Blyleven Discovers the Secret

Bert Blyleven has the right idea.

Aware that he probably won’t get much offensive support, Blyleven has pitched shutout ball in two of his last three starts. That explains why the 41-year-old right-hander has the last two victories by an Angel starter. He added the latest when he pitched six scoreless innings here Thursday in leading the Angels to a 4-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Scott Bailes pitched a third of an inning and Joe Grahe pitched the final 2 2/3 innings, earning the first save of his career. The shutout was the Angels’ third, following a Jim Abbott-Bryan Harvey collaboration April 19 at Texas and a solo effort by Julio Valera over the Yankees May 7.

“With the starting staff we have, our goal is to go out and pitch shutout ball every time,” Blyleven said after helping avoid the embarrassment of a winless seven-game trip. “I’ve been fortunate enough to do it a couple of times.

“With the talent we have here, we’re not going to score a lot of runs,” added Blyleven, who pitched seven shutout innings against the Indians May 30 for his other victory this season. “We’re going to score some, but it’s going to take pitching and defense to win games. We’re going to win some, and hopefully one like this one will turn things right around for us.”

A two-out single by Chad Curtis in the third, a two-run double by Lee Stevens with two out in the sixth, and a single by Rene Gonzales in the ninth gave the Angels their most productive nine-inning game since a 6-4 defeat by Baltimore on May 24.

The only other time they scored four runs in their previous 16 games was a 10-inning, 4-3 decision over the Orioles June 3 at Anaheim Stadium.

“After this game, I felt like I wanted champagne,” said Luis Polonia, who put himself in position to score the first two runs against Alex Fernandez (3-7) by stealing second base in the third and sixth innings.

Polonia also made the defensive play of the day, reversing course to snare Steve Sax’s fly to left in the fifth with no one out and a runner on first.

“We just need one win to change the attitude around here,” Polonia added after Angels’ third victory in 17 games. You can see everybody has a different (happier) face. Things have to change. We can’t play 162 like this. We’re already in last place, so there’s nowhere to go except to get better.”

Blyleven gave up four hits and struck out four, increasing his strikeout total to 3,647 and reducing his earned-run average this season to 1.71.

In earning his first victory at the new Comiskey Park and first in Chicago since May 8, 1983, Blyleven added the White Sox to the list of opponents he has defeated 20 or more times.

He’s 20-23 against the White Sox, 28-14 against the Angels, 33-21 against the Royals, 20-22 against Oakland, 20-14 against Baltimore and 23-16 against Milwaukee.

“That’s a nice accomplishment,” he said. “But it means I’m an old coot.”

But an effective old coot, thanks to a snapping curveball, and a thankful old coot on the occasions he needed help in precarious situations.

Singles by Tim Raines, Frank Thomas and Matt Merullo made for a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth, but Blyleven escaped by getting Lance Johnson to ground into a double play.

He also seemed shaky when Carlton Fisk opened the fifth with a single to center, and the crowd of 33,058 roared when Sax lofted a high fly to left.

Polonia briefly lost sight of it but whirled and made a leaping catch on the warning track. After landing, he crashed into the fence but had the presence of mind to throw the ball back to the infield to cutoff man Luis Sojo, who threw to first and doubled Fisk off.

“That was a big play,” said Blyleven, who didn’t give up another hit.

Said Polonia: “I didn’t think I had a chance on that one. Then I saw (Fisk) running and he was almost halfway between second and third and I said, ‘I’ve got a pretty good chance to get this guy right here.’ I forget who was running. I could have thrown to first base myself.”

He didn’t have to do everything himself, though. Stevens, after studying the signs displayed by third base coach Ken Macha, chipped in, lining a 2-1 pitch from Fernandez into the left-field corner for a 3-0 Angel lead.

“It was the hit-a-double-down-the-line sign,” Macha said. “I’ve been giving that a lot, but these guys have been missing it.”

Grahe, who gave up a hit to Johnson in the ninth and hit Ron Karkovice but struck out Sax and Mike Huff for the last two outs, was happy the Angels didn’t miss the chance to salvage a trip-ending victory.

“If we’d blown something like we had today, it would have been catastrophic,” he said. “If you lose something like this, you think it couldn’t have gotten any worse, but it would have if we’d lost this one. Who knows, maybe this will start something for us.”