Abbott Manages to Get His 10th Victory : Baseball: Angels’ starter gives up 11 hits through 7 2/3 innings, but he beats the Twins and Paul Abbott, 3-1.

The hits kept coming. Oddly, the runs did not.

The Minnesota Twins had eight hits against the Angels’ Jim Abbott after six innings Monday night at Anaheim Stadium, and nary a run.

By the time the game was over, each team had 11 hits, but only four runs scored in the Angels’ 3-1 victory.

The Angels can thank Jim Abbott (10-12), the second-year pitcher who kept the ball in the strike zone, walking only two.

Or they can thank their defense, an effort anchored by third baseman Jack Howell for a team that turned three double plays, two of them with runners in scoring position.

Or they can thank Minnesota, which did little to help its cause, stranding 10 runners--two more than the Angels.

The Twins’ only run was courtesy of Scott Leius, a rookie who is two for 11 since joining the team. His homer in the seventh inning ended Jim Abbott’s shutout bid.

A crowd of 21,379--the smallest at Anaheim Stadium this season, and the second smallest there for the past two seasons--turned out to see the Angels, who equaled their 71-loss total of 1989, and the Twins, who are 25 games behind Oakland in the American League West and the first team in baseball to be mathematically eliminated this season.

There was little to hold the interest other than a trivial question: Which Abbott--if either--would win the only game in major league history that matched up two starting pitchers named Abbott?

It was not to be Paul Abbott (0-3), a rookie making his sixth start. He left after six innings, allowing three runs on 10 hits and six walks.

Instead it was Jim Abbott, who gave up one run and 11 hits over 7 2/3 innings, walking two, striking out one and earning Manager Doug Rader’s praise.

“He didn’t throw that bad,” Rader said. “It might not look like he was overpowering. I know he gave up some hits. But you get outs when you have to get outs.”

It was the third strong outing in a row for Jim Abbott, who had given up only three earned runs in 14 2/3 innings in his past two starts.

But he started shakily Monday.

Pedro Munoz led off the game for the Twins with a double, and the Angels’ starter hit the second batter of the game, Dan Gladden, with a pitch.

But the Twins stranded Munoz on third base by hitting into a double play and grounding to second base.

The Twins stranded two more runners in the second inning, and left the bases full in the fourth after Jim Abbott allowed a hit, a fielder’s choice and walked two to load them.

Leius grounded weakly to second to strand all three.

However, it was Leius who ended Abbott’s bid for what would have been the fourth shutout of his career and second of the season.

Abbott gave up the homer in the seventh and did not last through the next inning, giving way to Bryan Harvey with runners on first and second and two out in the seventh. Harvey, who earned his 21st save, retired pinch-hitter Kent Hrbek on a grounder to first to end the threat.

The Angels had all the scoring they would need in the third inning, bringing two runs across the plate in a three-hit, one-walk inning. Singles by Dave Winfield, who was two for 20 on the just-completed trip, and Lee Stevens, riding an 0-for-22 streak, each drove in a run.

For the game, Winfield was three for four.

The Angels added a third run in the sixth inning, when Luis Polonia’s two-out single drove in Dick Schofield, who had stretched a sharp single past shortstop Leius into a double.

“It was kind of ugly,” Jim Abbott said, “but we’ll take it.”

Angel Notes

Bert Blyleven said Monday that his season is over, and Wally Joyner said he probably will not return either. Blyleven, on the disabled list with a strained shoulder since Aug. 11, tried to play catch Monday but was bothered by the weakness in his shoulder. “I’d have to say yes, (I am through for the season),” Blyleven said. “I’m pretty disappointed.” Blyleven will finish with an 8-7 record and a 5.24 earned-run average after going 17-5 with a 2.73 ERA in 1989. “I talked to (Manager Doug Rader) and he said, ‘Why push it when you might start one or two more games. We’re not in a pennant race.’ ” Blyleven, 39, said he is not concerned that the injury will hamper him next season, and trainer Ned Bergert agreed that Blyleven needs only to strengthen the shoulder.

Joyner, on the disabled list since July 12 because of a stress fracture in his right knee, took grounders at first base and hit off the tee Monday, but said it was “more for my mental outlook, so that I will not have to question over the winter how I will feel in spring training.” Joyner and Bergert said there remains a chance that Joyner will be back. “In my opinion, I don’t think I will be,” Joyner said. “I would like to come back, but realistically I haven’t played in nine or 10 weeks. . . . If it were something outside my knee, maybe I might push it, but because I need my legs to play the sport, there is no reason to push it.” In 83 games, Joyner’s average stands at .268 with eight home runs and 41 runs batted in--all career lows. Rader, asked if Joyner would return, said “It doesn’t look like it.”

Kevin Tapani (11-6) has been announced as the starter for the Twins tonight against Mark Langston (8-16).