Mariners’ Victory Knocks Angels Out of Lead in West, 8-1

How big of a blow was Seattle’s six-run, eighth-inning rally Monday night that beat the Angels, 6-5?

If you believe Angel Manager Doug Rader, not very big.

“There’s not gonna be any problem,” he said before Tuesday night’s game. “We’ll bounce back.”

Most people automatically incorporate winning with bouncing back, but you can bounce back without winning and you can win without bouncing back.”

Well, the Angels definitely didn’t win Tuesday night and the only bouncing they did was getting bounced out of first place, after being atop the American League West standings since July 6.

The Mariners pounded rookie Jim Abbott for eight hits and six runs and then coasted to an 8-1 victory before 16,533 in the Kingdome. Oakland defeated the Chicago White Sox, 2-0, and moved a half-game ahead of the Angels.

The Angels were done in by the duo of Davis and Dunne.

Alvin Davis provided plenty of offense and Mike Dunne pitched one of the better games of his career.

Designated hitter Davis continued his hot hitting with a single, a double, a home run and four RBIs. Davis has driven in 17 runs in the last nine games and raised his average to a league-leading .341, percentage points ahead of Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett. Davis also leads the league in on-base percentage (.459).

Dunne, who brought a less-than-impressive 1-5 record and a 6.14 earned-run average into the game, breezed through the sagging Angel lineup with a career-high eight strikeouts.

“We didn’t play well in any area,” Rader said. “We played poorly in every aspect of the game. We were just flat.”

But weren’t the Angels supposed to be up, even after absorbing a deflating defeat a night earlier?

“You’ll draw your own conclusions and read into it what you want, but flatness and not bouncing back are two different things,” Rader said. “Everyone was ready to go when the game started.”

And shortly thereafter, just about everyone with a halo on his cap went south.

The Angels have committed 20 errors in the 19 games that Abbott has started, resulting in 15 unearned runs. Right fielder Claudell Washington made another one in the second inning, but the play that hurt most was the one Washington made later in the inning, although it was not ruled an error.

The first three batters of the inning--Jim Presley, Dave Valle and Edgar Martinez--singled and Washington bobbled the ball hit by Valle, which allowed Presley to take third. Presley scored on Martinez’s hit to tie the game, 1-1.

One out later, Harold Reynolds forced Martinez and then Greg Briley hit a fly ball down the right-field line that appeared catchable, but Washington circled over and the ball dropped a few feet in front of him and bounced past. By the time Washington retrieved it, Briley had a triple. And when Davis followed with a single, the Mariners had a 4-1 advantage.

“It’s pretty obvious that was a big play in this game, but I wasn’t out there playing the position, and I don’t know if he lost it or what,” Rader said. “To sit back and look at a ball everyone thinks should be caught is one thing, but knowing why it wasn’t is another.

“You’ll have ask the player. I’m not privy to that information.”

And Washington, who was in the training room after the game, wasn’t providing any insight.

This game wasn’t won or lost on one fly ball, however. The Mariners, who had 10 hits--including five for extra bases--were slamming the ball around the Kingdome as if it was huge pin ball machine.

And the Angels, on the other hand, looked as if they were mailing in their at-bats.

“We didn’t have many quality swings,” Rader said, “and whether it was attributable to our flatness or (Dunne’s) pitching, I don’t know.”

The Angels had precious few answers this night. Abbott (9-7) staggered through 3 1/3 innings, and all things considered, it was his weakest outing of the year. Rader said he was getting the ball up too much, but Abbott said it was a combination of things.

“Everything I threw up there, they hit and they hit hard,” he said. “I had inconsistent location on my fastball, but there are probably a lot of theories about what I did wrong tonight and I think a lot of them would be right.”

Seattle increased the margin to 6-1 in the fourth when Reynolds doubled, Briley walked and Davis doubled them both in. And that was it for Abbott, who was replaced by Dan Petry.

Then the Mariners added runs in the sixth and seventh on solo homers by Davis and then Henry Cotto.

But it was long over by then. The Angels seemed to lose the spring in their step somewhere around the second inning.

“Some days, you just don’t have it,” Rader said.

And all the bouncing back you can muster just won’t help.

Angel Notes

Manager Doug Rader switched designated hitter Brian Downing and second baseman Johnny Ray in the batting order Tuesday night, putting Downing in the No. 2 position and Ray in the No. 5 spot. “We’re trying to do the best thing for both players,” Rader said. “We’re hoping Brian will see a few more fastballs and Johnny will get a few more breaking balls.” Downing, who came into Tuesday night’s game in a four-for-36 slump, hit just .229 in July and his average dropped 21 points from .310 to .289 during the month. “We’d like to take some of the run-production responsibility off Brian’s shoulders, let him move the ball around a little and let him get into a grooved swing again.”

Catcher Lance Parrish left Tuesday night’s game in the fifth inning after aggravating an injury to his left knee, which he slightly hyper-extended while batting Monday night. He was examined by Seattle team physician Dr. Mitchel Storey and his availability is on a day-to day basis.

Downing’s chronic pulled rib-cage muscle injury, which has caused him to noticeably wince in pain recently, only bothers him when he swings a certain way, according to trainer Ned Bergert. “It depends on the position of his body when he swings,” Bergert said. “It obviously bothered him in his first at-bat last night, but he said he didn’t feel a thing during his last at-bat.” Downing maintains that the injury is “nothin’.” . . . Amazing Stats Dept.: The Angels lead the majors in homers by a wide margin this season, but their projected total of 157 is far short of the club’s single-season record of 189 in 1961 when they played at old Wrigley Field. It also would be well short of the 172 they hit in 1987 when they finished 75-87 and tied for sixth.

Rookie Jim Abbott says he’s becoming more and more accustomed to life in the majors, but he hasn’t become so blase that he has forgotten he’s living a dream come true. “I haven’t lost perspective,” Abbott said. “There are still a lot of times when I think about it. I’m reminded of it because of the radically different life style we have, traveling all over. Sometimes, even back in Anaheim, I’ll look up at a freeway sign that says ‘Los Angeles,’ and I’ll think, wow, I’m a long, long way from home.”