Schofield’s Play Isn’t Overlooked : * Angels: Other teams might take the No. 9 hitter lightly, but he makes the Red Sox take notice.

You expect fine defensive plays from Dick Schofield, and the smooth-fielding Angel shortstop made several Thursday night against the Boston Red Sox.

You don’t often expect the clutch hits from Schofield, the team’s No. 9 hitter who is not the most feared run producer in the Angel lineup.

But Schofield came up with a key hit in a two-run, seventh-inning rally to help the Angels defeat Boston, 3-2, in Anaheim Stadium.

With one out and Jack Howell on first, Schofield and Howell tried to re-create the successful hit-and-run play they performed in the fifth inning when Schofield blooped a single over the vacant second-base position.

Howell ran twice on 2-2 pitches, but both times Schofield fouled them off. Then, with Howell not running, Schofield doubled to left field, his 100th career double, to put runners on second third.

Howell, trying to score on Luis Polonia’s grounder to the pitcher, was thrown out in a rundown between third and home. But Wally Joyner then lined a two-run single to right field, with Schofield scoring the go-ahead run, to snap a 1-1 tie and give the Angels a 3-1 lead.

“We’ve got some guys that are taken lightly by other ballclubs but they’re not taken lightly here,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said, alluding to Schofield and Howell, the No. 8 hitter. “People who play the game in an effortless manner are generally overlooked or underrated.”

Effortless is an adjective usually used to describe Schofield’s defense, and Schofield, who led American League shortstops in fielding percentage (.989) going into the game, showed why Thursday night.

In the first inning, he ranged deep behind the second-base bag to field Carlos Quintana’s grounder and throw him out. In the second, he charged Ellis Burks’ grounder, fielded it in front of second and threw Burks out on the run.

Schofield made a difficult, in-between-hop grab of Jody Reed’s fifth-inning grounder and threw him out, and then charged Burks’ ninth-inning slow-roller and threw him out for his fifth assist of the game.

“For us to be as good as we can be, Dick Schofield has to play shortstop for us,” Rader said. “We wouldn’t have won had he not played short so effectively tonight.”

Schofield didn’t play very effectively for most of the 1990 season because of a strained right hamstring, which sidelined him for April and May. He’s had some minor injuries this year but is feeling a lot better, as evidenced by his .268 batting average after Thursday night.

“I don’t feel 100% all the time. Little things nag at you, but compared to last year I feel great,” said Schofield, who has committed only two errors this season. “It’s good to be healthy and running out there every night.”

Schofield hit better than .300 in the final two months of 1990, but the injury saddled him, both physically and mentally, for much of the summer.

“It was always in the back of my mind that I might get hurt,” said Schofield, who spent a week rehabilitating the leg at triple-A Edmonton. “Last year, when I came back, I was kind of hesitant, thinking about the leg rather than hitting or fielding.”

The way he’s hitting this season, Schofield might become a little more prominent in the minds of opposing coaches and players, but he doesn’t mind being overlooked.

“That’s easy to do when you have guys like Joyner, Winfield and Parker around,” Schofield said. “That’s fine with me. I’ll just try to get on base like I did tonight and have them knock the little guys in.”