Angels Crash-Land Twice in SkyDome

Come to SkyDome to see what $560 million buys you nowadays and to experience the wonder of what the Toronto Star calls “the envy of the sporting world and marvel of the engineering and architectural worlds.”

How could the Angels possibly resist?

First inspection was held Monday, and for both edifice and visitor, it didn’t go especially well. SkyDome failed to impress the Angels and the Angels, likewise, failed to impress inside SkyDome.

Under the retractable roof, the Angels played retractable defense and it cost them two quick losses to the Toronto Blue Jays.

In the first game of a twi-night doubleheader, the Angels committed a season-high four errors and forgot such fundamentals as stepping on first base en route to a 6-4 defeat.

In the second game, the Blue Jays broke a 4-4 eighth-inning tie when Angel first baseman Wally Joyner couldn’t dig a low throw out of the dirt and left fielder Chili Davis couldn’t dig a ball out of the corner--two plays that led to a 5-4 Angel loss.

By the time the evening was through, the Angels had lost their fifth consecutive game and all but .001 of their lead in the American League West. They also lost Manager Doug Rader, who was thrown out of the second game by home-plate umpire Larry McCoy, Rader’s second ejection in as many days.

This time, with Baltimore and Mike Devereaux’s phantom home run behind him, Rader was tossed for arguing balls and strikes--particularly those called on pitches thrown by Angel reliever Bob McClure, the losing pitcher in the second game.

“Check the tapes,” Rader grumbled. “(McCoy) baited me and he got me. He said I’d been yelling at him all game.”

Rader rolled his eyes.

“I can’t yell at this wall, I’m so hoarse,” he said sarcastically.

Rader’s patience, as well as his team’s won-lost record, has taken a beating on this trip. The controversy in Baltimore set the tone and after Monday’s sweep, someone asked Rader if the two ejections were related, suggesting that AL umpires might be closing ranks.

“You mean from crew to crew?” Rader replied. “I can’t worry about that. What I did in Baltimore wasn’t improper. What I did tonight wasn’t improper.

“Sometimes, you have no choice in the matter. You’re forced into (making) some type of response. It’s unavoidable.”

Rader felt similarly about the way his team played in its SkyDome debut, at least in the first game. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable.

Before Monday, the Angels, who rank second in the AL in fielding percentage, hadn’t committed more than two errors in a single game. They also hadn’t played a single game in Toronto’s new home stadium--and that, according to Rader, was the crux of the Angels’ defensive collapse.

“This was the first time we ever set foot in the joint,” Rader said. “It’s to be expected. Coming to a new facility is always tough. I was worried coming in.

“Obviously, I had reason to be.”

Before their test-run was seven innings old, the Angels would see:

--Dick Schofield, the AL’s top defensive shortstop two years running, fail to catch a line drive hit right at him, leading to one run.

--Pitcher Jim Abbott throw away a comeback grounder, leading to another run.

--Third baseman Jack Howell misfire a throw to first base, giving the Angels three errors in three innings.

--Second baseman Johnny Ray fail to catch the ball while attempting a double-play pivot, allowing the game-winning run to score in the seventh.

The Angels also gave away a final run in the bottom of the seventh when Ray fielded a grounder by George Bell and threw to Joyner at first--only to have Joyner miss stepping on the base. Bell was ruled safe on the play, enabling Junior Felix to score from third.

Four of the six runs charged to Abbott (8-6) were unearned, which wiped out the four runs managed by the Angel offense against Toronto starter Todd Stottlemyre.

“Think back,” Rader told reporters. “How many games have we played like that this year? It can happen when you play in a new place. It’s been the case every place I’ve been.

“We didn’t have any infielder getting good jumps on the ball. We weren’t picking up the ball (visually) very well. We’re a very good defensive team, but we didn’t show it tonight.”

The second game saw the Angels take a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, blow it in the bottom of the first on a titanic three-run home run by Fred McGriff, salvage a 4-4 tie in the sixth and then throw it away in the eighth.

With McClure pitching, Toronto’s Kelly Gruber opened the eighth with a ground ball to third. Howell fielded the ball and threw a one-hopper to first base, which Joyner was unable to dig out of the dirt.

Gruber was safe, credited with a scratch single. He scored all the way from first when the next hitter, Bell, sent a line drive bounding deep down the left-field line. Davis, trying to cut the ball off, mistimed his lunge and had the ball skid past him into the corner.

By the time Davis was able to retrieve the loose ball, Gruber had scored the decisive run.

“I could’ve played that ball off the wall,” Davis said afterward, “and maybe that would’ve been the better thing to do. (But) my first instinct was to cut it off and get the ball back as quickly as possible.

“The ball just got by me.”

Joyner, however, blamed himself for the run Gruber scored.

He called Howell’s one-hop throw to first “an easy play. I should’ve caught it. It was in the dirt, but it was a short hop. It didn’t have time to go anywhere.

“I should’ve caught it.”

On this evening, their first inside SkyDome, that was the Angel theme of the hour.

Angel Notes

SkyDome firsts: Monday’s crowd of 48,641 was the largest in the five-week history of the facility. The doubleheader was also the first to be held in the stadium--and possibly the last, since this was a makeup doubleheader and there doesn’t figure to be anymore rainouts here. Finally, Fred McGriff became the first player to hit a home run off the plexiglass windows of the restaurant that overlooks center field--more than 420 feet from home plate. Oakland’s Jose Canseco bounced a ball off the restaurant last week, but only in batting practice.

Toronto pitchers David Wells and Tom Henke pulled off something of an exacta Monday. Wells won both games of the doubleheader and Henke saved both. In the first game, Wells replaced Todd Stottlemyre in the seventh inning and pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. In the second, he relieved starter Steve Cummings in the sixth and worked 2 2/3 more scoreless innings. Henke recorded the last four outs of the opener and the final two outs of the nightcap.

The Angels are expected to reactivate outfielder Claudell Washington from the disabled list today. “I really think he should be ready to go,” Manager Doug Rader said. “We want to test him one time time on the AstroTurf (in batting practice). If he shows no ill effects, we’ll probably activate him.”