Howell Does His Job With Homer, Walk

Forgive Jack Howell for not touching the bag as he rounded first base in the fifth inning Saturday night.

His eyes were on an uncommon spectacle, the sight of a ball off his own bat clearing the fence.

“I knew the ball wasn’t killed,” Howell said. “I knew it was going to be close.”

So while he watched the ball, he missed the bag.

Seeing the ball safely over the fence in left-center, Howell doubled back to touch first before resuming his home-run jog.

He broke into a grin afterward at the thought of it.

“How many times on a home-run trot have you seen a guy, while running, just turn around?” Howell said. “It’s kind of a tough thing to do . . . but I decided to do it anyway.”

He counts it a good decision. First-base umpire Greg Kosc gave him a smile and a knowing look as Howell came back to touch base.

Howell went 1 for 3 with two RBIs in the Angels’ 5-2 victory over Cleveland at Anaheim Stadium. The home run was a welcome event for Howell, who entered the game hitting .209 with five home runs, far off the pace of his 20-homer, .228 season of a year ago.

If Howell seemed to come out of his slump with the homer in the fifth, he seemed to stumble back into a funk in the sixth.

The Angels loaded the bases with one out, bringing Howell to the plate. He grounded into a double play, and that was the end of that.

His redemption came two innings later, when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the eighth, two out and left-hander Jesse Orosco on the mound.

It was a classic mismatch. Howell, a left-handed third baseman, entered the season with a .179 career average against left-handers, and batted .195 with runners in scoring position last year.

Orosco threw two balls, and then Howell flailed at two hard sliders. He fouled off one full-count pitch.

Orosco then threw a high fastball, and Howell looked at it for ball four and a run-scoring walk.

“The thing I liked most was the walk against the left-hander in the bases-loaded situation,” Howell said. “I haven’t done well not only with men in scoring position, but with the bases loaded.”

It was a bit of a surprise to see him at the plate against a left-hander with the bases loaded.

“How many people thought I was crazy,” Manager Doug Rader asked, looking around the room.

With the Angels leading, Rader opts for Howell’s defense in the later innings.

“If it’s a tie game or we’re down, I know that’s a possibility,” Howell said.

As it was, Howell turned a 2-1 lead into a 3-1 lead when he forced Max Venable across with his walk. And his baserunning allowed another run to score when he beat Felix Fermin’s throw to second on an attempted force play on Bill Schroeder, the next batter.

“The bottom line is, he got us two runs and he busted his butt on the play at second base to get us another run,” Rader said.