Angels Get Flash, Win in the 14th

The final score from Oakland--Athletics 6, Yankees 2--had flashed on the Anaheim Stadium scoreboard Sunday afternoon. An Angel loss would mean a six-game deficit with 19 games to play.

It was the eighth inning and the Angels were trailing Boston, 1-0. Claudell Washington stood at the plate and watched Roger Clemens almost pick Mark McLemore off second base-- twice. But when Clemens did throw to the plate, Washington lined a single to right, McLemore scored and the Angels, while still in critical condition, were alive in the American League West.

Their fate hung in the balance for another couple of hours, however, until Washington came through with another key hit and the Angels managed a bizarre 2-1, 14-inning victory before what remained of a crowd of 37,980.

Washington led off the 14th with a single to right and took second on Devon White’s sacrifice. Boston second baseman Jody Reed made a diving stop of a ground ball up the middle by Chili Davis. Reed didn’t make a throw to first, but kept Washington from scoring on the play.

Red Sox Manager Joe Morgan had reliever Dennis Lamp intentionally walk Wally Joyner to load the bases and then brought right fielder Carlos Quintana in to play between first and second. Reed was stationed slightly to the left-field side of second and shortstop Luis Rivera positioned himself in the hole between second and third.

Brian Downing stepped to the plate, surveyed the five-man infield, and promptly played into the Red Sox’s hands, hitting a ground ball at Rivera. However, Rivera bobbled the ball once--negating the chance for a home-to-first double play--and then bobbled it again as Washington scored the winning run.

“I was surprised Downing went for that pitch,” Morgan said. “It’s pretty tough to get a fly ball off Lamp.”

Downing was equally surprised.

“I was over-anxious and that’s not normally my style,” he said. “I should’ve been thinking positively and trying to hit the ball in the air. I knew the only way I could hurt us was to hit the ball on the ground.

“Then I did and the first thing I did was to say to myself, ‘You dumb . . . ‘ “

As comebacks go, this one didn’t even excite Angel Manager Doug Rader.

“A game like that is weird,” Rader said. “So very little happened other than the pitching and catching, well, it kind of stunk.”

At this point in the season, the Angels will take a victory no matter how it smells, although no one figured this one game was a turning point.

“We’ll keep plugging,” Rader said.

And then there was this bit of philosophy from Davis:

“When you’ve got to stand out there for all that time, you might as well win.”

For most of this afternoon, the pitchers were the only winners. Both teams had enough good pitching for at least two games.

Danny Heep, who singled in the second inning and took second on a groundout, was the only Boston runner other than Dwight Evans, who hit a solo homer in the sixth, to reach second base in the first 13 innings.

Starter Kirk McCaskill gave up only five hits in his seven innings of work. He had given up one homer in his first nine games this season, but he has surrendered 14 in his last 19 starts and Evans’ shot to left was enough to keep McCaskill from picking up his 16th victory.

“Mac pitched great,” Rader said. “Even the run he gave up was on a good pitch. (Evans) swung one-handed at it.”

And, until Washington’s run-scoring single in the eighth, it looked as if Evans would beat the Angels single-handedly.

Greg Minton worked a perfect two innings and Willie Fraser gave up a harmless single during his two-inning stint. Bob McClure pitched the final three innings and yielded three singles, but he got the victory.

But the Angel offense, which has bordered on nonexistent for the past two weeks, took most of Sunday off, too. The Angels sent 50 batters to the plate and managed six hits while striking out 15 times.

Clemens yielded four hits and struck out eight in eight innings, but the Angel batters weren’t justified if they breathed a sigh of relief when he left. Lee Smith was next and made Clemens look like an offspeed specialist. Smith struck out four of the six he faced, working a perfect ninth and 10th.

Then came Rob Murphy, who gave up four hits in one inning and got the loss Saturday night. He retired all six he faced Sunday.

Then Lamp followed Murphy and suffered the defeat.

“In defense of our hitters, for the last two hours, you just couldn’t see it,” Rader said.

But if this victory had any particular importance, you couldn’t tell it by talking to Rader.

“It was a pretty unspectacular game,” he said. “I’d love to say more, but I can’t. We just hung on until something broke. We hung in there until they made a mistake.”

Unspectacular? Maybe. But it beats being six games out with three weeks remaining.

Angel Notes

Outfielder Dante Bichette, a spring phenom who earned a spot on the opening day roster with an awesome display of power during spring training, spent most of the season in triple-A Edmonton after slipping into a prolonged slump in late May and early June. He’s hitting .191 in the majors and hasn’t had a hit since June 5, but he says he’s not devastated by the way things have turned out. “I think it’s been a good season,” he said. “I mean, there’s been disappointment, sure, but I could’ve had a brutal spring and never made it to the big leagues. As it was, I didn’t get a chance to play every day and ended up going down (to the minors). But I opened some eyes around the league in the spring and that’s a big plus.” Bichette, 25, also surprised some people when he struggled at Edmonton. He had 11 homers and 40 RBIs in 61 games with the Trappers, but batted .243. “He should have gone down there and tore that league up,” said Deron Johnson, the Angel hitting instructor. “He ended up pressing during the slump up here. He put a lot of pressure on himself, worrying about being sent down. But I don’t know what happened in Edmonton. He’s still young, though, and there’s great potential there. I still think he’ll be in the big leagues some day.”

The Price Is Wrong: Boston left-hander Joe Price was suspended for four days without pay Sunday because of an argument with Manager Joe Morgan Saturday night. Morgan and Price were “discussing” the events of the sixth inning--when Angel center fielder Devon White stole second, third and home with Price on the mound--and Morgan reportedly objected to Price’s language. Price, acquired by the Red Sox on waivers May 5 after his release by San Francisco, is 2-5 with a 4.46 earned-run average in 30 appearances for Boston. . . . When Roger Clemens struck out pinch-hitter Max Venable to end the fifth inning, he recorded his 200th strikeout of the year, marking the fourth consecutive season in which he has struck out 200 or more.

Angel Manager Doug Rader became the fourth manager in team history to post a winning record during his first full season when the Angels won their 82nd game. The others are Lefty Phillips (86-76 in 1970), Jim Fregosi (88-74 in 1979) and Gene Mauch (93-69 in 1982).