Abbott Requires No Luck : Baseball: He matches personal season best with 12th victory as Angels beat Mariners, 4-3.

People used to shake their heads and wonder why bad luck followed Jim Abbott to the mound.

The broken-bat singles, the bloop hits. Little things would go wrong--little things like too many walks. Granted, the Angels weren’t always there to help with an abundance of runs, and the bullpen let down a few times.

While others offered their sympathy, Abbott turned to the work of improving his luck. He did it in a concrete way--by working to stay ahead of hitters, by learning to throw to the outside part of the plate and by mixing in an improved curve.

It wasn’t good luck that made Jim Abbott the winner in the Angels’ 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners before 22,474 fans at the Kingdome Sunday, it was good work.

In his past 21 starts, he has a 2.69 earned-run average and has improved to 3.14 overall. That will get a pitcher somewhere a lot faster than a little luck.

The victory was Abbott’s fifth in six starts. He improved to 12-8 and is poised to surpass his personal best, set when he went 12-12 during his rookie season in 1989. Abbott was 10-14 last season.

Someone asked Abbott if he was getting close to any goals he had set for himself. He smiled and said those were private.

“I’m getting there. They’re within reach,” he said. “I haven’t passed ‘em.”

Whatever they are, Manager Doug Rader wants him to reach them.

“I know one thing, he sure deserves it,” Rader said after his last-place Angels won for the fifth time in six games. “Jim Abbott has pitched extremely well for a long time. He’s had a terrific streak.”

Abbott gave up two runs on eight hits, walking two and striking out seven, which tied his season high. He also squelched Seattle’s attempted sixth-inning rally by getting Pete O’Brien to end the inning with a bases-loaded groundout.

The Angels gave Abbott a 3-0 lead in the third inning when Luis Polonia scored from third base on Wally Joyner’s groundout, and Gary Gaetti and Dave Parker added run-scoring doubles. Gaetti made the lead 4-1 in the sixth with his second home run in two days and his 16th of the season.

Bryan Harvey, closing in on Donnie Moore’s club record of 31 saves set in 1985, earned his 29th save and his second in two days by getting the last four outs.

The Mariners have 28 come-from-behind victories, 14 of them with rallies starting in the seventh inning or later. Harvey’s job was to preserve a one-run lead after two runs scored in the eighth on run-scoring doubles by Jay Buhner and pinch-hitter Greg Briley against relief pitcher Mark Eichhorn. Left fielder Luis Polonia looked as if he might have a play on Briley’s fly ball, but his running leap on the track came up short.

Harvey ended the eighth inning by getting O’Brien to hit a ground ball to second, and then struck out Harold Reynolds to end the game after giving up a two-out single to Edgar Martinez.

“A one-run lead, these guys can end a game with one swing of the bat,” Harvey said.

Had he not gotten Reynolds, Griffey was up next.

“You don’t want to get to him,” Harvey said.

Abbott left with a 4-1 lead and one out in the eighth after giving up a one-out double to Griffey with Buhner on deck.

He had done his job. The outside pitch, and trusting himself enough to put the ball over the plate, have been important.

Said Abbott, a left-hander who makes his living with a fastball that tails in to right-handed hitters: “Hitters were able to know they’d get a slider in or a fastball in. They geared for it.

“The most important thing for me is trusting myself. You have to get it over the plate. If they hit it, let ‘em hit it.”