The Joker Loses This Fight, Too : Blyleven Leaves With Lead but Bullpen Falters

A lot of the Twins have spent much of the last four days looking over their shoulders--or down at their shoes--waiting for the inevitable.

Is there a red-haired guy with a cream pie sneaking up behind me? Was that a whiff of smoke? Are my shoelaces on fire yet?

But Bert Blyleven, baseball’s premier prankster, was laying low and “saving all my tricks for Sunday.”

Maybe he should have broken out the lighter fluid and broken the ice.

Blyleven was admittedly pumped up for his return to the town where he pitched for more than three seasons and helped win a World Series in 1987. He pitched seven scoreless innings Sunday but was too emotionally spent to continue and Minnesota rallied in the eighth for a 2-1 victory before 49,098 in the Metrodome.

The Angels’ first batter of the game scored against left-hander Frank Viola, but he gave up only two hits after the first inning, struck out seven and went the distance to improve to 7-8.

Blyleven threw only 83 pitches, but there was much stress per pitch. He worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first, a two-on, one-out threat in the fourth and a first-and-third, one-out situation in the fifth.

“My shoulder started to stiffen up in the seventh,” Blyleven said. “But mainly I was just emotionally drained. I don’t know how many pitches I threw, but it felt like more than that. Sometimes, you can throw 150 pitches and still feel good, but this was a one-run game and I never had a chance to relax.

“I’m a firm believer in going as hard as you can for as long as you can, but it was mental more than physical this time. After seven, I just thought I’d had enough.”

The Twins might not have been too happy when Blyleven was traded to the Angels for three minor leaguers during the offseason, but they were glad to see him leave the Metrodome mound this time.

Al Newman led off the eighth with a double down the right-field line off reliever Rich Monteleone and, one out later, Kirby Puckett doubled high off the wall in right to tie the score.

Bob McClure then replaced Monteleone and walked Kent Hrbek. Willie Fraser came in next, gave up a run-scoring single to Gary Gaetti and the Twins were in a position to avert a four-game sweep by the Angels.

Viola, as he had done five other times on this afternoon, retired the Angels in order in the ninth. The 1988 Cy Young Award winner had struggled early this season, but he has given up only one run in his last 26 innings and has won three in a row.

The Angels scored when Dick Schofield and Johnny Ray opened the first with back-to-back singles. The runners advanced on Devon White’s sacrifice and Schofield scored on Wally Joyner’s ground-out to second.

Blyleven (7-2) lowered his league-leading earned-run average to 2.16, but for the third consecutive outing came away with a no-decision. In his last three starts, the 38-year-old right-hander has one complete game and has given up only two runs--but has nothing to show for it in the win column.

“I’m disappointed, yes,” Blyleven said. “You don’t ever like to lose a game. But I didn’t want to go out and make a mistake and create a big inning. And I’d rather have the bullpen start an inning than step into a problem. I went as hard and as long as I could and it just didn’t work this time. I’ll be pitching against Frankie (Viola) again Friday (in Anaheim) and maybe it’ll work out differently.”

The Angels are hoping Blyleven isn’t quite as pumped up for that outing. He’s normally as loose as a clown’s pants, but his teammates got their first view of a different, tightly wound Blyleven this week.

“He was pretty excited,” catcher Bill Schroeder said. “You could tell by a lot of little things he did. He’s been talking about how he was going to pitch to these guys, which he usually doesn’t do, for a couple of days. And yesterday, we didn’t hear a peep out of him on the bench during the game, which is really weird. But I thought he was throwing as well in the last couple of innings as he did in the early innings. In fact, the location of his fastball was probably better in the late innings.”

Blyleven needed only 19 pitches to dispatch the Twins in the sixth and seventh, and that included three strikeouts.

“Bert did a tremendous job,” Manager Doug Rader said. “But he put a lot of emotion into every pitch and that takes its toll. He’s a very strong human being and he gave it all he had.

“Heck, we got beat by a fantastic pitcher. Frank Viola has as much talent as anyone in the league. We can’t let this game put a damper on this trip. We won four of six games and had a chance to win all six.”

Angel Notes

Shortstop Kent Anderson made his major league debut as an outfielder Sunday, replacing Tony Armas, who had been filling in for Claudell Washington. Armas, who has a history of leg problems, needed the day off, according to Manager Doug Rader. And Washington was undergoing tests at Centinela Hospital to discover the cause of a lingering shin infection. Anderson said before the game that he saw the lineup card and thought the nine (designating right field) next to his name was a “six upside down.” Six designates shortstop. “The only time I’ve ever played outfield was during the exhibition game at Midland (last month) when I replaced (coach) Joe Coleman in left,” Anderson said. “I never even played out there in high school or Little League. I’m just going to go out there see what happens and have some fun.” The Angels didn’t take batting practice Sunday, but Armas took Anderson out to right and showed him a few things--like how the ball comes off the trash-bag-like wall. Anderson handled the only two fly balls hit to right, played one ball off the wall and one in the corner cleanly and made a nice throw to the plate on Randy Bush’s single to right in the eighth to keep the bases loaded and stop the Twins from scoring a third run.