Red Sox Let Off by Angels in Ninth

It seemed like secondary news, what with the questions surrounding the Dave Winfield trade, but the Angels and the Boston Red Sox actually played a noteworthy game Friday night at Anaheim Stadium.

A crowd of 33,418 watched starters Jim Abbott and Mike Boddicker slog through the opposition’s batting order. Neither foundered, but neither was particularly impressive. Perseverance seemed to be the word of the evening.

In the end, Boddicker, with relief help from Jeff Reardon and two leaping catches at the fence that robbed the Angels of three runs, fared better as Boston beat the Angels, 3-2.

Boddicker (4-3) went eight innings, giving up seven hits, striking out two and walking three.

It was the Angels’ third consecutive loss, their eighth in the last nine and 17th in the past 23, staying in a last-place tie with the Kansas City Royals, 12 games behind the first-place Oakland Athletics.

Sure, the Angels figured to be this close to Kansas City, but in last place? Both teams were expected to challenge Oakland for the American League West championship.

“I don’t think there’s a way to sum it up,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “When you lose, there’s no easy sum. There is a preponderance of things. It’s a simple fact that a couple of balls didn’t travel far enough.”

Indeed, Friday’s loss had the look of many of the Angels’ recent games.

They continued to get the least out of their offense, failing on scoring opportunities at an alarming rate. They even wasted a rare show of power by struggling center fielder Devon White, who hit a home run in the second inning.

Even gritty pitching by Abbott wasn’t enough to bail them out against Boddicker.

“Abbott pitched extremely well,” Rader said. “It’s a shame he didn’t have something to show for it.”

Abbott (1-2) also went eight innings, giving up nine hits and two runs. He gave up three walks and struck out four, throwing 125 pitches before yielding to Mark Eichhorn to begin the ninth inning.

The Angel starter also made a brilliant defensive play, knocking down Wade Boggs’ shot back at him in the sixth. Abbott, the only Angel regular not to commit an error this season, pounced on the ball after it trickled behind the mound and threw out Boggs by a step.

As it turned out, Reardon, who got his second save, put the clamps on the Angels whereas Eichhorn (0-3) couldn’t stop the Red Sox.

Dante Bichette couldn’t catch up with Mike Greenwell’s sinking line drive down the right-field line, which scored Boggs from second base for the go-ahead run in the ninth.

The Angels’ best, and only chance, against Reardon in the ninth was foiled by Ellis Burks, whose leaping catch of Jack Howell’s drive to center field robbed the Angels of the tying run.

“It was over by a glove length,” Burks said. “Bruno (right fielder Tom Brunansky) said it was going over.”

Said Howell: “I don’t think I can hit the ball any better. I really got all of it. Then I look up and see he’s making the effort and I started to worry. Part of this game is getting breaks, having four or five home runs taken away in the last three, four games, I’d classify that as not catching too many breaks.”

In the fifth, Brunansky snuffed another scoring chance, leaping high at the right-center field fence to take a two-run home run away from Chili Davis.

“We’ve just got to hit them farther,” Angel designated hitter Brian Downing said. “An out’s an out. Great defense is part of major league baseball.”

Boston took a 2-1 lead in the sixth on light-hitting Luis Rivera’s run-scoring single to left that scored Burks. Rivera was hitting .100 as he stood in to face Abbott.

But the Angels came back to tie, 2-2, in the bottom of the inning. Lance Parrish’s two-out single to left scored Wally Joyner from second. It wasn’t enough.

Angel Notes

Kirk McCaskill will miss his next start because of tightness in his right elbow, but he said it’s not the same problems that plagued him in 1987 and 88.

“It’s just some tightness and we just want to give it a chance to calm down,” said McCaskill, who said he has none of the pain that accompanied the bone spur that necessitated surgery in 1987. “It’s just a lot of inflammation.” He will start again on May 19 against Toronto, according to Manager Doug Rader.

Second baseman Johnny Ray missed his fourth consecutive game with bursitis in his right shoulder. Tests taken earlier this week showed no bone damage. Donnie Hill started in Ray’s place for the second game in a row. . . . Third base coach Moose Stubing missed the game to attend his daughter’s graduation from Texas A&M.; First base coach Bobby Knoop filled in at third with Deron Johnson at first.