Bullpen Is Already a Grahe Area : Baseball: Reliever gives up two runs in ninth inning of Angels’ 3-2 loss to Brewers, wasting Finley’s strong outing.

The Angel starters knew there would be nights like this, and as Chuck Finley can now attest, there may be consequences when you fail to go nine innings.

Finley pitched superbly for seven innings Wednesday night, but then sat back along with the rest of the crowd of 18,811 at Anaheim Stadium, and painfully watched his performance evaporate into a 3-2 Milwaukee Brewers’ victory.

Joe Grahe, considered the most reliable of the Angel bullpen, surrendered two runs in the ninth inning for the defeat, yielding run-scoring singles to B.J. Surhoff and Dickie Thon.

The second run proved to be quite prominent considering that the Angels came back with a run in the ninth inning, and were about three feet away from winning the game when Tim Salmon’s fly ball fell short of the center-field fence.

“I thought it was going out,” Salmon said, “but the ball didn’t carry. This isn’t Edmonton.”

Finley, who yielded only three hits, said he was quite willing to stay in the game, but Angel Manager Buck Rodgers sensed Finley was starting to struggle. If Finley needed only one inning, Rodgers said it would have been his game to finish, but not two innings.

“It’s a long season,” said Finley, who threw 101 pitches, “but I still would have been more than willing to go back out there. But that’s why they have managers, and they have players.”

Grahe, perceived as the man who is replacing Bryan Harvey, already is prepared for the comparisons. They’re unfair, he says, but he knows they are coming.

“When you’re on the mound, you can’t think of stuff like that,” he said. “I just didn’t have my best stuff, and it was obvious you can tell that. You just have to keep battling, it’s too long of a season to throw in the towel now.”

Rodgers, who has been worried about his bullpen all spring, said he won’t allow performances such as Wednesday’s to alter his managerial style. There will be times like Tuesday’s season-opener when he allows his starter the benefit of pitching a complete game, but he knows there will be plenty of others when he must rely on his bullpen.

Who knows, he said, he may even move Julio Valera to the stopper’s role for the first time in his career. “I’m not at the reassessing point,” Rodgers said, “but I’m not selling them (the bullpen) down the river, either.”

While the Angels were being stymied by Brewer starter Cal Eldred, who yielded only three hits in eight innings, Angel left fielder Luis Polonia was involved in two bizarre plays.

He became the first Angel player since Dick Schofield on Sept. 1, 1986, to hit two triples in a game, one which resulted in a magnificent defensive play, and another that was your basic 120-foot, infield triple.

Polonia produced the Angels’ run in the sixth inning by slapping a hard-hit grounder off the glove of third baseman Surhoff that skipped behind him and rolled into short left field. Polonia rounded first and was waved to second by first-base coach Bobby Knoop.

Surhoff and shortstop Pat Listach each raced into the outfield to retrieve the ball, leaving one small problem. Nobody was left covering third. Polonia took off toward third, Listach hurriedly threw the ball to Eldred, and Polonia slid past him for the triple.

“I don’t think I’ll make him my third-base coach,” Rodgers said, “but that a heads-up play.”

Polonia’s first triple in the third inning set up Brewer first baseman John Jaha’s defensive gem. Chad Curtis followed by hitting a foul pop-up toward the Brewer first-base dugout.

Jaha stepped over, exchanged glances back and forth between the dugout and the ball, and realized he had quite a dilemma. He wanted to catch the ball for the second out, but he knew that if he fell into the dugout with the ball, Polonia would be awarded home.

Jaha, quickly coming to a decision, reached up and caught the ball, and before falling into the dugout, shoveled the ball back to Eldred as if he were an option-quarterback.

Polonia, upon seeing this, took off for home. Eldred quickly picked up the ball, and threw it home to catcher Joe Kmak, who tagged Polonia out.

“That guy made a hell of a play,” Polonia said. “I’ve never seen a play like that. It made the difference in the game.”