Angels Win, 5-4, Get Sweet Taste of the ‘70s Ryan

So this is how the Angels, on their third attempt, finally found a way to beat Nolan Ryan:

First, wait until he’s 42.

Next, run him through 8 1/3 oppressive innings in the dripping Arlington heat, with temperatures still in the 90s as the clock approached 11 p.m.

Then, send up your top hitter to pinch-hit against him and, on pitch No. 148, have him slap the ball off the glove of Ryan’s All-Star second baseman.

In a game reminiscent of so many of his defeats as an Angel pitcher in the 1970s, this was how Ryan lost to his former teammates, 5-4, Sunday night at Arlington Stadium.

Still winding and grinding with one out in the top of the ninth inning, Ryan (14-9) had just struck out his 11th victim of the night before Angel Manager Doug Rader sent up Johnny Ray, his .296-hitting second baseman, to bat for Glenn Hoffman with runners on first and third.

At first inspection, this seemed a desperate measure. Despite his success against the majority of American League pitching, Ray owned a .140 career batting average against Ryan (6 for 43), which is one reason why Rader thought it best to give Ray the evening off.

But the score was tied at 4-4 and a deep fly ball could change that, so Rader went with Ray anyway.

Ray responded with a hard ground ball to the right side of the infield. Ranger second baseman Julio Franco went to his knees to stop the ball, but as he attempted to recover and make a throw, the ball popped free from his grasp.

Brian Downing scored from third on the play, which was originally ruled an error but later changed to a scratch single.

And like that, Ryan lost to the Angels after beating them by scores of 5-1 and 3-0 in earlier meetings this year.

“This guy is as good as there ever has been,” Rader said. “And now he’s as good a pitcher as he’s ever been in his life.

“Any time you beat a pitcher of his stature, it does a lot for your self-esteem.”

Any way you can do it.

Through five innings, Ryan led, 2-1. The only run he gave up--does this sound familiar, Angel fans?--came without the benefit of a base hit.

Ryan opened the third inning by walking John Orton, the Angels’ 23-year-old rookie catcher. Hoffman sacrificed Orton to second base and Ryan wild-pitched him to third.

From there, Orton scored on a ground ball to first base by Claudell Washington.

The Angels’ next three runs were made possible by a Ryan strikeout of Washington, the No. 1 victim on Ryan’s all-time strikeout ledger, in the top of the sixth.

Washington began Sunday’s game with 36 career strikeouts against The Express, but this time, Ryan’s catcher failed to hold the third strike.

As the ball skipped by Chad Kreuter for what was scored a wild pitch, Washington was enable to sprint safely to first base.

Another sacrifice bunt and another walk later, Washington came home on a double by Wally Joyner.

The tie-breaking run scored when Ryan’s shortstop, Jeff Kunkel, couldn’t grab a line drive hit over his head by Chili Davis, a ball that was graciously ruled an infield single.

The Angels’ fourth run came immediately after that, with Joyner scoring on a legitimate single by Downing.

Stunningly, the Angels and Mike Witt had been handed a 4-2 lead.

Not so stunningly, the Angels didn’t know what to do with it.

Witt would only record one out in the bottom of the sixth, coming on a line drive to left by Rafael Palmeiro. From that point, he walked Ruben Sierra and surrendered a single to Franco before Rader turned to his bullpen.

Greg Minton replaced Witt and allowed two quick ground balls. The first, a high chopper to shortstop by Jack Daugherty, was enough to score Sierra. The second, a bouncer deep into the hole at shortstop by Pete Incaviglia, went for an infield single and brought in Franco with the tying run.

And that’s how it stayed until the ninth, until Ryan began to wear down under the weight of his pitch count and the late August humidity.

Texas Manager Bobby Valentine claimed he kept Ryan on the mound because “he got his second wind around the sixth inning.” Ryan, typically, used the heat as no excuse, insisting it was no factor.

But when Valentine finally replaced him after Ray’s grounder, Ryan had to admit that “Bobby did the right thing. I think if there was nobody on, I had enough left.”

Rader was asked if he detected any slippage in Ryan’s velocity during those last, critical pitches?

“Hey, ever since ‘69, when I first laid eyes on him, I thought he was unhittable,” Rader said. “So I’m the wrong guy to ask on that.”

Ray was asked the same question.

“He still had good velocity,” Ray said. “(But) the way the weather was, how hot is was out there, and with him throwing 140 pitches, I don’t care who it is, he’s got to be tired.”

Still . . .

“That didn’t make it any easier,” Ray added. “He’s a strong individual. There are only a couple of pitchers who come down every 20 years, and he’s one of them. I was just fortunate to hit it in the hole.”

Now Ray is 7 for 44 against Ryan. He doesn’t, however, apologize for those numbers.

“I think he’s given a whole lot of people trouble,” Ray said. “Not just me.”

So, yes, there is hope against Ryan.

Simply wait, and sweat him out.

Angel Notes

Angel reliever Bob McClure improved to 4-1 by working an extended stint of 2 1/3 innings. He stayed out there primarily because stopper Bryan Harvey was suffering from a strained muscle in his right forearm. Harvey hasn’t pitched in a game since Aug. 18 and although Manager Doug Rader had him throwing in the bullpen during the ninth inning, he was hoping against hope that he wouldn’t need to use him. “I could have used him, but I wanted him to go through one more legitimate scare, where he had to warm up and approach it as if he had to go in. Now, we’ll see how he reacts to it. Everything seems to be fine.”

Upon the suggestion of Rader and Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, Mike Witt experimented with a faster delivery Sunday, beginning the game by barely waiting a moment between pitches. Usually an extremely deliberate pitcher, Witt tinkered with the hurry-up delivery until home-plate umpire Don Denkinger instructed Witt to slow down. “When the umpire has to slow him down, you know he’s trying,” Rader said. “(The new delivery) was met with rave reviews from our guys and Mike should be pleased with it. He pitched well. I think it’s in his best interest, and the club’s best interest, that he change--and he did. I hope he stays with it.”

With 11 strikeouts Sunday, Nolan Ryan tied the Texas Ranger record for most career games with 10 or more strikeouts, 14. It took Ryan only five months to earn a share of the record with Bobby Witt. In his career, Ryan has struck out 10 or more batters in a single game 195 times. . . . Claudell Washington, Ryan’s all-time No. 1 strikeout victim, opened the game with a strikeout, on his way to three against Ryan and four for the evening. Washington’s career strikeout total against Ryan now is 39. . . . Sunday’s crowd of 25,270 increased the Rangers’ 1989 home attendance to 1,763,080, a franchise record. The former mark, 1,763,053, was set in 1987.