Red-Hot Royals Drop Angels Two Games Back, 4-2

Rain, rather than Angels, fell at Royals Stadium Tuesday night, but not heavily enough to suit the Angels’ purposes.

Despite a rain delay of 1 hour 25 minutes, the game went on.

Darn the Angels’ luck.

For the seventh time in as many tries, the Angels lost to the Royals in Kansas City, this time by a 4-2 score. And, for the second time in as many nights, the Angels lost ground to Oakland in the American League West standings, now trailing the front-running Athletics by two games.

Suddenly, the Angels are nearly as close to third place as they are first place. With the victory, Kansas City’s eighth in a row, the Royals moved to within 2 1/2 games of the Angels with two games remaining in this series and Tom Gordon (15-4) scheduled to pitch tonight.

Just two days ago, the Angels were the team on a roll, taking a five-game winning streak and a power-hitting offense into Kansas City.

Now, they’ve spent two games here and lost one starting pitcher (Chuck Finley), two 4-2 decisions and any momentum they might have built after pounding Minnesota and Cleveland last week in Anaheim.

“We’re very streaky,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “Everybody knows that. And right now, we are catching a club that is very hot.

“The bottom line is we are not swinging the bats well enough to win. We need to regroup and play better baseball the rest of the series.”

Angel catcher Lance Parrish seconded that assessment.

“I hope everybody shows up tomorrow ready to go,” Parrish said. “We can’t afford to let too many more slip away from us . . . Now is the time.”

For Kansas City, it is, anyway. With the Angels and the A’s in town for seven games this week, the Royals entered this series talking about playoff atmosphere and intensity and the need to capitalize on this chance to jump back into the AL West race.

In Parrish’s view, the Angels need to get that same feeling.

“I think we have a tendency to get into little lulls, where we want to let things happen instead of making them happen,” he said. “That seems to be the story with these two games here. There seems to be no energy--and this probably isn’t the greatest time to do it.

“Hopefully tomorrow, we’ll shake out of it.”

In their latest loss, the Angels managed but five hits against four Kansas City pitchers--and this was with starter Mark Gubicza lasting two innings. Gubicza was a victim of the rain delay, pulled by Manager John Wathan after six outs for future considerations--i.e., this weekend’s encounter with Oakland.

By replacing Gubicza with reliever Terry Leach in the third inning, Wathan is hoping to bring Gubicza back with two days’ rest for Friday’s series opener with the A’s.

Already, Wathan has won half his gamble. Leach picked up after the 85-minute delay and pitched five innings of two-hit ball, yielding only an unearned run. Then, Wathan turned it over to relievers Rick Luecken and Jeff Montgomery.

Leach, a mid-season acquisition from the New York Mets, is 5-3, having won three times during the Royals’ current streak. A fourth-inning double to Chili Davis and a sixth-inning single to Devon White were the only hits he allowed.

“Same old Leach,” Rader said. “He’s a guy who gives us trouble. In particular, he gives our left-handed hitters problems.”

That’s due in part to Leach’s pitching motion, the type of delivery that hasn’t been seen in these parts since Dan Quisenberry’s era.

Leach inherited a 1-0 lead, courtesy of Mike Witt’s latest two-out lapse, coming in the bottom of the first inning. Witt (8-11) retired the first two batters he faced--and then allowed hits to the next three.

After striking out leadoff hitter Kevin Seitzer and getting Willie Wilson to ground to second base, Witt surrendered a single to George Brett.

And another to Bo Jackson.

And another to Jim Eisenreich, this a bouncer up the middle that scored Brett from second base. He escaped further damage when Jackson overran third base after White’s throw eluded third baseman Jack Howell. Witt backing up, fired to Howell and Jackson was nailed trying to get back to third.

Kansas City took that lead into the rain delay. Witt returned after sitting for nearly 90 minutes. Rader was asked if he considered changing pitchers for the resumption of the game, as Wathan did.

“No, because he didn’t throw enough to begin the game to get stiff,” Rader said. “So, it wasn’t a problem.”

Angel Notes

Chuck Finley figures to miss at least one start as a result of the foot injury that knocked him out of Monday night’s game after 17 pitches. Today, Finley will undergo a bone scan to determine whether or not he has a stress fracture in his left foot, but either way, Finley isn’t expected to pitch again before next week. If a stress fracture is ruled out, Finley will receive a cortisone injection in the foot, which should sideline him through Saturday, his next scheduled start. “The doctor wanted to shoot it with cortisone today, but he thought the cortisone might hide the effects of the bone scan,” Finley said. “So we’ll do the scan first and if no hot spots (fractures) are there, he’ll shoot it up then.”

Finley hurt the foot by rolling over on it while warming up in the bullpen. “It felt like a burn,” he said. “At first, I thought it was just a different twisting of the foot. It was a little sore, but I thought it’d go away after a couple pitches. Instead, it got worse and worse, and then, I had trouble walking. I knew I wouldn’t be out there much longer.” Finley said he felt no improvement in the foot Tuesday, but was talking hopefully in preparation of today’s bone scan. “I’m not expecting it to be any big deal,” he said. “I think it’s more like a bruise. They’re just taking (the scan) to make sure there’s not a crack. If I can get the soreness out of it, I should be ready to go in a couple days. If it’s one start, I’m sure the team can pick me up. I think that’s the worst that can happen--that I miss one start.” Finley grinned. “This is September, or getting close to it,” he noted. “It’s got to be all right.”

The Angels have Bert Blyleven, the Royals have Bret Saberhagen. And when Tuesday’s game was delayed nearly 90 minutes because of rain, Saberhagen donned a ski mask and one of Bo Jackson’s jerseys--which he overstuffed with padding--and launched into a home run trot on the slick tarpaulin. That soon evolved into headfirst slides and belly-flops into the largest puddles on the tarp.