Relief Pitchers Making Do by Making Do : Angels: With the starters unable to go the long haul yet, the bullpen is filling in the gaps nicely.

The occupants of the right-field bullpen at Anaheim Stadium last season were a bunch of guys who led the major leagues in days off. There were 32 games in which nobody left the Angel bullpen, because the starting pitcher didn’t leave the mound until the game was over.

But in a season that has begun with lowered pitch limits for starters, many of them not yet strong enough to throw into the late innings because of a lockout-shortened spring, the bullpen is getting plenty of work.

But despite the workload--the relievers have pitched slightly more than a third of the Angels’ 66 innings--the bullpen is 1-1 with four saves in five opportunities and a 1.59 earned-run average, though some relievers are among the least-prepared players on the team because of the lockout.

“One thing is that because of not knowing how long the starters can go, the bullpen is a little overextended,” Manager Doug Rader said. “The other thing is these are the people probably most ill-prepared, the people who throw long relief. The starters are good enough to be able to throw five. The short relievers got enough appearances (in spring training) to be sharp for a short period of time. Long relievers need both appearances and the ability to throw more than one inning.”

This group of relievers is an interesting one, some of them new to the Angel pen. Their emotions about where they are range from not happy--Mike Witt--to happy just to be here--Mark Eichhorn.

The Angels would add another emotion--wish he was here--to include Bob McClure, the left-hander who had a 1.55 earned-run average last season but is on the 21-day disabled list with a sore elbow.

Witt was bumped from the starting rotation by the arrival of free agent Mark Langston, only to land in a combined no-hitter with Langston last Wednesday in his debut as a reliever.

Witt doesn’t want anyone to get the idea he has any patience for being out of the starting rotation, but admits the bullpen is not a bad place from which to watch a game.

“I think I can follow the game better out there,” he said. “It’s a lot more relaxed. The dugout is all business. You have to be careful what you say with the manager there.”

Far from the action, it is different. “When guys come up, you can say what you would throw, or what you might throw the next time you faced them,” Witt said. “You don’t want to second-guess the pitcher (when you’re in the dugout).”

But don’t imagine he likes being a reliever.

“No, I would not say I like it,” Witt said.

Witt did not fare nearly so well in his second relief appearance, taking the loss against Minnesota Friday. He pitched 1 2/3 innings and gave up five runs, only one of them earned. Kent Anderson committed two errors at shortstop in one inning, dooming Witt’s appearance.

Eichhorn is a 29-year-old right-hander who won 14 games and saved 10 more for Toronto in 1986, and won another 10 with four saves in 1987. But he fell out of favor in Toronto after that, his side-arm style pushed aside by guys who were throwing harder. He found himself in the minor leagues, at triple-A Syracuse, and spent last season with the Atlanta Braves and at Richmond, their triple-A team.

After signing with the Angels as a free agent in December, Eichhorn started this year in the club’s minor league training camp, but his nose was not the least bit out of joint.

“Not me,” Eichhorn said. “Heck, I spent seven years in the minors. I know where those guys are coming from. I’d like to see those guys make it.”

The extra training time and a return to his forkball, Eichhorn believes, has put him in good stead as he opens this season. “The success has carried over from spring training,” he said. “I got here earlier. I went to minor league spring training, and it just carried over.”

In three appearances, he has yet to allow a run, despite inheriting five runners.

In the eighth inning of the Angels’ 12-inning, 7-5 victory over Minnesota Saturday, Eichhorn came on with the score tied, a runner on third and one out. He walked Kent Hrbek, struck out Gary Gaetti, and got Randy Bush to fly out to end the inning.

“He’s been awesome, really,” pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said. “He’s been the Mark Eichhorn we saw against us at Toronto. We never could do anything with him.”

Despite the strain of filling so many innings, the bullpen has held up--for the most part.

Willie Fraser, a right-handed set-up man who finished with a 4-7 record, 3.24 ERA and two saves last season, has a 7.71 ERA after two appearances.

Bryan Harvey, the stopper last season who finished with 25 saves and a 3-3 record despite a tendency to get in trouble, still is getting in trouble, and mostly getting out of it.

He allowed a run in the 12th inning Saturday night but ended up with the victory after Dante Bichette hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning.

Harvey clearly has not been at his best, and he might be more hampered than others by the shortened spring because he is a fastball pitcher, and one who has traditionally started slow.

“I can see by the way he’s throwing the ball, he doesn’t have his real good fastball,” catcher Lance Parrish said.

For the time being, the relievers are making do by making do.

“The whole bullpen right now is undefined,” Parrish said. “When the roster gets cut back, everyone will have to assume a role. Right now, they concentrate on getting everybody the work they need. Set-up man, closer, long relief, spot starter, that will all come with time.

“No one is prepared for a particular role except the starters. Now, no matter what inning it is, or where the game is headed, it’s going to be whoever is in position who will come out and get work on the mound.”