Angels Glad to Have Finley Back, but Don’t Have Much Time Left

More than three weeks have passed since Chuck Finley, warming up in the Royals Stadium bullpen, took one small step for a pitcher and one giant leap backward for the Angels.

It was just another pitch, made in preparation of just another start, until Finley completed his follow-through.

A twist of the ankle.

A wrenching of a foot ligament.

And suddenly, an entire Angel team was sent reeling.

The Angels lost that Monday night game in Kansas City, which Finley abandoned after only 17 painful pitches. They also lost 13 of their next 18 games--including three turns in the rotation that should have been Finley’s--to drop from a first-place tie in the American League West to six games back on Sept. 8.

A recent surge at Anaheim Stadium--a three-game sweep of the embattled Boston Red Sox followed by two come-from-behind victories over the New York Yankees--has served mainly as a tease, exhuming the Angels for one last stand as they face a four-game deficit in the standings with 17 to play.

It isn’t much of a chance, but it’s all the Angels have.

And so, Chuck Finley, left foot willing, pitches tonight.

“We’re just running out of days,” said Finley, who will start the second game of tonight’s rain-makeup doubleheader in Chicago. “The foot still gets a little sore here and there, but it shouldn’t be enough to affect me. It’s ready.”

Or so the Angels hope.

According to Manager Doug Rader’s pitching schedule, Finley will have the opportunity to make four more starts. If Finley pitches to pre-injury form, that could be enough to jostle the mix in the AL West.

But, realistically, what can the Angels expect from Finley the rest of the way? Their 26-year-old left-hander is a 14-game winner, a contender for the league earned-run average title (2.55) and a member of the 1989 AL All-Star team, but he also hasn’t faced live hitting in 24 days.

“Undoubtedly, I’d like to pick up where I left off, but with all these days off, I can’t say how it’s going to be,” Finley said. “I’ve been throwing all right on the sidelines, but that’s on the sidelines. I haven’t been running out there every fifth day.”

Marcel Lachemann, the Angels’ pitching coach, concedes that the layoff has had a diminishing effect on Finley’s once-precise control.

“His stuff is pretty much the same, but his command is a little off,” Lachemann said. “The simulated game (which Finley pitched Saturday) helped some, and the last time he threw on the side better.

“He’s throwing hard, but his location is still not all the way there. It’ll come.”

Of course, the way the Angels look at it, a rusty Chuck Finley sure beats any of their other options, who have spent most of the past three weeks getting beat. Including Finley’s aborted outing on Aug. 21 at Kansas City, the Angels are 0-4 in starts that ordinarily would have belonged to Finley.

A breakdown of the breakdown:

--Aug. 21: Finley limps off the Royals Stadium mound after 17 pitches, already trailing, 1-0. Relief pitchers Willie Fraser and Rich Monteleone give up three more runs during the next four innings and the Angels lose, 4-2.

--Aug. 26: Terry Clark, an Edmonton recall, takes Finley’s next turn in the rotation and lasts 4 2/3 innings. He allows six hits and three runs while balking once and throwing two wild pitches. The Angels lose to Texas, 3-2.

--Sept. 1: Clark gets the call against the slumping Yankees. He doesn’t get out of the second inning. Clark leaves after 1 1/3 innings, eventually charged with four runs on five hits and a walk. The Angels lose, 11-5.

--Sept. 6: Dan Petry’s number comes up, although he probably wishes it hadn’t. Petry serves up home runs to old (Robin Yount) and new (George Canale) alike, yielding four runs on four hits and three walks through four innings. The Angels lose to Milwaukee, 7-4.

--Sept. 11: An off-day on the Angel schedule, which Angels regard as a victory. They can skip Finley’s turn in the rotation, thus sparing themselves an experiment with rookie Mike Fetters or, perhaps, middle reliever Willie Fraser.

In Finley’s absence, replacement starters combined to allow 11 runs (nine earned) on 15 hits in 10 innings. That works out to three innings per start and an earned-run average of 8.10.

If Finley never takes that turn for the worst, makes those four starts and, say, splits them, the Angels are two games back and the outcome of the AL West race is anyone’s guess.

“Any time you lose one of your top starters, your 1-2-3 starters, I don’t think anybody realistically has anyone they can put in there and fill that spot,” Lachemann said.

” . . . I don’t know if demoralizing’s the word, but (Finley’s injury) happened at the start of the road trip--a very long road trip and a very important road trip. When it happened when it did, obviously, it hurt.”

Finley can only speculate on what might have been had he been there.

“We might’ve been sitting a half-game out . . . or we might’ve been eight games out,” he said with a grin. “Sometimes I think that if I’d been there, maybe I could’ve made a difference.

“When August came around, everybody looked at that road trip as the key trip, because it was so long. If we’d been able to play .500, or just below, we’d be right in the hunt.”

Instead, the Angels went 4-11, which pained Finley more than the sprained ligament in his foot.

“Just because I was at home doesn’t mean I wasn’t hurting just as bad as they were,” Finley said. “I called up Bert (Blyleven), a couple of the other guys, during the trip. I told them they were doing a good job. But it was hard enough watching them, let alone trying to cheer them up.”

So far in September, Finley’s contributions have been, in his own words, “taking up another seat on the bench and eating a little spread.” Finally off the disabled list, he gets the chance to change that tonight.

“Being on the bench, on the sidelines, stinks,” Finley said. “This was one of those years where everything was going my way. I was doing good, pitching consistently, and every game seemed to get better.

“But this has probably happened to a lot of guys before. I’m not going to sit here and cry, ‘If I’d done this or done that.’ The injury was outside my control. The only thing I can control is my next four starts.

“I’m just glad to get the chance to contribute again.”