Angels Beat Royals for Third in Row

Sometimes a team doesn’t have to play well to win. Sometimes it merely has to play less terribly than the other one on the field.

The Angels and the Kansas City Royals together committed five errors Saturday night and stranded 15 runners, but the Angels somehow left Anaheim Stadium with a 5-4 victory, their third in a row.

Too often this season, the Angels have been uncertain what sort of performance they would get from Chuck Finley, formerly their ace. This time, Finley was solid; the defense behind him was not.

Finley (2-5) won for the first time since April 28, ending a streak of four losses. He gave up five hits in six innings Saturday before 26,635, striking out three and walking two. The Royals scored four runs against him--only two, however, were earned.

“We didn’t play well behind Chuck,” second baseman Rene Gonzales said.

On a night of gaffes, the Angels trailed, 4-1, after 5 1/2 innings. They gave up two unearned runs during the third inning after shortstop Gary DiSarcina was charged with an error, the second of two by the Angels, and there were more mistakes that didn’t result in errors.

“You can live with physical mistakes like those,” interim Manager John Wathan said. “But the mental ones, you can’t. Fortunately, we kept swinging the bat well and came back. When you have two innings like those, where you have the bases loaded and don’t score, and two miscues defensively, it can be very demoralizing. But we came back.”

In a strange turnaround, the Angels took a 5-4 lead with a four-run sixth during which the Royals’ defense contributed to two unearned runs.

The Angels hadn’t scored four runs in an inning--earned or unearned--since May 13, during the eighth inning of a victory over Detroit.

Their 11-hit output against the Royals on Saturday was all that saved them; even so, they stranded nine runners, including three during the second inning.

During the sixth, the Angels put runners on first and third with one out after singles by Gonzales and Gary Gaetti, bringing up John Orton, who had singled in his first two at-bats. Orton delivered a single to left--matching his personal best with his third hit of the game--and driving in Gonzales.

Gaetti, who had stopped at second, scored on the next play when shortstop Curtis Wilkerson was charged with an error as he tried to take a throw at second base, with Orton sliding into the base safely on DiSarcina’s fielder’s-choice grounder.

Neal Heaton relieved Rick Reed, but Polonia greeted him with a single that loaded the bases.

Von Hayes very nearly greeted Heaton with a grand slam, but his drive to right was caught, and Hayes settled for a sacrifice fly. DiSarcina took third on the play, and scored on Junior Felix’s single up the middle.

Felix’s ball glanced off Heaton’s glove, and Wilkerson fielded it, but his throw to first was too wide to get Felix. Heaton retired Alvin Davis to end the inning, but the Angels had taken a one-run lead.

Finley was through, but there would be three more Angel pitchers before the game was done--Joe Grahe, Steve Frey, and Mark Eichhorn. Eichhorn got the final out of the ninth for his first save, but allowed the tying run to reach third and the winning run to reach first.

After Wally Joyner’s RBI double during the first, the Angels came back to tie the score when Polonia singled, took third on a single by Hayes and scored on Felix’s pop to shallow left.

After Keith Miller reached on an infield hit to first during the third, Gonzales fielded Joyner’s potential double-play ball and turned toward second to start a double play. But he too bobbled the ball, and by the time he recovered, could only get Joyner at first. By then, Miller was on third, and he scored on Kevin McReynolds’ sacrifice fly. Mike MacFarlane singled to drive in Wilkerson from third for the second run of the inning.

Kansas City took a 4-1 lead during the fourth as Harvey Pulliam reached second base when Gonzales, racing away from the infield, couldn’t hold Pulliam’s pop to shallow center field. The Royals sacrificed him to third, and after Brian McRae walked, Pulliam scored on Rico Rossy’s sacrifice.