Bell and Blue Jays Beat Angels in 14th, 6-1

It was so quiet at Anaheim Stadium Wednesday evening that you almost could hear the Angels drop.

Until the ninth inning.

That’s when Devon White proved that his Gold Glove isn’t just costume jewelry. It’s also when Brian Downing showed that he can aim his home runs toward exotic, faraway places, such as right field.

Combine those two things and you understand just how the Angels climbed back into a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at the last possible moment--the bottom of the ninth--only to waste a one-out, bases-loaded opportunity two innings later and then lose it altogether in the 14th, 6-1.

George Bell’s double down the third-base line with none out scored Tony Fernandez from second and broke the tie in the 14th. Fernandez had reached base on a bunt and moved to second when Angel reliever Greg Minton hit Kelly Gruber with a pitch. Bell then followed with his 45th RBI of the season.

Minton was replaced by Bob McClure, who promptly gave up a sacrifice fly to Fred McGriff and then a run-scoring single to Pat Borders. Manny Lee added a two-run double to right.

The Angels could thank plenty of people for the extra-inning game, beginning with White, then Downing, then Angel starter Bert Blyleven. They even could thank Gruber, who misplayed Downing’s high, arching hit (and possible out) into a home run.

But first White. He robbed Fernandez of a sure home run with one out in the ninth as he snared the ball as it tried dropping over the center field fence. And to add to his defensive show, White grabbed a sinking blooper of Bell’s in the 10th.

Meanwhile, Downing did all the heavy swinging. He had a double in the first and then that homer in the ninth against reliever David Wells. Gruber, playing only his eighth game in right, mistimed his jump and nicked the ball well over the wall. The game was tied.

Even stranger than Gruber’s backward stagger into the fence was the location of Downing’s drive in the first place. Downing hits home runs to right field about as often as he takes time out from weightlifting, which is practically never. But this time he sent Wells’ pitch toward right.

The rest is history.

The home run was Downing’s 200th as an Angel, his 226th of his career. And of his total, only four have sailed over right-field fences.

Bert Blyleven started the marathon for the Angels and probably deserved better than a no-decision. Then again, so did Blue Jay starter Mike Flanagan, who was making his 400th major league appearance.

Blyleven needed only 94 pitches to complete his nine innings. He didn’t walk a Blue Jay, struck out a season-high nine batters and allowed just four hits and that one run. It was his second no-decision in his last two starts.

Flanagan had reason to wince, too. He left the game with a one-run lead after eight strong innings (four hits, one walk), but then saw it disappear on a single Wells pitch, Downing swing and Gruber leap (if that’s how you describe someone staggering backward into the right-field fence). The outing certainly will lower Flanagan’s earned-run average, but it won’t do much for his won-loss record.

Anyway, here’s the kind of a night it was for the Angels:

--They begin their half of the first inning with a leadoff double by Downing. . . . and strand him there as Johnny Ray, White and Chili Davis fail to even move him to third, to say nothing of home.

--They begin their half of the second inning with another leadoff hit, this time a single by Tony Armas. One out later, Bill Schroeder singles, giving the Angels a wonderful little chance to mount a rally against Flanagan. That was before Jack Howell, two for his last 12 at the time, grounded into a double play.

After that, scoring chances were few and far between. There was that walk that Davis coaxed out of Flanagan in the fourth inning. It amounted to nothing.

There was a one-out single by Howell in the fifth. But Howell, who has yet to steal a base this year, tried swiping second and was promptly caught. So the streak lives.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays did what they had to do against the Angels, which, these days, means scoring a single run.

Toronto’s lone score came in the fourth, when Fernandez singled to left-center with one out. A Gruber double to right moved him to third and a Bell sacrifice fly to center moved him to home and the Blue Jays ahead, 1-0.

Angel Notes

Angel reaction to the deal that sent Rickey Henderson to the AL West-leading Oakland Athletics was predictably noncommittal. The A’s pitching staff lost two relievers, Eric Plunk and Greg Cadaret, and outfielder Luis Polonia to the New York Yankees in the deal. “I think it all depends how deep their organizational pitching situation is,” Manager Doug Rader said of the A’s. “If they’ve got people that can step in for Cadaret and Plunk and do the kind of job in middle relief that those guys did, then it will be a very good deal for them. But as I’ve said from Day One, I think the thing that separates them from a lot of others is that they have five or six people in that bullpen who can get you through a ballgame.” According to Rader, the Angels tried to acquire Henderson. “I knew that we were involved,” Rader said. “My reaction (to the trade) was, ‘Well, we don’t have him.” Angel Vice President Mike Port wouldn’t elaborate on Rader’s comments or confirm that the team had made an effort to get Henderson. “There’s nothing wrong with this club right now that these people can’t fix themselves,” Port said.

Outfielder Tony Armas, recently recovered from a hamstring injury, returned to the Angel starting lineup Wednesday night as the team’s right fielder. . . . Regulars Wally Joyner and Claudell Washington, both left-handed hitters, didn’t start against left-hander Mike Flanagan.