It May Be Over; Angels Don’t Know It : Witt Has Hard Time Accepting 2-1 Loss on Hall’s Homer in 9th

The image will linger as the sad symbol of this disastrous Angel trip: Mike Witt, apparently oblivious to the game-winning home run he had just allowed, holding up his glove and calling for another ball from plate umpire Al Clark.

C’mon, let’s try it again.

Thirteen games into this 15-game gantlet through Kansas City, Texas, Boston and New York, the Angels only wish they could do just that. Since leaving home, they are 4-9--their latest defeat coming Saturday night on Mel Hall’s home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the New York Yankees a 2-1 victory before 23,508 fans at Yankee Stadium.

Almost worse still, the Angels were nearly dealt a cruel bookend for the demoralizing injury sustained by pitcher Chuck Finley on the first game of the trip.

In the eighth inning Saturday, Angel cleanup hitter Wally Joyner left the field on a stretcher after tripping over pitcher Greg Cadaret’s right leg and landing in a heap on a close play at first base.

X-rays of Joyner’s left knee eventually proved negative--the injury was diagnosed as a deep bruise--but Joyner left the stadium wearing a padded leg splint, possibly not to return to the Angel lineup until the Angels return home Tuesday.

A month ago, Angel Manager Doug Rader looked at this grueling portion of his team’s schedule--by four games, the Angels’ longest trip of the season--and jokingly referred to it as “the Bataan death march.”

Saturday, Rader was asked for a re-assessment.

Has it turned out to be even worse than he’d anticipated?

“No, not really,” Rader said, managing a thin smile. “Any time you’re on a road trip of this length, it’s going to take its toll, no question.

“The first day in Kansas City was the worst, when Chuck went down. That was a very, very big loss for us. And right before that, there was Schoey (shortstop Dick Schofield, who broke his hand during the club’s last homestand).

“You try to minimize the loss for the benefit of everybody, in deference to the people who have to replace them. You don’t want to make it out to be an earth-shattering event. But the truth of the matter is, those two people are sorely missed.”

For an hour or so, the Angels feared that Joyner would make it a threesome. It’s seldom a positive sign when your starting first baseman hits into a double play . . . and has to return to the dugout on a canvas stretcher.

Two sets of X-rays were taken before a fracture was ruled out. The final diagnosis turned out to be a “contusion” of the knee, and by the time he limped out of the clubhouse for the team bus, Joyner was talking hopefully of playing again as early as today.

“They gave me some pain pills, but if I took them, I couldn’t play (today),” Joyner said. “I’m hoping (the pain) will go away by then.”

A more realistic scenario, according to Rader, would have Joyner sitting out these last two games in New York and having the knee re-examined Tuesday in Anaheim by Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ team physician.

Today, the Angels, 3 1/2 games behind Oakland in the American League West, will try to snap a three-game losing streak without Finley, without Schofield and, most likely, without Joyner.

“That’s when it’s going to hit everybody,” Witt said. “I’m sure tomorrow they’ll look around and see the starting lineup and wonder, ‘What’s going on?’ ”

Not even the supposedly shattered Yankees have helped ease the Angels’ dilemma. The Angels are 0-2 here, getting no pitching in Friday night’s 11-5 defeat and then no hitting Saturday night.

The Angels’ only run against Cadaret (5-4) was a sixth-inning home run by Brian Downing. But because Witt (8-12) countered with his best outing in seven weeks, that run was enough to keep the Angels tied through eight innings.

Witt took a five-hitter into the bottom of the ninth, New York’s lone run coming on a walk and a pair of infield singles in the fifth inning.

But on the first pitch of the ninth, the Yankees’ Hall untied everything, sending a fastball into the right-field bleachers for his 12th home run of the season.

That scene that followed bordered on the surreal, with Hall joyously rounding the bases while Witt stood resolutely on the mound, calling for another ball so he could make another pitch.

The game was over, but Witt wasn’t acknowledging it, as if refusing to accept the hard reality of the moment.

In actuality, Witt was more in a haze than dazed, so locked into his work that he said he forgot where he was.

“I didn’t know the game was over until the umpire told me to get off the field,” Witt said. “I knew it was the ninth and I knew the score was tied. But for some reason, I was still thinking we had the last at-bat.

“Maybe I thought we were playing at home.”

Yes, it has been a long trip.

The Angels were tied for first place when it began, way back on Aug. 21. Now they’re alone in third and slipping, losing not only to streaking teams (Kansas City and Boston), but also to slumping ones.

“Two weeks is a long time to be on the road,” said pitcher Bert Blyleven, again entrusted with the task of breaking an Angel losing streak today. “But it’s no excuse for playing bad.”

For that, the Angels can only blame what they see in the mirror.

Angel Notes

Angel hearts might have skipped a beat or two at the sight of Wally Joyner being carried off the field on a stretcher, but according to Angel trainer Rick Smith, such an exit is standard operating procedure. “Obviously, he was not going to come off on his own power,” Smith said. “With a knee injury, the most conservative, and best, method was by stretcher.” Joyner hurt the knee when he landed hard on the ground after tripping over the left leg of Yankee pitcher Greg Cadaret, covering first base to complete an eighth-inning double play. “It looked like he didn’t know where the base was, because he started backing up,” Joyner said. “If I would’ve jumped over the base, I’d have missed him. Maybe that’s what I should’ve done, huh?” Joyner said he “jammed” his knee into the ground when he landed. “I didn’t think there was any damage,” he said. “My knee was barking, but that was about it.”

Angel shortstop Kent Anderson had an exasperating fifth inning afield, with his misadventures on three consecutive ground balls leading to New York’s first run. First, the Angels failed to turn a double play when Roberto Kelly’s grounder to Anderson took a big second hop and the only out he could get was on lead runner Bob Geren at second base. Then, when Kelly breaking for second with Randy Velarde at bat, Anderson shaded toward the bag--and Velarde poked a single through the hole Anderson just vacated. Finally, with Kelly on third base, Anderson gloved a grounder by Steve Sax over second base but his running throw to first base was late, enabling Kelly to score the run. “That was unfortunate,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “When he gave Johnny (Ray) the ball (on Kelly’s grounder), he was out of position to make the pivot. Then Sax beats a ball up the middle and beats it out. Unfortunate.”

Deion Sanders, among the minor-league recalls to join the Yankees Saturday, made an appearance in the eighth inning after Kelly was ejected for arguing a strikeout call by home plate umpire Al Clark. Sanders hit .278 with five home runs, 30 runs batted in and 16 stolen bases in 70 games at triple-A Columbus. Accompanying him to New York was Columbus catcher Brian Dorsett, who played briefly with the Angels in 1988. Dorsett, traded to New York for minor-league pitcher Eric Schmidt last November, shared the team home run leadership at Columbus with 17. He also hit .250 and drove in 62 runs in 110 games.