Fans Get Thrill, Angels Get Loss

With Chuck Finley starting for the Angels, the 21,049 fans at Anaheim Stadium Wednesday night expected to see a superb pitching performance.

They weren’t disappointed. They just didn’t expect the spectacle to unfold on the message board.

While the familiar scene of former Angel Nolan Ryan finishing a no-hitter played on the screen that looms over left field, the unfamiliar scene of Finley struggling played out on the field.

The left-hander’s attempt to become the first five-game winner in the major leagues was foiled by the Indians, who tagged him for seven hits and six walks in 6 2/3 innings in a 5-1 victory over the Angels.

The mastery Finley (4-1) displayed in his previous outings might have made him appear invincible, but he acknowledged his failings Wednesday. He walked former Dodger Mike Huff--a .222 hitter--four times and unleashed a wild pitch and a wild pickoff throw in Cleveland’s two-run third.

“That was me,” Finley said in his typical self-deprecating manner. “I’m capable of losing, there’s no doubt in my mind.”

The dancing knuckleball and wicked off-speed curve of Tom Candiotti (3-1) sent the Angels to their seventh loss in nine games. “He’s just like a magician out there,” Parrish said of Candiotti, who struck out nine and limited the Angels to five hits in recording his first complete game of the season.

While he baffled the Angels with his knuckleballs, he amused the home plate umpire.

“Steve Palermo kept laughing after I threw them, so I guess I must have been doing something right,” Candiotti said.

Not as far as the Angels were concerned. “He’s the kind of guy that even he doesn’t know where it’s going sometimes,” said Gary Gaetti, whose sacrifice fly scored Wally Joyner in the fourth.

“But he was throwing a lot of strikes with the knuckleball tonight,” added Gaetti, who was hit by a pitch in the second inning and reached third on two wild pitches but was left there. “It was moving pretty good. You get him at a different time, in different (warmer) weather and without a lead, and he can’t afford to be as free as he was tonight. Without a five-run lead, he might pitch differently. But he pitched well tonight. He kept us off-stride and kept us off the bases.”

Finley couldn’t do the same. A walk to Huff, a force play and Albert Belle’s 412-foot home run to straightaway center field in the first inning gave Cleveland an early lead. After the two in the third, he gave up another run in the fifth on a walk to Huff, a walk to Mark Lewis, an infield hit and Belle’s single to right.

“I just didn’t pitch that well,” Finley said. “I wasn’t on my game. Why couldn’t I find the plate? If I knew that, I would have found it.”

Parrish suggested Finley’s difficulty stemmed from having extra rest since his last start. Because of days off woven into the Angels’ schedule, Finley had six days rest since his last start instead of the usual four.

“He didn’t have command of his fastball, and there were a lot of goofy plays in the first couple of innings,” Parrish said, referring to Finley’s error and his own poor pickoff throw to first in the third inning. “He was definitely more erratic than I’ve seen him in the past.”

“He’s human. he’s going to have games like these occasionally.”

Parrish wondered whether Ryan is human after watching the final inning of Ryan’s no-hitter replayed on the message board after the second inning. “He’s unbelievable,” Parrish said.

Candiotti made believers out of the Angels Wednesday.

“He’s been historically tough on this ballclub,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said of Candiotti, whose career record is merely 5-4 against the Angels. “I don’t know what the league is hitting against him (.202 before Wednesday) but this wasn’t a fluke. He’s tough to hit.”

Finley will have days like that again, too. “A few walks in there cost me the game and they’re going to cost me a few more down the line,” he said. “You can’t expect to be on all the time. I went out and battled as long as I could. The effort was there. It’s just that the performance wasn’t.”