Angels’ Curtis Tames Johnson

If Chad Curtis had stopped to consider how wild Mariner left-hander Randy Johnson was, if he had considered the three hit batters and seven walks Johnson issued in his first start since coming off the disabled list, Curtis might have been too wary to hit the two-run single that gave the Angels a 2-1 victory over the Mariners on Saturday night.

“Once you get in the batter’s box, you don’t think about that kind of stuff,” Curtis said. “I don’t think he was extremely wild. Just occasionally, one gets away from him.”

Still, Curtis didn’t give Johnson much chance to hit him or walk him. The rookie outfielder deposited Johnson’s first pitch into center field to score Rene Gonzales and Jose Gonzalez, giving Mark Langston all the support he would need to subdue the Mariners and the Kingdome crowd of 29,171.

Langston (8-5) struck out a season-high nine in beating his former team and recording his fourth consecutive complete game. He yielded eight hits, including a 423-foot home run to right-center field by Ken Griffey Jr. with two out in the fifth inning.

“I felt like I had a good fastball and a good breaking ball,” said Langston, who has six of the staff’s league-leading 12 complete games. “I felt pretty strong warming up, and I felt good once I got in there. I got ahead of the hitters and it just went from there.”

Where the ball was going once it left Johnson’s left hand was often a mystery. Activated off the disabled list before the game, Johnson (5-7) was clearly rusty in his return from the bruised left elbow he sustained May 31. Besides the seven walks, he hit Gonzales twice and Lee Stevens once and loaded the bases in the second, third and sixth innings. But only Curtis was able to inflict any damage.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game with nine (total) walks, three hit batters and only two runs,” Angel interim Manager John Wathan said. “You get afraid to hit against a guy like that, when he’s missing the zone.”

Gonzales, hit in the thigh the first time and the right foot the second time at bat, for a moment seemed about to challenge the 6-foot-10 Johnson after his second plunking. The two yelled, with Johnson spreading his hands and shrugging his shoulders.

“He was just saying, ‘I don’t know,’ ” Gonzales said, “and I was saying, ‘What are you doing?’ ”

Langston was doing nearly everything right Saturday. Although he got into difficulty in the first and second innings by yielding two singles in each, he escaped each time. He didn’t flag again until the fifth, when Griffey, who was six for 16 against Langston in their previous encounters, hit a 3-and-1 pitch to right-center for his 14th homer of the season.

“The defense really picked me up tonight. That double play (with Kevin Mitchell at bat) in the eighth inning really picked me up,” Langston said. “It’s good to win any games, but it’s really good to win close games, too.”

While Wathan was delighted by the consecutive complete-game victories pitched Friday by Jim Abbott and Saturday by Langston, he hesitated to call the two successive triumphs a certain reversal of the Angels’ downward course.

“It’s just two ballgames. A turnaround would have to happen over a week before you say anything,” he said. “If we win (today), it would be a good trip, especially after losing the first four games. If we win the last three, that would put us almost at .500 (for the trip).”

Said Langston: “I think we’re starting to turn it around. Jimmy pitched great (Friday), and I was able to keep us in it today. I just hope we can keep it going.”