Blyleven Can Share Blame in 6-3 Loss

The offense he criticized so scathingly last Saturday provided him with an early lead and later got him off the hook, so Bert Blyleven could not complain about lack of support Thursday.

Nor did he utter a peep about his teammates’ failures, focusing instead on his own efforts in the Angels’ 6-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

“I’d like to have one pitch back, but what can you do?” Blyleven said, referring to Greg Vaughn’s three-run homer in the second inning. “You keep going out there and battling and try to turn it around. You just try to be consistent, that’s all.”

Blyleven did not pitch badly over six innings, walking three, striking out five and yielding only the runs on Vaughn’s third home run of the season. Angel Manager Doug Rader had found fault with the location of some of Blyleven’s pitches after the 39-year-old right-hander tired in his last outing, but Rader saw little that displeased him Thursday.

“Bert threw one poor pitch and unfortunately that led to a three-run home run,” Rader said. “I thought he pitched extremely well. We just didn’t put anything together. We didn’t get it done in the first inning, when we had to get it done. We got the bases loaded in the first inning with no one out and only got one run.”

The Angels appeared ready to back Blyleven heartily in the first after singles by Luis Polonia and Max Venable and a walk to Wally Joyner, but the threat fizzled when Chili Davis struck out, Dante Bichette forced Joyner at second--scoring Polonia--and Johnny Ray popped to short.

After Vaughn had powered what Blyleven called “a major league hanging curveball” into the left-field seats with two out in the second inning, the Angels countered in the third on a double by Joyner and a single by Davis to cut the lead to one run. They tied the score, 3-3, in the sixth inning on a walk, an error by Vaughn and a single by Lance Parrish.

But Willie Fraser, in his first appearance since his recall from triple-A Edmonton on Monday, couldn’t hold Milwaukee in the seventh.

The Brewers scored three times on four hits, none of which could have been mistaken for a blast, burdening Fraser with his second loss in as many decisions and handing the Angels their sixth loss in eight games and 20th in 28.

Paul Molitor, Gary Sheffield, Robin Yount and Dave Parker singled in succession for two runs, then Greg Brock drove in Yount with the final run on a sacrifice fly.

“I thought (Fraser) threw better than when he left,” Rader said. “He gave up one broken-bat hit, one jammed base hit, then one legitimate hit. I thought he threw pretty well, much better than how it all came out.”

That it came out a loss left Fraser frustrated.

“When you’re going the way I’m going right now, that’s the way it’s going to happen,” said Fraser, who had been optioned to Edmonton on April 30 for three starts and came back with a split-finger fastball to replace his ineffective forkball.

“I made a few good pitches and a few bad. I just basically didn’t get the job done. I had a chance to get a win and we lost. That’s the only thing that bothers me.

“The pitch Yount hit was breaking down pretty good. The pitch to Sheffield was up. Parker hit a ground ball that just found a hole. That’s the way it goes when you’re struggling.”

That is precisely what the Angels are doing. They had a chance to take the lead in the seventh when Kent Anderson led off with a double, but he had to hold when Polonia grounded out. He tagged on Brian Downing’s fly to right but was stranded when Joyner grounded out to second.

“We had our chances to go ahead,” Joyner said. “We just need to keep going out there and playing well. We’ll have our opportunity and we’ll start turning it around.”

Angel Notes

Infielder Mark McLemore was put on the 15-day disabled list Thursday because of a sprained right wrist and suspected break in his navicular bone, the bone between the thumb and the wrist. He injured it in the fifth inning Wednesday, when he fell while rounding first on a double. X-rays taken here were inconclusive and he returned to California for further examination.

Center fielder Devon White was scratched from the starting lineup because of a sore left thumb. He came in as a defensive replacement in the seventh. . . . Pitcher Jim Abbott watched tapes of his 1 1/3-inning, four-walk performance Wednesday with pitching coach Marcel Lachemann and said they had found some mechanical flaws that might explain his woes.