Old Face, New Cap Can’t Slow Down Davis, Angels 6-2

The last time the Angels faced Jerry Reuss, the veteran left-hander held them to four hits in a Chicago White Sox victory five days ago.

Friday night in Milwaukee’s County Stadium, Reuss was in a different uniform, and the Angel hitters, notably Chili Davis, treated him with considerably less respect. Davis belted a pair of two-run home runs, and Wally Joyner hit another homer as the Angels won their third game in a row, 6-2, before 27,596.

The Angels, who arrived here at 6 a.m., CDT, after a late-night flight from Seattle, dispelled fears of another loss to the much-traveled 40-year-old pitcher by scoring five times in the first three innings. Starter Chuck Finley and reliever Willie Fraser then kept the Brewers at bay.

“Things change,” Manager Doug Rader said. “I said all along the key to hitting off Jerry is to lay off the cut fastball inside. Overall, our hitters did adjust well.”

Davis, who has five consecutive multiple-hit games and six home runs with 16 RBIs in his last 14 games, said he didn’t make any adjustments. He said he is simply riding a hot streak and trying not to think about it.

“I don’t try to analyze it,” he said. “Actually, I wish I could analyze it and bottle it up, then every time I needed it, I could go back to that bottle.”

The Angels, who increased their major leagues-leading homer total to 109, probably wish they could keep some of their power on the shelf for later use.

But Davis said he was glad to get a few runs in a hurry this time around.

“Oakland had won, 5-3, and it was posted up there on the board,” he said. “If you let this team linger close, they’re explosive enough to come back and beat you. We wanted to score early.”

Davis wasn’t the only one glad to see the Angels get some runs in a hurry. Finley, who improved to 13-7, equaling the most victories by an Angel pitcher last season, has been nursing a sore spot next to the fingernail of his left middle finger. And he figured he wasn’t going to be around for the end. He gave up three hits and two runs in the five innings and also walked five.

“I don’t pride myself on going five innings,” he said, “but I wanted to get the five and let someone else have it. The way this team is swinging the bat, you don’t want to walk away from a win.

“It was one of those nights when you thank God for the offense and get out. I guess it’s a new kind of hit-and-run.”

Rader turned the ball over to Fraser, who picked up his first save of the season by holding the Brewers to a pair of singles in the final four innings.

After pitching in the mid-80-degree heat and near 100% humidity, Fraser managed a weary smile.

“I gave just about everything I had left to (final batter) Jimmy Gantner,” he said. “If he didn’t hit that ground ball, I might have been in big trouble.”

The Brewers were the ones in trouble from the outset, due primarily to former Angel Gus Polidor.

The first two times the Brewer shortstop touched the ball, he threw it five feet the head of first baseman Greg Brock.

With one out in the first inning, Johhny Ray hit a grounder that Polidor fielded and fired past Brock as Ray went to second base. Davis then hit his first homer, a drive to center.

In the second inning, Lance Parrish led off with a single to center field. Claudell Washington hit a nubber back to Reuss, who threw to Polidor to force Parrish.

Polidor somehow managed to come up with a live-action instant replay of his first throw, and Washington ended up on second. Dick Schofield followed with a double down the left-field line, and the Angels had a 3-0 lead.

After Ray’s single to left in the third, Davis made the score 5-0 R with his 17th homer of the season, lining a shot into the bleachers in left.

Finley, who yielded a walk in each of the first four innings, finally paid the price in the fourth. He walked Brock, and then Joey Meyer got the first Brewer hit of the game, a 415-foot home run to center.

“It didn’t hurt to throw the fastball, but the curve and the forkball both roll off that finger, and it was burning,” said Finley, who first realized he had the injury when he woke up with a throbbing finger Sunday night after his last start.

“I was starting to change my mechanics because of it and I was all over the place.”

Finley said he doesn’t think the injury will force him to miss a start because it had been improving before Friday night.

Davis said the abbreviated night’s sleep left him feeling a little like the morning of “one of those off-season golf tournaments when you party until 4 and then get up for a 7 a.m. tee time.”

If that was the case, he still shot a nice round. But there was nothing below par about his performance or that of the Angels, who have won 13 of their last 17 games.

They rebounded from a seven-game losing streak in mid-July to win seven in a row. And after losing three consecutive games last week, they have reeled off three victories.

“That’s why we’re where we’re at,” Davis said. “You can’t be a winning team when you lose more games than you win.”

OK, maybe he does need some sleep.

Angel Notes

There’s been a lot of talk about the Angels’ pitching and power, but Kirk McCaskill thinks that Manager Doug Rader has had as much to do with the Angels’ winning ways as any player. “A lot of it is a direct result of the manager,” he said. “We’re very lucky to have Doug. I read the stories about his problems (dealing with players) in Texas and I find it hard to believe. He knows how to handle us, personally and as a team. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to the Angels.” McCaskill, comparing Rader to former Angel Manager Gene Mauch, said Mauch “managed by intimidation” and Rader is “a people manager.” “Both styles work, but who would you rather work for?” McCaskill asked.

Devon White, who had played in every game this season but one, sat out No. 2 Friday night because of a sinus and throat infection. Trainer Ned Bergert said White is taking antibiotics. White said he was available for service if necessary.

After two days off, the slumping Brian Downing was back in the lineup Friday night. Downing, who had not missed consecutive games since Aug. 21-22 of 1987, was batting leadoff, but the switch in the order didn’t help. He was hitless in four at-bats with three strikeouts and has four hits in his last 40 at-bats.

Catcher Bill Schroeder, whose daughter, Lindsey, remains in a suburban Milwaukee hospital with an ear infection, spent Friday with his family. “He went straight to the hospital as soon as we landed this morning (at 6 a.m.),” Rader said. “He called me and said she was doing a little better and said he’d be here by game time.”