Finley Gives, Perez Takes Advantage : Baseball: Homers by Hayes, Pat Kelly help Yankee pitcher beat Angels, 3-0, and end his drought.

Angel interim Manager John Wathan could have claimed that when he managed the Kansas City Royals in 1987, he knew Melido Perez would develop into an exceptional major league pitcher.

And he could have embellished the tale by saying he opposed the trade that sent Perez from Kansas City to the Chicago White Sox for left-hander Floyd Bannister.

But Wathan had no inkling Perez would become a top-notch starter, capable of the eight-inning, eight-strikeout performance he staged Saturday in a 3-0 victory over the Angels before 25,717 at Yankee Stadium.

“At the time we felt we were one player away from getting back into the playoffs, and the reports we had on Bannister in Chicago were very good,” Wathan said of that 1987 deal. “We thought if we got him, we’d finish in the playoffs. Obviously not.

“(Perez had) pitched very well in the minor leagues, but I don’t know we thought he’d pitch as well as he has. He’s a good kid. He’s gotten a lot stronger, a lot bigger. He’s matured into a good-looking pitcher. . . . You do things that, at the time, you think are right for the ballclub. It certainly didn’t work out the way we (the Royals) had hoped.”

Perez (10-13) was taken out of the game before the start of the ninth inning and replaced by Steve Farr because of a slight muscle strain on the left side of his rib cage. By then, Perez had taken the AL strikeout lead from Boston’s Roger Clemens, with 165 in 190 2/3 innings.

“I’ve had this for a long time. Today, I just felt a little cramp and the manager (Buck Showalter), he made the decision to take me out,” said Perez, who was traded to the Yankees with two minor leaguers for Steve Sax last winter. “I didn’t argue because I was a little tired. But I’m not worried. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. . . .

“I don’t check every guy to see how many strikeouts they have. I don’t want to try and follow (Clemens) or be on top. I just try to pitch the best I can.”

Angel starter Chuck Finley (4-10) pitched well in recording his third complete game of the season, but that was no consolation for him. All three Yankee runs were the results of home runs, two in the fourth inning on Charlie Hayes’ drive off the left-field foul pole and one on Pat Kelly’s shot in the sixth.

Finley exceeded his loss totals in each of the past two seasons, when he had 18-9 records. He is pitching with better control and velocity than in the first half of the season, but even with an earned-run average of 2.28 in his last seven games, he is only 2-1 with four no-decisions in that span.

“I don’t find too kind thoughts about losing, but Perez pitched really good against us,” said Finley, who has given up 22 homers in 152 2/3 innings, one short of his 1991 homer total in 227 1/3 innings. “He’s real tough.”

Finley saw no reason to second-guess himself on either home-run pitch.

“I don’t know where the curveball was that Hayes hit, and that last guy (Pat Kelly), I think he was hacking at the first thing he saw and it just happened to be a fastball,” Finley said. “They weren’t bad pitches.”

Hayes’ 15th homer--a professional high--followed a walk to Mike Stanley. “I was praying it would stay fair. I hit it pretty good,” Hayes said. “I stayed (at home plate) for a while to make sure it would go.”

Seeing it strike the foul pole made him sure the Yankees would win, so confident was he in Perez.

“The first thing I thought was ‘Hey, we’ve got this game now. We’ve got a lead and Melido’s got good stuff,’ ” Hayes said. “If we get him two or three runs, there’s a pretty good chance we’re going to win the game.”

They haven’t always. In three of his previous four starts, they scored only once; he had lost five consecutive starts and seven of eight.

“The last couple of days we’ve been hitting good. But I’m the one they don’t hit for when I pitch,” he said. “Today they scored a couple of runs and I just try to do the best I can to win.”

His best was more than good enough to shut out the Angels for the second time in the nine games they have played on this 13-game trip. Roger Clemens pitched a shutout against them last Tuesday in Boston.

Said Wathan: “This one was pretty cut-and-dried. We weren’t able to do anything offensively against one of the best pitchers in the game.”