Minton Doesn’t Get Win or Save, but He Pitches In With Scoreless Relief

As reporters huddled around starting pitcher Jim Abbott in the Angels’ clubhouse Saturday afternoon, Greg Minton sat alone on a stool a few feet away, his right elbow and shoulder packed in ice.

Welcome to the illustrious world of middle relief pitching.

Making his first appearance since coming off the 15-day disabled list with an elbow injury, Minton pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in a 4-1 Angel victory over the Minnesota Twin.s. He didn’t earn the victory. That went to Abbott.

And he didn’t get the save, which went to Bryan Harvey.

But what Minton did get was 16 pitches in a game--something he had waited for since June 22. The 37-year-old right-hander also ended a threat by the Twins in the seventh inning.

“It was like opening day for me,” Minton said. “They (Angels) are paying me an awful lot of money to go 1 1/3 innings. Today was perfect. I was the stopgap between Abbott and Harvey.

“I got us out of the inning, and that’s all I want to do. I want to be like the offensive line in football. There’s no notoriety in what I do.”

But it beats sitting on the bench, which is where Minton has been since injuring his right elbow while warming up in Cleveland.

“I pitched in 30 of our first 65 games,” Minton said. “I was warming up for my fourth straight game. My elbow just let go a little bit.”

Doctors diagnosed it as a strained flexor tendon, the same injury that sidelined him for nine weeks at the start of last season.

As a precautionary measure, Angel manager Doug Rader put Minton on the 15-day disabled list.

“Doug called me and said ‘You’re going on the DL,’ ” Minton said. “Then I said, ‘But Doug.’ And he said ‘Shut up, you’re going on the DL.’ I was taking a vacation and I didn’t have much to say about it.”

But it was hardly a vacation. Trainers used hot and cold packs and cortisone on his elbow. He lifted so many weights that he was ready for the Olympic weightlifting team.

His “vacation” ended Saturday with one out in the seventh inning. The Twins were trailing, 3-1, with runners on first and second when Rader replaced Abbott with Minton.

On his first pitch, Minton forced pinch-hitter Randy Bush to ground into a double play to end the inning. Minton gave up a double to Greg Gagne in the eighth and Harvey took the mound in the ninth.

“I didn’t have any velocity on my pitches,” said Minton, who threw two sliders and 14 sinkers. “I concentrated on where to put the ball. That’s one of the things about being an old . . ., you know what you’re doing out there.”

Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said Minton gives experience to the Angel pitching staff.

“He has been a premier closing pitcher in his time,” Lachemann said. “He helps the younger pitchers like Harvey. He knows his role.”

Minton returned to a team leading the AL West Division with one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.

“I have to like this,” said Minton, who spent 10 years with the San Francisco Giants before coming to the Angels in 1987. “I played with the Giants too long. I remember playing in front of 660 fans one night.”

Now he’s contributing to a team in the midst of a division race.

“If my arm holds up, I can go 30 more games and we have a very good chance to win the division,” he said. “If I can keep on being the offensive line and help us win, I’ll wear a (World Series) ring and be proud of it.”