Angels Sky High Over Pitching : Surprising Staff Helps Team Move to Top of Division

True story.

Two sportswriters are sitting around, as sportswriters have been known to do, discussing what little chance the California Angels have of winning the American League West title in 1989.

They agree that the team’s only chance lies in its pitching staff performing out of its mind and Jose Canseco going hitless for the Oakland Athletics.

At the All-Star break, both have happened.

And guess which team is in first place?

The Angels not only lead the American League West, 1 1/2 games ahead of Oakland, but have the best record in baseball at 52-33. And, you can look it up, the Angels have the league’s best pitching staff to boot.

Meanwhile, Canseco, last year’s American League most valuable player and baseball’s first 40-home run, 40-stolen bases player, has yet to have an at-bat for Oakland.

Even without Canseco--sidelined with a wrist injury--the A’s depth and pitching had kept them in first place for much of the season. But now, with shortstop Walt Weiss, last season’s rookie of the year, on the disabled list along with super reliever Dennis Eckersley, the A’s have faded and the Angels, who have won 13 of their last 16, are on top.

“People can say that Oakland has had a lot of injuries, but that’s part of the game,” designated hitter Brian Downing said.

And the fact remains that the Angels, a team that has finished 75-87 the past two seasons, are 19 games over .500.

The reason is pitching, that’s simple. The reason the pitching staff has performed as well as it has, that’s murky. The Angel front office was so confident in the team’s starting rotation that, before the season, it dangled dollars in front of every free-agent pitcher who wasn’t nailed down. Nolan Ryan, Mike Moore and Bruce Hurst were offered everything short of controlling stock in the club, and all of them turned down the Angels.

The club did sign 38-year-old Bert Blyleven but was left with basically the same staff that had a 4.32 ERA and produced just one starter--Kirk McCaskill at 8-6--with a record better than .500.

And it’s that staff that has performed just this side of miraculous.

Mike Witt’s 9-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins Sunday at Anaheim Stadium marked the 13th game in a row that Angel pitching had held the opposition to three runs or less.

The Angels have the lowest ERA in the league at 2.89. Mike Witt says it’s the best Angels staff that he’s been a part of.

“Definitely,” he said. “And that’s saying something. Because we had an awesome staff in ’86.”

That staff included John Candelaria, Don Sutton, McCaskill, Donnie Moore and Witt.

Witt’s victory Sunday meant that every Angel starter is at or above .500. In fact, only two Angel pitchers, middle relievers Greg Minton (1-2) and Willie Fraser (2-4), are below .500.

“Our pitching has just been awesome,” said shortstop Dick Schofield.

Chuck Finley, an All-Star selection, is 10-6. Bert Blyleven is 8-2. Rookie Jim Abbott has overcome tremendous media coverage to go 8-5. McCaskill, who missed the last two months of last season with a sore arm, is 9-5.

Witt, the Angels’ best pitcher this decade, has been the only one to struggle. Sunday’s victory got him back to 7-7, but, only five starts ago, he was 4-6.

“I’ve finally realized that I don’t have to go out and pitch a shutout every game,” Witt said. “Someone else is doing what I used to do.”

The person most responsible for picking up the slack is Finley, who was 9-15 last year, but is now third in ERA at 2.24. Blyleven leads the league in ERA at 2.15, is tied with Kansas City’s Mark Gubicza for most complete games (eight) and is seventh in strikeouts (92).

Finley said that the club’s frenzied attempts to get the likes of Ryan did not go unnoticed by the present staff. Most likely, the left-handed Finley took great interest in the courting of the left-handed Hurst.

“I think them trying to sign all these big-name guys really teed some guys off,” Finley said. “It gave some of us the feeling that they didn’t think we could do the job.”

The Angel offense has been far less spectacular. The team ranks ninth in the league in batting average (.260). Only one Angel regular, Brian Downing (.312) is hitting .300 or better.

The team is 12th in runs scored (354) and RBIs (326), but it leads the league in home runs with 75. What makes that most interesting is that the leading Angel home run hitter is Chili Davis, with a mere 11. Lance Parrish and Jack Howell each have 10 and Downing has nine.

In fact, there isn’t one Angel hitter who is really having an exceptional season. Downing is over .300 but has said he doesn’t believe he’s having a great year. Devon White, an All-Star selection and a player with the potential to lead a team to a pennant, is hitting just .259 and has had just eight RBIs since May 28.

“(On) a team like this the guys just kind of pull for each other and things have started to snowball,” Schofield said. “We might not have the guys up in the hitting categories like the teams with the superstars, but we don’t have to worry about one of our superstars getting hurt or going into slump. If one guy can’t do the job, another will.”

How long it will continue is another question. Canseco is due to come back to the A’s the first game after the All-Star break.

Recent history bodes well for the Angels when they occupy first place at the All-Star break.

In 1979, the Angels had a two-game lead at the break and took the division title by three games. In 1982, they led by a game and won by three. In 1986, they led by 1 1/2 games and won by five, only to lose in the playoffs to Boston.

The only recent smudge is 1985, when the Angels had a six-game lead at the break and finished a game behind Kansas City.

What does all this mean? Absolutely nothing. Especially cautious are longtime Angel players who have ridden this roller coaster before.

“I don’t know what to expect after the past two seasons,” Schofield said.

Said Downing: “You may talk about 1986, but the last two years kind of wiped away everything good that happened in 1986.

“It’s only half a year and it doesn’t mean a thing. We’ve turned around the organization and that’s given us some confidence. But we haven’t even got to the point in the season where the real men step forward.”