Angels’ Gaetti, Hayes Play Up to Their Reputations in Victory

Many times this season, John Wathan has sat down to fill out the lineup card and found himself stumped.

Cleanup. Who should bat fourth? It ought to be one of the easiest positions to fill in, but for the Angels, it has been the hardest.

Von Hayes? Gary Gaetti? Wathan, the interim manager, pencils them in more for their past than their present.

But in the Angels’ 5-3 victory over Texas before 32,524 Friday at Arlington Stadium, Hayes and Gaetti played more like their reputations.

Hayes won the game with a three-run home run off Bobby Witt that broke a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning. It was his first homer since May 24, a span of 60 games. Once known as a power hitter, Hayes went all of last season without a homer and has only four this year.

Gaetti drove in the Angels’ other two runs with a second-inning double and a fourth-inning single. Coupled with his three-run pinch-hit home run Thursday, that gave him five runs batted in over the past two games.

“We’re in a situation right now where we really don’t have a clean-up hitter on this team,” Hayes said. “I think John was in a position where he didn’t want to hurt the younger players by giving them that responsibility. He’s kind of asked me to carry the burden.”

Hayes’ and Gaetti’s offense helped overcome the performance of Juan Gonzalez, who hit two home runs in a game for the third time in five games. He has six home runs in the past five games, and 26 for the season, second in the majors to Mark McGwire’s 32.

Chuck Crim (6-3) earned the victory in relief of starter Julio Valera, and starter-turned-closer Joe Grahe got the final four outs for his fifth consecutive save and eighth in his last nine appearances. He has 11 overall.

Valera lasted until the seventh inning, when the Rangers put runners on first and second with one out on back-to-back singles.

Chuck Crim came in and retired Brian Downing on a foul pop. Crim walked Jeff Frye to load the bases for Rafael Palmeiro. But Palmeiro hit a high pop to short, and Crim escaped.

Hayes’ homer the next inning gave the Angels the lead, and they held it despite Gonzalez’s second home run of the game. Gonzalez went three for four and drove in all three Texas runs.

For Hayes and Gaetti, the season has been a struggle of similarities.

“I would like to have 20 or so home runs; it just hasn’t been there,” Hayes said. “It’s almost like a power pitcher losing his fastball for a while. I lost my bat speed for a while. That can happen because of mechanics. I hope it’s that more than reflexes or age or anything like that. I’m tinkering until I get my bat speed back consistently. That’s where the power comes.”

Hayes says last year’s power shortage might have been in part the result of his broken right arm. But this year? He’s still looking.

“As you know it hasn’t been a real good first half for me,” he said. “Tonight I was just trying to hit the ball hard. A base hit there would win the game just as much as a home run.”

This one went out--”a glorified base hit,” Hayes called it. But he will keep tinkering with his swing.

“How can you not? When you’re hitting .240 and find yourself going 0 for 4, 0 for 6 streaks, you’re going to tinker,” he said.

“I’m not in a situation where I’m happy with the way things have gone. I can’t dwell on what I haven’t done. I have to think about what I can do.”

Gaetti has had to struggle with a position change from third to first and with enthusiastic booing. But he said he feels comfortable at first and that there might be a correlation between that and his offensive improvement.

He looks at Hayes and he has to admit he identifies. Here is someone else who is not playing the way he has in the past.

“You have to have a good consistent swing, get in the right situations and have confidence in what you’re doing,” Gaetti said. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen. Those are the times when everybody says you’re washed up and done. That goes to show what everybody doesn’t know.”