Three Hits Push Howell Into the Spotlight : Angels: Third baseman’s return to the starting lineup was overshadowed by a no-hitter. But Thursday was his turn to be noticed.

Jack Howell made a big splash in his 1990 debut after spending a week nursing a sprained ankle. It was too bad nobody noticed.

When he returned to his position as the Angels’ third baseman, he found most everything in fine working order, his swing most of all. Howell had two doubles in four at-bats.

“I just thank the Lord this wasn’t a worse injury,” Howell said. “Coming out of spring training I really felt confident in my swing.”

The season began in fine fashion for Howell. Only his timing seemed to be off.

That was Wednesday night, and Mark Langston and Mike Witt were busy combining for a no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners.

Who had time to notice a couple of doubles when there was a no-hitter going on?

Well, Thursday night, the 24,479 in Anaheim Stadium sure noticed Howell, who stood out in the Angels’ 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

Howell went 3 for 3, all singles, with an RBI and a run scored in the Angels’ third consecutive victory.

It was Howell’s first three-hit game since July 28, 1989, against the Chicago White Sox, a span of 57 games.

A year ago, it took Howell 20 games to get his first multiple-hit game.

This season, Howell’s done it in his first two games of the season.

Moreover, Howell had two of his hits off Dave West. Not that West is particularly troublesome to Howell, but the Minnesota pitcher is left-handed, and Howell has always struggled against lefties.

Howell, a career .179 hitter against left-handed pitching, had no such troubles with West, belting a first-inning pitch down the left-field line.

That scored John Orton from second and the Angels led, 2-1.

Howell led off the eighth inning with a sharp single to right off reliever Rich Yett and later scored on a throwing error by Twin third baseman Gary Gaetti.

“He seems to be doing OK,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said of Howell. “He’s put a lot of time and effort into it (learning to hit lefties).”

Howell said he spent the summer refining his batting stance with Angel hitting coach Deron Johnson.

“This winter, DJ came over to my house and we threw out about a million of my old stances,” Howell said. “I just went back to the fundamentals, stay back and wait on the ball.”

It seemed to suit Howell well, until an April 4 spring training game against the San Diego Padres in Palm Springs.

Trying to beat out a grounder to second base in the eighth inning, Howell lunged for the bag, his left ankle taking the brunt of his awkward landing.

The original prognosis had Howell missing seven to 10 days, but he was just itching to return to action.

“If it had been the middle of the season, I would have been back Monday (opening day),” Howell said. “But it being the beginning of the season, they wanted to make sure they took care of (the ankle) right.”

So now Howell is back in the lineup, and off to a fast start, taking a .714 average (5 for 7) into tonight’s game against Minnesota.