This Time, Parrish Tries to Stay Hot for a While

Lance Parrish has this problem. He has been consistently inconsistent lately, at least when he’s batting.

It seems that every time he starts finding his swing, things start to go wrong.

He gets hot, raises his average a few points, knocks in a couple of runs, then a few games later he goes cold.

He’s been as dependable as ever while catching, however.

“I really can’t explain why I go into them (the slumps),” Parrish said. “It seems like I go into them after every hot streak. And when I do it’s rock bottom.”

The good news for Parrish is that he’s hitting well right now. He had a home run, his first against Western Division opponents this season, and a single in the Angels’ 5-2 victory over Minnesota Friday night.

The home run, a two-run line drive to right field in the second inning , helped raise his average to .243. The homer was his ninth of the season. He has had seven hits in his past 20 at-bats, a .350 average.

And that translates into bad news for Parrish. By his estimation a slump is due any time now.

Parrish has been taking extra batting practice to achieve some sense of consistency.

“I’m trying to concentrate more and swing easy,” he said. “I’m trying to find a hole out there.”

On his home run, at least, he just reached out and slapped a 2-1 pitch from Twins’ starter Frank Viola over the right-field wall for a 2-0 Angel lead.

In the ninth, he went with another Viola pitch for a two-out single that moved Chili Davis to second.

Davis then scored when left fielder John Moses misplayed Jack Howell’s sinking line drive. Parrish hustled around third base on the play, but was thrown out at the plate when Gary Gaetti’s relay was way ahead of a sliding Parrish.

In addition to his contributions on offense, Parrish guided Angel starter Bert Blyleven to the victory, his first after three impressive outings resulted in no-decisions.

Blyleven gave up just seven hits, the only damaging one was a two-run homer by Tim Laudner in the third inning.

“I didn’t catch him, but he threw just as well over there,” Parrish said of Blyleven’s last start, at Minnesota on Sunday.

Blyleven went seven innings in that one, allowing six hits and no runs. But Minnesota rallied for a 2-1 victory.

“The last few times, he’s been very effective,” Parrish said. “He doesn’t show it, but I know he feels the effects of pitching well and not getting a win. I know at this point in his career, he’s looking to get 300 wins.”

Blyleven has 269 career victories.

“His curve is as good as I ever saw when I was trying to hit him,” said Parrish, who faced Blyleven while playing for the Detroit Tigers. “His fastball is still good. He can let it fly when he wants to. I’d rather catch him than hit him.”

Parrish also said he thought Blyleven, who improved his record to 8-2 and lowered his earned-run average to 2.15, the best in the American League, should have been selected to the All-Star team.

“He got a raw deal, no doubt about it,” Parrish said. “If you look up and down the records of the pitchers, Bert deserves to be there just as much as any of them.”