Indians Come Back, but Can’t Back Black : Baseball: He stymies Angels on six hits through eight innings, but isn’t around when Cleveland finally breaks through.

Cecilio Guante threw 16 pitches and won the game.

Doug Jones faced three batters and picked up his 16th save.

Bud Black threw 132 pitches and got only the privilege of showering in the winning clubhouse.

Black carried the Cleveland Indians for eight innings Monday before they climbed off the back of a tired man and finished their triumph without him.

Black shut out the Angels for eight innings, giving up only six hits. All the while, Jim Abbott was shutting out Cleveland over nine innings.

Black gave way to Guante, but Abbott stayed in the game. The scoreless tie lasted until the 10th inning, when Brook Jacoby singled home the winning run. Cory Snyder’s two-run home run, the third of three 10th-inning hits Abbott allowed, provided the final runs in Cleveland’s 3-0 victory at Anaheim Stadium.

“Bud threw well for eight innings and kept us right in there,” Jacoby said.

Black wasn’t there for the spoils, but said he didn’t mind.

“No . . . “ he said, drawing out the word. “That’s all part of it. You like to finish what you start. You’d like to get a win. But we won, and that’s the bottom line for us.

“Any win is a big one. I was just trying to hold ‘em down.”

Black realized soon what kind of game lie ahead.

“Watching Abbott, he had great rhythm and was throwing strikes,” Black said. “I could tell early on it was going to be a tough one.”

Black, who has been the Indians’ most consistent pitcher this season, faced a team that has averaged more than six runs in its past seven games.

Behind him was a team that ranked 10th in the American League in scoring.

Here is a pitcher whose 1.94 earned-run average ranks among the major league leaders, as do his 76 1/3 innings pitched. But Black has four no-decisions in 10 starts, and his record is 4-2--including a 2-1 loss to Texas.

But despite the lack of action on the Indians’ basepaths, he kept Cleveland poised to win the game.

Five times, the Angels put runners in scoring position against Black. Five times, they failed to score.

“There were a couple of situations there where I really had to bear down and use my head,” Black said. “When guys are swinging the bat like they are, you can’t go out and rely on stuff. You’ve got to make pitches in situations.”

Each time, he got the better of the situation.

Black had runners on first and second with two out in the third, and then struck out Johnny Ray on three pitches.

In the fourth, the Angels put runners on second and third with two out. Black was facing Lance Parrish, who had a .310 career average against him and had homered in each of his last two games.

“A tight ball game like that, it comes down to one or two pitches,” Black said.

He got Parrish to ground out to short, ending another scoring threat.

“He was very smart today,” said Parrish, who finished the day zero for four, ending a five-game hitting streak.

Black squelched another Angel attempt to score in the seventh. After giving up a one-out double to Donnie Hill, he got Gary DiSarcina to fly to center, bringing up Devon White. Black fell behind in the count 2-0. It went to 3-1, and then to a full count before he sent White down swinging.

But the most critical showdown was between Black and Dante Bichette, the owner of a 456-foot home run off Black in Cleveland last Sept. 23.

Black had not forgotten.

“That ball almost landed in Lake Erie,” Black said. “It was one of the farthest balls ever hit in Cleveland Stadium.”

Black got Bichette out on a ground ball the first time he faced him Sunday, and gave up a single the second time.

In the sixth inning, with two out and runners on first and second, he got Bichette to hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

In the eighth, Bichette came up with two out and runners on first and second.

Black fell behind in the count, 3-1, and then came back to get Bichette to strike out swinging.

“I was just trying to get him out,” Black said. “One or two bad pitches, and they could score some runs.”

Doesn’t Jim Abbott know it.