With Four Hits, Wally Enters a Familiar World : Angels: Joyner’s five-RBI performance rekindles memories of his stunning rookie year.

Wally Joyner returned to those innocent days. Back to a time when everything went his way.

With the crowd chanting, “Wally, Wally, Wally,” the “Wally World” banners dangling in right field and the Angels needing a big hit, Joyner delivered. Just the way he had done so often in his rookie year of 1986.

Joyner had four hits Friday night, including a three-run homer that brought the crowd of 45,998 to a frenzy. He drove in five runs, scored three and helped the Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 10-8.

Dave Parker had the game-winning hit with a solo home run in the seventh inning, which gave the Angels a 9-8 lead. However, the evening belonged to Joyner.

“Dave Parker had the big hit, but it’s pretty hard to overshadow what Wally did tonight,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said.

With the four hits, Joyner extended his hitting streak to 11 games, his second longest of the season. He hit in 16 straight during June.

Joyner also raised his average to .328, the highest of his career this late in a season, and improved his RBI total to 51.

But it was the dramatic at-bats and the clutch hits that made him the center of attention in a roller-coaster game that had many heroes.

It was 1986 revisited, when Joyner hit .290 with 22 home runs and 100 RBI, paving the way to the American League West title. Wally World was born.

The years that followed weren’t quite so sweet. There were contract squabbles, arbitration and, last season, a stress fracture in his right knee that ended his season July 12.

Those problems seemed to have disappeared this season. Joyner was sixth in the American League in hitting going into Friday’s game and among the leaders in RBI.

All that was missing was the emotion. And that returned Friday.

In the first inning, with the Angels trailing, 2-0, Joyner doubled home Luis Polonia. He then scored on a sacrifice fly by Parker to tie the score.

Joyner also singled and scored in the third. But it was his third at-bat that brought the crowd to its feet and brought back memories of 1986.

With two outs and two on, Joyner worked the count to 3-2 against the Rangers’ Calvin Schiraldi. Joyner fouled off eight pitches before driving a pitch well over the right-field fence, just to the left of the Wally World banner.

The crowd responded with an ovation that lasted until the moment Dave Winfield crushed a 1-0 pitch into the left-field seats. The back-to-back home runs gave the Angels an 8-3 lead.

Joyner capped his night by driving in an insurance run in the eighth. With two outs and runners on first and second, he blooped a double down the left-field line to give the Angels a 10-8 lead.

The five RBIs equaled his season high, set May 10 against Cleveland. Joyner’s career best was in 1988, when he drove in six runs against Oakland.

Joyner had only four RBIs in his previous 16 games at Anaheim Stadium.