Langston Leaves the Brewers Without Foggiest Notion, 8-3

How foggy was it at County Stadium Tuesday night?

So foggy that routine pop-ups became adventures. So foggy that the outfielders needed radar to track balls hit in their air space.

“We were kind of laughing,” Angel right fielder Dante Bichette said after the Angels’ 8-3 victory over the Brewers. “I looked over at ‘D’ (Devon White) once and said, ‘I thought that one was to me,’ and it was a foul ball. We were laughing at each other. There was nothing we could do.”

Although the chilled air rolling in off Lake Michigan made miniature clouds of Mark Langston’s breath and obscured the signs flashed at him by catcher Lance Parrish, Langston and the Angels never lost sight of victory. Langston rebounded from two sub-par outings to record a season-high seven strikeouts, and Jack Howell hit his third home run of the season in the Angels’ second victory in a row.

In what was only the third time they have won consecutive games since they won three in a row in the first week of the season, the Angels gained a game on the American League West-leading Oakland Athletics and are 9 1/2 games back. They didn’t gain any ground between April 22 and May 13.

“It’s nice to get movement, but most importantly, we have to look at the fact that we’re starting to play better,” said Howell, who has two singles, a double, a triple, a home run and four runs batted in in his last two games. “We still have a long way to go, but if we all do our job, we can still turn this around.”

Langston (3-3) made an impressive turnaround from his last start, last Wednesday. Admittedly overthrowing, he never found his natural rhythm and as a result walked eight and gave up four earned runs to the Orioles in six innings.

Tuesday, after Dave Parker’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning scored Robin Yount, who had hit a fog-shrouded triple over Bichette’s head, the Brewers didn’t hit another fly ball off Langston until Paul Molitor’s foggy double in the eighth.

Langston left after giving up a single to Gary Sheffield, who scored on an infield hit by Yount. Mark Eichhorn, brought in by Manager Doug Rader because “he’s the pitcher who’s more apt to throw ground balls than anybody on the staff,” gave up two hits and struck out two in the final two innings.

“The way I was throwing the ball, it was sinking pretty well on me,” said Langston, who had lost his two previous starts. “I was fortunate that they kept the ball on the ground. Anything in the air was very difficult.

“Between starts, I worked on slowing everything down so I could get ahead of hitters and make them swing at pitches I wanted them to swing at. I felt pretty comfortable, nice and relaxed. I had a great defense behind me, too. It was a tough night to play defense.”

Every night is a tough night to play defense for the Brewers, who added two errors by Sheffield to increase their league-leading total to 33. They lost their third in a row and remained second in the AL East, .002 behind Toronto.

The Angels scratched out a run in the fourth off Chris Bosio (3-2) on two singles and a force play. The Brewers matched that in the bottom of the inning, but the Angels pulled away on Howell’s two-run home run to center in the fifth.

“I lost it,” Howell said, smiling. “Once it started heading out it was hard to tell if it was fading out or still on line.”

Milwaukee pulled close with a run in the sixth on two singles, two force plays and a passed ball, but the Angels put the game away in the eighth. Sheffield’s two-out misplay opened the way for White’s two-run, fog-aided double to left, which was followed by Parrish’s run-scoring infield hit.

“It was strange,” White said. “But I got a hit out of it.”

Rader got a good deal of satisfaction out of Tuesday’s game. “Mark looked very composed for the first time since his very first start and that was reflected in his control and the fact he got all his pitches over the plate,” Rader said. “His velocity was much better. It’s difficult to throw the baseball very hard if you’re not relaxed.”

He was also pleased with Howell’s success. “It doesn’t seem like they ever do even out,” he said, “but maybe he’s getting a little reward for all the times he was hitting the ball hard and not getting anything.”

Angel Notes

Reliever Willie Fraser, recalled from triple-A Edmonton Monday, has temporarily dropped his forkball in favor of a split-finger fastball. He got eight outs with the new pitch in his last start, last Sunday. He made three starts for the Trappers, compiling a 1-0 record with 13 strikeouts and a 3.14 earned-run average in 14 1/3 innings. “I got what I needed, which was work,” said Fraser, who was 0-1 with an 11.81 ERA before being optioned to Edmonton April 30. “I made some changes, just to get comfortable. I’m just glad to be back.” Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said he doubts that Fraser will stick with the split-finger pitch. “We just thought it might be easiser to go this way,” Lachemann said, “and gradually as he gets more comfortable with the split-finger, go back to the forkball.”

All three of Jack Howell’s home runs this season have been hit on the road. . . . Tuesday’s three-hit game was his second consecutive multihit performance, following Sunday’s two-for-four effort. . . . With the victory, the Angels are 2-11 in series openers.

Kirk McCaskill, who will miss his turn today because of tightness in his right elbow, remained in California because his wife is expecting their first child this week. McCaskill is scheduled to rejoin the team Thursday and start Saturday in Toronto.