Four-Run Burst Puts Angels’ Streak at Six

In Mark Langston’s previous outing, his teammates included Mark McGwire, Kirby Puckett, Cal Ripken Jr. and Ken Griffey Jr., and his team produced 13 runs and 19 hits.

The lineup that backed Langston Saturday night posed less of an offensive threat than his All-Star teammates did last Tuesday at San Diego, but the result was similarly triumphant. A four-run rally in the seventh inning, abetted by shortstop Andy Stankiewicz’s fielding error, lifted the Angels to a 5-3 victory over the New York Yankees at Anaheim Stadium, extending the team’s winning streak to six.

“We played the style of game we’re capable of tonight, aggressive on the basepaths and opportunistic,” said Langston (9-7), who was lifted with two out in the ninth inning after giving up a single, a fly ball by Roberto Kelly that took Chad Curtis to the fence and a grounder by Don Mattingly. “This was a huge lift, not only for myself but for the team, to be able to battle back from a hole. It was fun.”

Langston hasn’t had much occasion to use the word “fun” this season, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to pull it out of his dictionary Saturday when Kelly lofted a high, arching fly ball to left that sparked gasps from the crowd of 31,368.

“I thought the ball was gone,” Langston said. “As soon as he hit it, for sure I thought it was gone.”

It wasn’t, but Langston was when Danny Tartabull came up with a runner on second. Interim Manager John Wathan considered taking Langston out when Mattingly came up because of the two-run homer Mattingly had hit in the first inning and because Langston appeared to be tiring, but he let Langston face the left-handed hitter.

That worked, as Langston got Mattingly to ground to first, but Wathan wasn’t going to push his luck. He brought in Mark Eichhorn, who got Tartabull to fly to shallow center to end the game and give the Angels their longest winning streak since they won seven consecutive games May 21-27, 1990. The save was Eichhorn’s second in six chances, after his June 13 save over the Royals.

“Langston pitched a great game, but I’ve known Danny Tartabull a long time--I had him in Kansas City--and I thought the matchup with Ike was better,” Wathan said.

“Everything’s going real well right now. We’re showing a lot of moxie and we’re not giving up.”

The Yankees took a quick lead in the first when Randy Velarde singled and Mattingly homered to right, his 10th homer of the season. “Donny just jumped all over that fastball,” said Langston, who has yielded 11 homers this season but has been victimized by left-handed hitters only twice. The two exceptions are Mattingly on Saturday and Griffey on June 27.

The Angels got one run back in the bottom of the inning. Luis Polonia singled to left, stole second and scampered to third when Mike Stanley’s throw to second sailed into center field. Polonia scored on Luis Sojo’s grounder to second.

Tartabull’s homer to right-center, his 13th homer, gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead in the seventh, but the Angels weren’t done. Mike Fitzgerald and Gary DiSarcina started the rally with back-to-back singles to left, and Polonia alertly dashed to second on a liner to left that scored Fitzgerald. Scott Kamieniecki (2-7) was relieved by John Habyan, who gave up a grounder by Sojo that rendered Mattingly helpless. He kept it from going through to right field but had no one to throw to and was too far from the bag to beat Sojo, watching helplessly as DiSarcina scored the tying run.

“It was really frustrating,” Mattingly said after the Yankees’ sixth consecutive loss, their longest streak of the season. “I thought this would be a pitchers’ game, but they had that big inning and we couldn’t stop them. The ball Sojo hits is just far enough away that I couldn’t do anything with it. It seems nothing’s going to go our way now.”

Felix kept the inning going when he walked on four pitches, and Von Hayes followed with a bouncer to shortstop that Stankiewicz bobbled. His throw to second was too late for the force on Felix, and Polonia scored. Sojo scored the final run when Curtis grounded to the right side.