoreless innings ended quickly when he walked Kelly Gruber, gave up a single to Tony Fernandez and a run-scoring double to Fred McGriff.

Then came Minton. He promptly gave up a two-run double to Ernie Whitt, who went 4 for 4, and the score was 3-3. A wild pitch, a walk and a 375-foot sacrifice fly later, the Blue Jays led, 4-3, and Minton gave way to Monteleone.

Monteleone yielded a single to Junior Felix and an intentional walk before McClure got Lloyd Moseby to hit into a bases-loaded force-out at the plate and Gruber to bounce out to end the inning.

“That was the key to the game,” Rader said. “We could have given up six or seven runs in the eighth, but we didn’t. I honestly thought we’d win then. This team is exuding a presence that other clubs can detect.”

A couple of key hits in the ninth didn’t hurt, either.

After Hoffman’s walk, reliever Duane Ward--who lost again to drop to 1-6 on the season--came in and threw a wild pitch that allowed Hoffman to take second. Brian Downing then hit a bad-hop grounder that deflected off first baseman McGriff’s glove for an error, Hoffman scored and the Angels were sniffing victory again.

Another wild pitch put Downing on second and Dick Schofield, making his first start after 24 days on the disabled list, sacrificed. Then Johnny Ray hit a single to center and the Angels took the lead.

“It worked out so that Ray was hitting at (crunch) time and that’s about all you can ask for,” Rader said. “And McClure did an extraordinary job. He got the win, but he should have had a save, too, for the job he did in the eighth.”

While the Angels are flying high, the Blue Jays are in a nose dive. Toronto has lost six in a row to the Angels, dropping to 10-20 on the season. The Blue Jays have the most losses in the majors. The bullpen, which has blown seven consecutive save opportunities, is 4-13.

“It makes your head hurt,” Moseby said.

Some of the Toronto fans, who booed when he came to the plate in the late innings Saturday, figure Moseby deserves a headache. He was hitless in five at-bats with two strikeouts and he stranded seven runners.

The Blue Jays got 12 hits, but they also stranded 10. That has been Witt’s modus operandi all season, though. He hasn’t given up fewer than seven hits in an outing this year, but has managed to maintain a 4.35 earned-run average.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the second when Lance Parrish hit a home run to right. And they made the score 2-0 when he hit a single to score Ray in the fifth.

In the seventh, Schofield singled, stole second and took third on a wild pitch by Toronto starter Al Leiter, who was making his first start after becoming a Blue Jay in the trade that sent Jesse Barfield to the Yankees. Then Devon White singled to give the Angels a 3-0 lead.

The Angel bullpen, which came into Saturday’s game with a 4-2 record, eight saves and a 2.43 ERA, faltered a bit, but the Angels found a way to win again.

“It’s a contagious feeling,” said Blyleven, one of the newcomers Rader pointed to as a positive influence. “Every day there’s a new hero. Every team has a different personality and this club just won’t give up. We could have easily said, ‘Oh, they’ve beaten us, 4-3,’ but we’re winning the close ones and that’s the sign of a really good team.”

Parrish, another welcome addition to the club, says he sees a favorable comparison between the Angels and the 1984 Tigers, who streaked to a 35-5 start.

“This team is showing real character,” he said. “And this game showed me more than any other. The feeling is definitely there and it’s getting stronger and stronger with each game.

Angel Notes

Reliever Greg Minton, who has appeared in 13 of the Angels’ 30 games, including 10 times in the last 17 days, ran out of gas Saturday. “I said I was fine and I wanted to go out there, but when I got out there, I realized I didn’t have any arm speed,” he said. Minton faced three batters, yielding a two-run double, a walk and a warning-track sacrifice fly. “I felt great, nothing was hurting, but when I saw that my pitches weren’t sinking, I thought, ‘This old man shouldn’t be out here.’ ” Johnny Ray, who had three singles in five at-bats Saturday, has six multiple-hit games in his last eight outings. During that span he has hit .400. “I don’t feel that strong,” Ray said, “but I’ll take singles any day if we can win.”

The Angels’ 19-11 start is the second fastest in club history. The Angels started 20-10 in 1970, eventually stretching that record to 22-10. After 30 games last year, the Angels were 11-19.