Flawless Spring Ends for Bailes : Freeway Series: Strawberry’s homer stretches Dodger lead to 3-1 in ninth.

Scott Bailes gave up his first run of the spring Saturday, and it gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead over the Angels in the seventh inning of the second game of the 24th annual Freeway Series.

Darryl Strawberry homered in the top of the ninth off Mark Eichhorn for a 3-1 lead. He scored all three runs.

Angel starter Mark Langston and Dodger starter Kevin Gross each gave up one run and were in their respective clubhouses when the Dodgers scored in the seventh.

Strawberry led off the inning with a walk off reliever Bailes. Strawberry moved to second on Kal Daniels’ single, stole third at the front end of a double steal and scored on a passed ball charged to backup catcher John Orton. The run was unearned, and is the only run given up by Bailes in 13 1/3 spring innings.

Strawberry gave the Dodgers their first run when he walked, stole second and scored on Jeff Hamilton’s single to right in the second inning. The Angels matched that in the third. Luis Polonia singled and took second on catcher Mike Scioscia’s wild throw to first on an attempted pickoff. Polonia advanced to third on a ground out and scored on Dave Winfield’s double to right-center.

Langston, who lasted six innings, finished spring training with a 3-0 record and 2.25 earned-run average. Gross lasted five innings and lowered his ERA from 8.18 to 7.00.

It was the Angels’ first game on their new infield, which is the product of an attempt to cut back on defensive problems of a year ago.

Mix dirt and organic material, add red clay and the result is an infield the Angels find far more palatable than the dry, cracked surface they played on last year.

At the very least, they say, the new red clay-dominated mixture makes the infield look good.

“It’s lots better, unless this is how (the old infield) started out,” said third baseman Gary Gaetti, who disliked the old, gray-tinged infield enough to say so when he was negotiating his free agent contract with the Angels last winter.

“The dirt is real fine, real moist. You want an infield like a brownie: moist and chewy.”

The improvements are to shortstop Dick Schofield’s taste. Any improvements would be. “I hope it’s better,” he said.

First baseman Wally Joyner withheld judgment, saying he needed to see how the field would hold up under the heat of summer and the rigors of playing every day before he pronounces it a success or failure.

“It’s too soon. You have to wait for a couple of bad hops--then we can start complaining,” he said.

Frequent complaints last season from Angels and visiting players convinced club officials a change was necessary. After the annual motocross event was over, they uprooted the bluegrass in the infield and replaced it with the same hybrid-Bermuda they had been using along the sidelines and in the outfield.

The dirt also was changed, after sophisticated soil analyses were done. The previous infield had been in place since 1989. That year, the Angels had the league’s second-best fielding percentage; in 1990, when Kevin Uhlich, Angel director of stadium operations, said the infield began to separate, the Angels were the second-worst fielding team with 142 errors.

“We went to a red-clay mixture, and we mixed different particle sizes,” Uhlich said. “By changing, that will make it lock up and hold moisture. . . .

“We were going to change it even before Gary signed, with all the complaints we got. We knew we had to come up with something better, and we feel it should do everything we require of it. If anything, it’s prettier, a real striking red.”

Series Notes

Dodger first baseman Eddie Murray sat out Saturday because of a sore hip. Gary Carter was the designated hitter. . . . Dodger pitcher John Candelaria and Bert Blyleven and Dave Parker of the Angels, three of four active players remaining from the Pirates’ 1979 World Series championship team, had a reunion before the game.

The game was officiated by college umpires following the breakdown in negotiations between the Major League Baseball Umpires’ Assn. and management.