Angel Bats Again Abandon Abbott; Tigers Win, 6-2

Jim Abbott has had little luck this season and even less offensive support. That added up Monday night to a 6-2 loss to the Tigers and a 1-4 record that could easily be the other way around.

“We’re just not scoring runs for the guy,” Hubie Brooks said. “I wish I could tell you why.”

The Angels, who were shut out by Toronto’s Todd Stottlemyre in Abbott’s last start, scored their runs off Bill Gullickson (4-2) in the eighth and ninth innings, after Abbott had departed. They’ve scored no runs in the last 15 innings Abbott has pitched and only two runs in his last 21 innings spanning three games, all defeats.

“The wins will come. I’ve been thinking that,” said Abbott, whose earned-run average rose from 1.80 to a still-outstanding 2.63. “You try to get off to a good start, but the results just haven’t been there.”

About a dozen of Abbott’s relatives from his hometown of Flint, Mich., braved bone-chilling cold at Tiger Stadium Monday night to join a crowd of 9,466. That’s less than half the size of the crowd across town at the Red Wings’ playoff game. “I wish they all would have gone there,” Abbott said of his disappointed relatives.

They would have missed an experience that’s become all too common for Abbott: a performance that’s decent or sometimes exceptional but not victorious.

Gullickson, one of four 20-game winners in the major leagues last season, baffled the Angels with an array of off-speed pitches and moved the ball in and out well enough to keep them from mounting a concerted push until after Abbott’s six-inning stint had ended.

“Jimmy seems to be the tough-luck guy around here. I thought he pitched very well, but he made a couple of mistakes and they hit ‘em out,” said catcher Lance Parrish, who doubled into the left-field corner in the eighth and eventually scored on Lee Stevens’ pinch-hit single.

“For the most part, he was keeping the ball down well and in well,” Parrish added. “The only times he left the inner part of the plate and got the ball up, they hit home runs.”

The Tigers are apt to do that. They increased their major league-leading home run total to 37 on Dan Gladden’s three-run shot into the upper deck in left in the fifth inning and a two-run blast by Travis Fryman in the sixth, also to left. Abbott hadn’t given up any homers in his previous five starts, but he became the 10th pitcher to yield two or more homers to the Tigers in a game this season.

“He’s usually pretty rough on me,” said Gladden, who was surprised to learn he was seven for 25 against Abbott before his homer. “He runs the fastball in on you, in on the right-handers, and he’s tough “

While his teammates iced their hands to ease the sting of Abbott’s inside pitches, Gladden avoided that pain by moving back slightly in the batter’s box to get a better cut at Abbott’s cut fastball.

“I don’t think he wanted to throw that ball there,” Gladden said of the high fastball he powered over the fence for his third three-run homer of the season. “He made a mistake on that pitch and I just happened to get a good swing.”

Abbott didn’t make any mistakes until that inning, holding Detroit hitless until Rob Deer led off with a single to left. However, he had walked two and gotten into several deep counts, pushing his pitch count near 80 when Deer singled. After Mark Carreon popped up, Milt Cuyler hit a chopper under Gary Gaetti’s glove for an infield hit; Abbott rallied to get Tony Phillips to ground to third, but Gladden pummeled a one-and-one fastball deep to left for a 3-0 Detroit lead.

“All we were trying to do was not give Gladden a pitch he could slap,” Parrish said, “and he hits the ball nine miles.”

After Stevens’ RBI-single in the eighth, Junior Felix led off the ninth with his fourth homer of the season, increasing his league-leading RBI total to 24.

Alvin Davis’ one-out single ended Gullickson’s night, with Mark Leiter left to finish.

“I know Gully very well--I had him in Montreal--and when he’s got all his bag of tricks out there, he’s very good,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. Abbott is balancing despair with determination. “You can become too involved with results,” he said. “You can only go out there every time and try to be as consistent as possible. I’ll have 30 more starts. It’ll even out. I hope.”

DODGERS: Beset with problems, they return to work tonight at Philadelphia. C4