No Rodgers’ Mayday After Loss to Red Sox

Manager Buck Rodgers knew what was coming Friday night, and in the aftermath of the Angels’ 6-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, already began sensing what everyone seemed to be thinking.

The Angels are succumbing to reality, and although they ended April with the best winning percentage in franchise history (13-6), normalcy would soon prevail.

“I know people are going to start thinking that,” Rodgers said. “A lot of people are doomsday advocates. Everyone wants to know how we can keep playing like this. It’s almost like they’re waiting for us to go into a nose-dive.

“I don’t think we should have to prove anything to anybody this trip, but it’s like we have to prove something to the fans just because we lost a lot of support the last 10 years.

“Hey, I know we’re going to level off a little bit. It’s impossible to play any better than we did in April, but I don’t want to read any more into this. It’s just one game. One loss.”

The Angels, who on this night looked awfully similar to the team that lost 90 games a year ago, had only three hits against Red Sox starter John Dopson and reliever Paul Quantrill. They have only 13 hits in the last four games, and waiting on the mound for them today is Roger Clemens.

The hitting will come and go all season, Rodgers says. It was impossible for rookie first baseman J.T. Snow to continue hitting .400. He has only one hit his last 13 at-bats. And starter John Farrell, who is coming back from elbow surgery, is expected to endure occasional games like this--yielding four hits, three walks and six earned runs in four innings.

Really, there was only one disturbing aspect of the game that riled Rodgers, he said, and his name was John Valentin.

Valentin, considered before the game as nothing more than a weak-hitting shortstop, hit more homers in 45 minutes Friday night than the Angels have produced the last 2 1/2 years at Fenway Park.

“He was an All-American out in the three games at Anaheim,” Rodgers said. “He turned into Vern Stephens coming back.”

Valentin stunned the Angels, the 31,432 fans at Fenway Park, and even his teammates by hitting two homers and driving in a career-high five runs against Farrell.

“I didn’t know much about him,” Farrell (1-3) said, “but I guess I’ll always remember him now.”

While Valentin will never be confused with Stephens--the Red Sox four-time All-Star shortstop who once hit 39 homers in 1949--he might have become an overnight folk hero in New England.

Valentin provided the Red Sox with a 3-0 lead in the second inning with a two-out, two-run homer, and then broke the game open in the sixth with a three-run homer. The fans refused to quit cheering until Valentin came out for a curtain call.

“I never in my life thought that would ever happen to me,” said Valentin, who entered the game hitting .077 with one homer and two RBIs. “You always see guys like Barry Bonds get curtain calls, but not someone like me.”

Valentin, not knowing how to act in such an occasion, had to be pushed out of the dugout by his teammates.

“I didn’t want to go out there,” said Valentin, who had only one homer in 89 career at-bats at Fenway, “but when you’ve got everyone shoving you out there, you don’t have a choice.”

Meanwhile the Angels, who have not hit a home run at Fenway since Jack Howell hit one Aug. 26, 1990, had difficulty getting a hit, much less a homer.

Dopson, who like Farrell underwent reconstructive elbow surgery in 1990, faced the minimum 22 batters through the first 7 1/3 innings. Luis Polonia was the Angels’ only baserunner the first seven innings when he hit a two-out single to center in the third inning, but he was thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double.

They didn’t get another hit until Rene Gonzales’ one-out single in the seventh inning, followed by Damion Easley’s run-scoring double to right.

“Hey, we had one hell of a month,” Rodgers said. “When the season started, I was hoping we’d be .500 at the All-Star break, and then come on the second half.

“These guys have gotten off to such a good start we can’t even call them kids anymore. They’ve shown people they can play this game, and all they have to be is consistent.”