Anderson Misses One Ball, Hits Another : Angels: Second baseman gives the Tigers a run when he drops a pop-up, but redeems himself with his first major league home run.

With one swing, Kent Anderson neatly balanced his account.

“He broke even,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said.

With a swing at a 2-0 fastball from Detroit’s Frank Tanana, Anderson hit the first homer of his major league career--and made amends for allowing the first run of the game when he dropped Cecil Fielder’s pop-up at second base in the first inning.

“As far as redemption for the first inning, the day started out real slow,” Anderson said. “I kept battling.”

Anderson’s fourth-inning home run was more important to his bookkeeping than it was to the Angels. Chili Davis’ three-run homer in the first inning provided all the Angels needed Sunday in their 10-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Anaheim Stadium.

Anderson, staring into the sun on Fielder’s high pop fly, caught the ball but didn’t realize it. As he turned to look for it in panic, the ball fell from his glove, and Alan Trammell scored from first on the play.

It didn’t appear likely Anderson would be able to recover the run on his own. In 85 at-bats this season, he had driven in only one run. He had never homered in 309 major league at-bats, and hit only nine home runs in the minors.

Anderson didn’t know the ball was gone the moment he hit, but how could he be expected to?

“I don’t hit enough of them to know when they’re going out,” he said.

He didn’t see that the ball had reached the left-field stands until he was near second base. That was where he eased up on his break-neck run and tried to assume a home-run trot.

“When I saw it was out, I slowed down,” he said. “I was a little excited.”

Anderson, a shortstop who has also played second, third, the outfield and designated hitter for the Angels, started at second Sunday.

Donnie Hill, a utility infielder who has played 25 errorless games at second base, was also in the lineup. But partly out of concern for Anderson’s shoulder, which put him on the disabled list last month with a sprain, the Angels put Hill at shortstop.

“I hadn’t been playing a lot of second and Donnie hadn’t been playing a lot of short,” Anderson said. “It felt a little strange as far as that. But any time I’m out there, if it’s second, third or short, I’m happy.”

Anderson handled a grounder from Lou Whitaker on the first play of the game. Tony Phillips singled, but was out at second on a force as Anderson tried unsuccessfully to turn a double play on Trammell’s grounder to third.

Then came the pop-up from Fielder, the major league’s home-run leader who is considered in a slump because he has gone seven games without adding to his total of 25.

“I lost (the ball) in the sun to begin with,” Anderson said. “I picked it up again, and I thought I’d caught it. Then I didn’t feel it in my glove and I started looking for it. . . . I didn’t know where it was, to tell the truth.”

He found out when it fell out of his glove as he turned to look for it.

The other important ball--the souvenir home-run ball--wasn’t easy to procure, either. But Anderson succeeded, and said he will give it to his mother, Katherine, who still lives in Anderson’s hometown of Timmonsville, S.C.

A youngster named Justin got the ball in the stands, Anderson said. In trade, the Angels offered an autographed baseball. The boy’s father, chief of the negotiating team, wanted more in exchange--several baseballs, and a bat.

Not just any bat. And not one of Kent Anderson’s bats, responsible for only one major league home run.

“He wanted a Wally Joyner bat,” Anderson said.

They got it. And for the second time Sunday, Anderson got the ball he was looking for, just a little bit late.