Angels Exercise Insanity Claws, Defeat Brewers, 12-3

Not only are the Angels winning--Monday’s 12-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers moved them 16 games over .500--but they’re laughing and cutting up while they do it.

Consider the short life of Skippy the lobster.

Skippy was a New England crustacean purchased by one Glenn Hoffman in Boston’s Logan Airport Sunday night and slipped into the handbag of one Bert Blyleven. This was to be a measure of payback for Blyleven, who this year has introduced the art of the practical joke to the Angel clubhouse.

“I put my bag down and somebody took it,” Blyleven said. “I went off looking for it and when I came back, the bag was right where I’d left it. But all of a sudden, I had an extra friend.”

Blyleven brought the lobster, still alive, aboard the team charter to Milwaukee and kept it in a small bucket of water. Occasionally, Blyleven would lift Skippy out of the water and perch him on his shoulder, like a pirate and his parrot.

Blyleven reported that Skippy survived the flight but not the bus ride to the team’s downtown hotel.

“He started snapping at me,” Blyleven said. “I had to break his legs.”

After Blyleven came back the next day to pitch seven innings for the victory against the Brewers, Angel Manager Doug Rader couldn’t resist a final few one-liners over the incident.

“Let’s win one for Skippy,” Rader said, smiling. “We’re going to bury him at sea, I think. First, he’ll be cremated in drawn butter, then buried at sea.”

Loose baseball teams usually are successful teams. Right now, the Angels fit the description. They moved into first place, .007 percentage points ahead of the Oakland Athletics (.660). Monday afternoon, they won for the 22nd time in their last 28 games--that’s a .786 winning percentage--and did so by getting a season-high 18 hits against four Milwaukee pitchers.

Every member of the Angels’ starting lineup had at least one hit, with Lance Parrish going four for four with a home run, Wally Joyner scoring three runs on three hits and Dick Schofield driving in three runs with a single and a triple.

Chili Davis and Claudell Washington also drove in a pair of runs apiece, Devon White made a spectacular diving catch in center field and Blyleven won for the fifth time in seven decisions.

In the end, it all looked easier than it had looked in the beginning, as Blyleven gave up four hits and two runs in the first two innings. The victim of Saturday’s rainout in Boston, Blyleven seemed out of sorts early on, yielding two doubles and a walk in the first inning and two more singles in the second.

“I kind of think (the rainout) affected him,” Rader said. “To get yourself ready, emotionally and physically, to pitch one day, and then put it off, I’m sure it did take its toll.

“I’m not saying I’m surprised, but I was pleased he could go seven. When the game began, five innings seemed a more realistic goal.”

Blyleven gave up a run-scoring double to Jim Gantner and a run-scoring single to Paul Molitor and the score was 2-2 after two innings. The Angels then sent 10 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring five times to turn the game into a runaway.

The key hits in the inning were run-scoring singles by Davis and Jack Howell and a two-run single by Washington.

The Angels scored two runs in the fourth inning, two in the sixth and saw Parrish cap the scoring with a titanic eighth-inning home run off reliever Jay Aldrich. The home run, Parrish’s seventh of the season, was his fifth in nine games.

“Everybody else seems to be hitting the ball well,” Parrish said. “I’m just trying to chip in. I’ve had streaks like this before, but it’s been a while. When I was in Detroit, I was streaky as far as home runs were concerned. It didn’t happen as often in Philadelphia.

“But I feel better at the plate now than I ever remember in Philadelphia. We’re winning, we’re having fun and that takes all the pressure off. Now, I’m making a contribution and that adds to the fun.”

Blyleven, another new Angel on the comeback trail, was appreciative of the support. In three of Blyleven’s five victories, the Angels have scored 10 runs or more.

Bring the noise, Blyleven says.

“I love it,” Blyleven said. “I need a lot of runs to win. Maybe when I was 19, I liked to win, 1-0, but I’d rather win, 20-2, right now.”

That tends to lessen the strain on 38-year-old muscles. After the third-inning Angel outburst, Blyleven gave up only five more hits--including a home run to Yount in the fifth--before giving way to relievers Greg Minton and Bryan Harvey.

Next up for Blyleven: revenge. As he dressed in front of his locker, Blyleven cast a wary eye toward Hoffman.

“His time’s coming,” Blyleven whispered.

Merchants of Milwaukee, lock up your lobsters.

Angel Notes

To dive or not to dive is seldom a question for Devon White, who rarely leaves his feet in the pursuit of fly balls because, as he puts it, “I just get to a lot of balls without having to dive for them.” Monday, however, he stretched out in right-center field to take away an extra-base hit from Glenn Braggs--and the breath away from Angel Manager Doug Rader. “Sheesh,” Rader said. “He’s phenomenal. Every day he does something that either amazes you or astounds you or whatever adjective you can think of.” White made the catch in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Angels already ahead, 12-3. “I’m not going to run into a wall in that situation,” White said, “but when I went after that ball, I realized I could get to it. I think Claudell (Washington, Angel right fielder) was thinking the same thing. I thought we were going to bump heads.” Instead, Washington backed up White and wound up with what he called “the best view in the house.”

Reserve outfielder Dante Bichette prompted a few extra smiles in the Angel clubhouse by playing catch with a batboy during the seventh-inning stretch--while teammates and spectators stood at attention as “God Bless America” played over the County Stadium sound system, in accordance with Memorial Day. Bichette, warming up in left field, eventually turned around to survey the scene, then quickly ripped off his cap and spun again to face the flag. “Kate Smith was into her 15th verse, and Dante’s still playing lob-toss with the bat boy,” Rader said. Bichette, in his defense, claimed not to have heard the music. “I didn’t even know it was happening,” he said. Then, smiling, he added, “Why don’t you guys get on the batboys? I’m sure they saw everybody else standing at attention.” Bichette probably can’t wait for the next session of the Angels’ kangaroo court. “Well, at least I got some press today,” he said.