Joyner (Who Else?) Gives Angels Victory : Baseball: His ninth-inning single helps put away Orioles, 4-2, in a game in which he homers and drives in all four runs.

He fouled off three curveballs in succession before he saw a fastball, and Wally Joyner got barely enough of that 3-and-2 pitch from Oriole left-hander Mike Flanagan to foul it off his shoe and prolong his at-bat.

“You always put yourself in a situation not to look bad if he throws you a fastball,” Joyner said after his two-run ninth-inning single Saturday gave the Angels a 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium. “You look for a fastball and adjust to whatever else he throws.”

Nothing Flanagan did in the ninth inning could throw Joyner off. After fouling off one more pitch, Joyner poked a curveball into right field for the two runs to make Chuck Finley the first seven-game winner in the major leagues.

“I think he’s got all 24 of us on his back,” Finley said of Joyner, who provided the Angels’ first two runs with a home run off Oriole starter Jeff M. Robinson in the third inning.

“Who else would you want up to bat in that situation in the ninth?” Finley said. “It’s almost like you knew he’d get a hit in that situation and he did.”

Joyner had three hits in four at-bats, extending his hitting streak to a career-best 14 games and raising his batting average to a major league-leading .391. His at-bat against Flanagan, who had relieved Mark Williamson (0-1) in time to face left-handed hitters Luis Polonia and Joyner, was his favorite feat in a stretch of remarkable accomplishments.

“He threw everything he had, and I did everything I had,” said Joyner, who is 27 for 55 (.491) with 20 runs batted in during his streak, the longest active one in the major leagues. “If it happened again, he’d probably get me out. It’s something I’ll remember for a while.”

Remembering if a few minutes later, Flanagan had no regrets.

“I’m trying to think of something I could have done differently, but I don’t know what that would be,” Flanagan said. “He’s swinging the bat great, and he’s a good hitter even when he’s not swinging the bat well.

“Looking back, maybe the best thing to do was to walk him, but I don’t think that way when I’m facing a left-handed hitter. I’m just trying to get him out.”

Flanagan nearly succeeded. “I got just a little bit of it,” Joyner said, “just enough. More than I needed, and not enough for the outfielder to catch it.”

The Orioles had scored first off Finley on Chris Hoiles’ home run into the upper-deck in left in the second, but Joyner gave them a 2-1 lead in the third. Polonia singled with two out and Joyner slammed a 1-and-1 pitch into the right-field bullpen for his sixth home run of the season and fifth during his hitting streak.

“He (Robinson) was working me away, away, away. It was a very good pitch for him to throw,” Joyner said of the fastball he hit over the 376-foot sign in right. “I didn’t think I hit it that good, really.”

The Orioles caught up in the third inning on an unearned run set up on Gary Gaetti’s throw past first on Tim Hulett’s grounder, and they had runners on base in every inning afterward except the seventh. Finley (7-1) wasn’t as overpowering as he was early last season, but he still managed to get key outs. He struck out seven over eight innings, leaving Bryan Harvey to pitch the ninth and earn his ninth save.

“Would you rather pitch great and be 1-6 or pitch mediocre--have some good games, some bad--and be 7-1?” said Finley, who was 6-2 after eight starts last season and went on to finish 18-9.

“There are times these guys know I’m going to get lit up or struggle, and I’m the first one to tell you I’m not pitching that good. I’m not pitching that bad, either. The last couple games, I’ve been giving up some two-out runs, and that’s not like me. But when you weigh it out on paper, in the end I’m going to be ahead.”

Joyner is ahead of everyone in the major leagues with 50 hits in 36 games, and he’s tied for the American League RBI lead with Oakland’s Dave Henderson at 31 each. By comparison, in his spectacular rookie season of 1986, Joyner was hitting .316 with 15 homers and 37 RBIs after 36 games.