Angels Strike Sweet Notes Before the Bitter Ending

The fear hangs heavy, like the week-old bunting on the outfield facades. The feeling of dread lingers, painfully, like the ringing in your ears.

Angel Rally Bells may be here to stay.

Brought to you by the same people who gave us the ever-handsome Day-Glo neon baseball cap on opening night, a Rally Bell is a miniature cowbell that, when rung in unison with 34,000 others, turns just another evening at Anaheim Stadium into the Night of the Locust. Wally Joyner and Bert Blyleven spent the past week plugging them on cable. Tuesday night, thousands of Angel fans spent nine innings shaking them.

And the Angels, obviously oblivious to the ramifications at hand, provided accompaniment with the sound of bat meeting baseball.

Down, 3-0, to the defending world champions in the fourth inning, Chili Davis bounces a mammoth two-run home run off the hitter’s backdrop that drapes behind the centerfield fence, some 420 feet from home plate.

Down, 5-2, in the sixth inning, Dante Bichette drives a Todd Burns offering 422 feet over the centerfield wall, a three-run home run that erased the kind of deficit the Angels didn’t erase last year against Oakland.

If the Angels believe the pieces of tin had anything to do with it, a dangerous precedent has been set.

This first encounter between American League West champion and challenger was supposed to lack a soundtrack. This was Mark Langston against Mike Moore, pitching matchup from Seattle Mariner hell, the former 1-2 aces George Argyros let get away during his final year of damage as owner in the Great Northwest.

One won a pair of games in the 1989 World Series. The other had yet to allow his first hit of 1990.

It was another of those great awaited pitching duels . . . that usually degenerate into extended batting practice by the sixth inning.

Langston, bidding to become the first man to open a season with back-to-back seven-inning no-hitters, failed before he could get an out. After walking Rickey Henderson--a fine way to start any game--Langston surrendered hit No. 1 to Carney Lansford, a sharp single to right field that froze Henderson at second.

From there, Langston made his best move of the night, twirling and firing a perfect pickoff throw to second baseman Johnny Ray. Ray, slipping in behind Henderson, made the tag and Langston was on his way to working out of trouble.

The condition, though, proved temporary.

Langston speaks of this reoccurring nightmare he has. He’s alone on the mound--full clothed, however--and he’s endlessly dodging vicious line drives up the middle. Tuesday’s third inning turned fantasy into reality when Jose Canseco drilled the real thing right past Langston’s ear for a single.

But that was the softest hit of the inning. Just before, Lansford, owner of two home runs in 1989, cleared the left field fence for a 1-0 Oakland lead. And just after, Mark McGwire connected on a 415-foot line drive that scored Canseco for a 3-0 Oakland advantage.

Langston would leave after three more innings and two more A’s runs. But he would leave tied, because Moore couldn’t complete the bottom of the sixth and reliever Burns couldn’t sneak anything by Bichette.

Bichette’s home run was impressive--his third in eight games--but the events preceding it were just as noteworthy. Ray opened the inning by legging out an scratch single to third, something that should happen again once this season. Then Joyner hit a long fly ball that Dave Henderson ran down--deep enough to drive Moore out of the game.

Oakland Manager Tony La Russa called on Burns and promptly got burned. After a walk to Davis, Bichette delivered and the Angels were tied at 5-5.

Did somebody say the Angels were looking for a power-hitting outfielder?

Having rung their bells, the fans then flung them. Dozens poured onto the outfield after Bichette’s home run, which forced the stoppage of play before the field could be cleared.

Good thing it wasn’t bat night.

The 5-5 tie lasted as long as the bullpens held out. Into the 12th inning they went, before the Angels flinched, Mark Eichhorn surrendered a couple of hits and Ray bobbled a potential double-play grounder.

And in the bottom of the 12th, Dennis Eckersley ushered in the sounds of silence, quieting the Angels last stand for his fourth save of the season.

Rally bells? Maybe. Noise makers? No doubt.

Miracle makers?

Say what?