Jeff Robinson Provides Angels an Escape Clause : Baseball: Veteran relief pitcher is in control this season, allowing only one of 20 inherited baserunners to score.

The bases were clogged Friday night, and for the third time this season in that same bind, the call to the Angel bullpen was for Jeff Robinson.

In a rare lapse, Chuck Finley, the Angels’ ace, already had walked in what would prove to be the winning run. But the damage stopped there. Robinson, seemingly oblivious to the tension, got Toronto pinch-hitter Mookie Wilson to ground to second, and the inning was over.

Twice this season, Robinson has come in with the bases loaded and two out, and twice has escaped without a run scoring.

Once, Robinson came in with the bases full and none out, and still escaped without a run.

“He either gets them to hit his pitch or he strikes them out,” catcher Lance Parrish said. “The ideal mind-frame a relief pitcher can have is just pitching like there’s nobody on base. His sole job is to get the hitter he’s facing, and not worry about what happens if he gives up a hit.”

When Mark Langston walked off the mound in Seattle during the first series of the season with three on and no one out, he was upset with himself for sticking another pitcher in such a fix.

But Robinson escaped, getting Jay Buhner to pop foul, Pete O’Brien on another pop fly, and then striking out pinch-hitter Greg Briley.

“I hated to put him in that situation,” Langston said afterward. “I’m still in awe of the job he did.”

Robinson is not.

“It’s no big deal,” said Robinson, who has an earned-run average of 1.48 and has held batters to a .157 average. “To be perfectly honest, I don’t even think about it. It doesn’t matter if anybody’s on base, the objective is still to get the batter out.”

The objective has usually been met. All told, Robinson has inherited 20 baserunners this season. One has scored.

“It’s a tribute to his ability to get all his pitches over,” Parrish said. “He has good movement on his fastball, a good forkball he uses as his out pitch. He’s definitely got all his pitches, and he’s definitely got very good control. He stays around the strike zone.”

Control is the critical issue. If a pitcher comes in with the bases loaded, a walk carries a very obvious penalty.

Marcel Lachemann, the pitching coach, is appreciative of Robinson’s ability to get the first pitch over for a strike, and his control over all his pitches--a fastball, sinker, slider, forkball and occasional slow curve.

“He has a very calm demeanor,” Lachemann said. “He seems very unperturbable.”

Robinson, a right-hander whose career had stalled the past two seasons with Pittsburgh and the New York Yankees, signed a $1-million free-agent contract with the Angels in January, bringing him home to Orange County after a miserable season in New York.

A former Troy High School and Cal State Fullerton pitcher now in his seventh major league season, Robinson might be more delighted to be an ex-Yankee than noted escapees Luis Polonia and Dave Winfield.

“I’ve never been happier in my life,” Robinson said, praising the ease of his commute from Coto de Caza and the life style his family enjoys.

He is one of the reasons the Angel bullpen, considered a weak link before the season, has turned out to be one of the strongest.

The bullpen leads the majors in earned-run average at 1.55, and is 13 for 13 in save opportunities--11 by Bryan Harvey and the other two by Robinson, who is primarily a set-up man.

Harvey, the stopper, has been outstanding, with a .047 ERA.

But even in a bullpen where a number of pitchers have performed well, Robinson stands out as a success story.

“I seem to be back on my feet, firmly, not just a little bit here and there,” he said. “I’ve re-established myself as a quality reliever again.”

Robinson, who has been a starter and a reliever in his career, posted a 7-13 record and a 4.58 ERA in his last season with Pittsburgh, and was 1-5 with a 4.54 ERA at the All-Star break last year.

Robinson was looking for a way out of New York. Of course the way he was going, it wouldn’t be hard to get out, but it might be hard to find some place to go.

He was unhappy with his family’s life style and with the turmoil of the Yankees. Billy Connors, the pitching coach, was one of the few people he trusted.

Connors didn’t know it then, but he was on his way out, too. The Yankees fired him abruptly in October. But together, he and Robinson got the pitcher back on track.

“Right before the All-Star break last year, Billy Connors and myself were doing a little drill on the side in the bullpen, and he discovered a little thing that led to an enormous thing,” Robinson said. “It was so big it took half a year, and Lachemann tutoring me during the winter, to correct.”

The discovery was that after undergoing hernia surgery before the 1989 season, Robinson had altered his mechanics, creating a problem involving his arm angle and his upper body.

After working with Connors, Robinson’s ERA in his final 18 outings last season was 1.75.

After Connors was fired, he told his friend Lachemann that Robinson was a find.

“He said the last part of the season that Jeff was throwing very, very well. He said he was a great kid, a great worker and a thinker,” Lachemann said.

Robinson has been so good in relief with the Angels that some people wonder if he couldn’t fill a spot starter’s role, especially considering the struggles of rookie right-hander Scott Lewis and the impending decision about whether to add Fernando Valenzuela to the rotation, giving the Angels four left-handed starters.

Robinson, in pure bliss about being back in Southern California, says his role is only to get hitters out whenever he goes in.

Parrish would prefer not to see that change.

“I’d hate to see them take him out of his element by taking a chance and throwing him in there when he’s not used to it, putting new stress on his arm,” Parrish said. “With the performance he’s given us in the role he’s in, I don’t think it would be a good idea to stick him in the rotation and risk that.”

Lachemann, facing the same question about the possibility of Robinson starting, doesn’t hesitate at all. The answer is no.

“You don’t want to mess with something that works,” he said.