Tigers Walk On By : Baseball: Angels suffer a 2-1 defeat when Harvey gives up four bases on balls in the bottom of the 10th.

Pitch number 200 thrown by the Angels was fouled off by Tiger rookie Scott Lusader. So was pitch number 201. The bases were loaded, two men were out, and a very long game was on the line in the 10th inning as Lusader, who had been summoned from the minor leagues on Tuesday, dug in against Bryan Harvey.

“He was trying to make Harv work himself into the position where he had to throw a strike,” Angel catcher Lance Parrish said. “He got ahead in the count and at 3-and-2 Harv gave him two fastballs, right down the middle. He fouled both off. It was a very good at-bat.”

A good at-bat that ended badly for Harvey and the Angels. The 202nd and final pitch Friday was a fastball that bounced in the dirt in front of home plate for the fourth walk of the inning, bringing home Cecil Fielder with the winning run in the Tigers’ 2-1 decision over the Angels.

Not wanting to give Fielder, the major league home run leader, anything juicy to hit, Harvey kept the ball away. His first two pitches landed in the dirt in a four-pitch walk; Dave Bergman worked out a full-count walk and Lloyd Moseby had a 3-1 edge in the count before he walked. Harvey (2-2) dodged defeat once when he struck out Lou Whitaker on a 3-2 pitch, but he tempted fate once too often with Lusader.

“I was having trouble controlling everything,” Harvey said disgustedly. “I just stunk it up. There ain’t no excuses. You should never walk four guys in an inning, no matter what. You’ve got to make an adjustment somewhere and I couldn’t do it tonight.”

It was an ironic ending for the Angels, who had the bases loaded on walks with two out in the top of the 10th inning and were themselves one ball away from scoring the go-ahead run.

Edwin Nunez had walked Jack Howell leading off the inning and passed Devon White intentionally. Dante Bichette struck out, but Donnie Hill walked, bringing up Wally Joyner. Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson called on left-hander Jerry Don Gleaton to face the left-handed Joyner, who got ahead in the count 3-and-1.

Joyner, however, swung and missed at a pitch that was high, then grounded easily to short.

“It was a ball,” Joyner said. “Maybe the worst ball he threw me in the inning. Or the whole game.”

Angel Manager Doug Rader noticed that, too. “The difference in the ballgame was they took a ball and we didn’t,” he said. “They got away with it and we didn’t.”

The Angels (31-31) dropped 10 games behind Oakland and are tied for third place with the Minnesota Twins (30-30) in the standings.

Friday’s 3-hour 47-minute exercise began with two sterling performances by the starters. Angel left-hander Mark Langston struck out 11 in eight innings, his 30th double-digit strikeout effort in the American League and 35th of his career. He held the Tigers hitless until Alan Trammell singled sharply to center with one out in the sixth. With Lance Parrish’s second-inning leadoff homer against former Angel Dan Petry his only offensive support, Langston protected that lead until the seventh.

“He was throwing very well,” Parrish said. “The pitches they hit were really not bad pitches.”

Moseby led off the seventh with a walk and was on the move when Ed Romero dumped a soft single to center. The ball curved away from White and glanced off his fingertips, allowing Moseby to score the tying run.

“He did a fine job,” Rader said of Petry, who signed a minor league contract with the Tigers after the Angels released him. “He’s got a lot of friends on this ballclub.”

Langston had gotten out of a sixth-inning fix that developed when Fielder followed Trammell’s single with a double off the glove of left fielder Luis Polonia, striking out Jim Lindeman and Tracy Jones to preserve his shutout. He couldn’t do the same in the seventh, which left him shrugging his shoulders.

“I go out and just try to keep the game close. That’s my job,” said Langston, who has a 4-6 record and one victory in his past six starts. “You throw zeroes for (seven) innings, there’s a pretty good chance that’s going to get you a win.”

He moved into second place on the AL strikeout list with 86, behind the 96 recorded by Boston’s Roger Clemens. He has struck out 58 batters in his last seven starts but is 2-3 with two no-decisions in that span.

“I’d rather be second in wins, or first in wins, instead of strikeouts,” he said.

That the Angels didn’t win Friday sat heavily on Harvey. His elbow, tender last week, was no problem. He felt ready. “Before, when I was scuffling, it was my mechanics and everything,” he said. “Tonight, everything was fine. I just didn’t do what I had to do.”

Angel Notes

Lance Parrish celebrated his 34th birthday Friday by hitting his 11th home run, off Dan Petry. It brought a roar of approval from the Tiger Stadium crowd of 21,252, who remember his 10 years with the club. “That was kind of nice,” Parrish said of the ovation. But he found it difficult to look at Petry, a former teammate and still a friend. “I figured if I made eye contact, it might make me lose my concentration,” he said.

Mark Eichhorn, who pitched the ninth inning, made 29 pitches--and 23 throws to first to hold runners. Seventeen were after Lloyd Moseby had singled, and the last picked him off. . . . The Angels are 3-4 in extra innings and 9-9 in one-run games.

Devon White hit in the ninth spot in the lineup Friday. White is hitting .210 and has six hits in his last 36 at-bats. “This is a big center field and we want him there to play defense,” Doug Rader said. “Right now, he’s not hitting well enough to hit anywhere else.” . . . Sparky Anderson hasn’t forgotten Parrish. He laughingly praised Parrish’s skill in turning a double play while playing first base Wednesday. “How you doing, Silk?” Anderson said. “We’ve got to call you ‘Silk’ now.”