Finley Doesn’t Give Himself a 10

He is the first American League pitcher to win 10 games, he ranks second only to the Boston Red Sox’s Roger Clemens with 83 strikeouts, and is off to the fastest start in Angel history.

And still, Chuck Finley insists he is not yet at his best.

“I just hope I start to pitch a little better now,” he said Sunday, after he struck out nine for the third consecutive game and his teammates got 14 hits in a 7-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Anaheim Stadium.

“I’ve been pitching better the last couple of times. Mechanically, I feel better, and I hope I’m getting into a groove. Maybe the next 10 won’t be as much of a struggle.”

His toughest struggles seem to be with himself. Finley (10-2) walked five Tigers Sunday and has issued 41 walks in 86 2/3 innings--17 walks more than he gave up in his first 12 starts a year ago.

“He just has a tendency, at times, to try to rush things,” catcher Lance Parrish said. “He lets the ball go up and it gets up in the strike zone. The good thing is he recognizes it and does correct it most of the time.”

Finley issued four of the five walks with two out, and a two-out walk to Tony Phillips in the third almost cost him a run. Phillips tried to score on Travis Fryman’s double to left, but he was thrown out on a relay from Luis Polonia to Dick Schofield to Parrish.

Detroit scored only one run against Finley, on Phillips’ leadoff homer in the sixth. By then, the Angels had ended the major league debut of right-hander Dan Gakeler before 42,677 by scoring a run in the second and four in the fourth.

The Angels put the game out of reach in the sixth on back-to-back homers by Wally Joyner and Dave Winfield, with Winfield tying Graig Nettles for 24th on the career home run list at 390. Fighting to keep their four-game winning streak alive, the Tigers scored a run in the eighth against Jeff Robinson and one in the ninth against Mark Eichhorn, the first earned run given up by Eichhorn in 17 appearances since April 22, a span of 23 innings.

“I don’t think the score reflects how close this ballgame was. Chuck really had to work,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said after his club averted a sweep by the Tigers.

“That’s the reason he has removed himself from the majority of major league pitchers--he’s able to get outs when he needs them and win. This was a very important day for us for a number of reasons, and we had the right guy on the mound.”

The previous fastest starts by an Angel pitcher were by Nolan Ryan, who needed 13 starts to get 10 victories in 1975, and Bill Singer, who was 10-2 after 13 in 1973.

“I probably added 40 extra pitches to my pitch count with those walks, and it’s something I’m not happy about,” said Finley, who had thrown 120 pitches when he was relieved in the seventh by Robinson.

“Nine strikeouts doesn’t mean anything to me. The fact that means most to me is trying to get as deep into the game as I can and let the offense do their job.”

Schofield drove in the first Angel run on a bases-loaded grounder in the second inning and added two RBIs with an opposite-field single in the fourth. In 46 games, Schofield has 15 RBIs, three short of his RBI total in 99 games last season.

No. 7 hitter Donnie Hill was two for four and scored a run, and center fielder Max Venable, hitting eighth, reached base in all four of his at-bats and scored the fifthAngel run on Polonia’s double-play grounder.

“Don’t forget to give credit to the guys at the bottom of the lineup,” Rader said. “They did a fantastic job.”

Finley rated his own job Sunday as “all right.” He has already won more games than he won in 1988, when he was 9-15, but his expectations have risen immeasurably since then.

“You’re talking to a different pitcher now. Back in ‘88, I was trying to figure out how to get guys out,” said Finley, whose 3.12 earned-run average ranks among the AL’s top 10. “It’s not that my fastball is any faster, or my breaking ball breaks better--it’s that I know how to pitch. That’s what gets you through games. I try to let everyone see and let my teammates know I’m a complete pitcher.”

If not a completely satisfied pitcher. But that, too, might come.

“I’ve had some good games and I’ve had some that have been mediocre, but I think I’m starting to get over that little hump,” Finley said. “That’s good because everybody wants to be at their best in the middle of the season and toward the end when it matters.”