Grahe Gets the Last Laugh as Angels Beat White Sox

A pitch that could be shown on baseball blooper films, one that wasn’t officially recorded, might be the most important thrown by Angel reliever Joe Grahe all season.

“I know it sounds crazy,” Grahe said, “but it’s the truth.”

Grahe, struggling to regain his confidence and that of his teammates, threw a ball off catcher John Orton’s helmet Wednesday night, and it helped ensure what the Angels proclaimed to be their biggest victory of the season, a 2-0 decision over the first-place Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park.

The Angels (21-16) left town only 1 1/2 games behind the White Sox, and although there are more than four months of baseball to be played, the Angels are convinced they are in a pennant race to stay.

“I think we proved something to ourselves and the Chicago White Sox, that we are a quality team,” Angel third baseman Torey Lovullo said. “We know now that we belong, and we are for real.”

Said center fielder Chad Curtis, who provided the game’s only runs with a two-run single in the eighth inning against White Sox starter Jack McDowell: “In spring training, I was thinking that we just may be naive enough to think we can beat anybody in the league.

“Now, we know it. I really think we can win this thing.”

The Angels are brash, but they beat McDowell (7-2) and watched Grahe do his best impersonation of Bryan Harvey.

Mark Langston pitched 7 1/3 innings before turning things over to Grahe.

Considering they might be in their first division race since 1989, Grahe’s value to the team never has been more important. It’s virtually an impossible task to win the division without a stopper, they realize, and their fate could hinge on Grahe’s success.

“We need Joe Grahe. We need him very much,” said Langston, who will make one more start before leaving the Angels Tuesday to be with his wife, who is scheduled to be induced for labor with their second child.

Langston (4-1) had yielded only five hits and was a bit apprehensive about his fate when he left the game. The White Sox had runners on first and third, and Frank Thomas was at the plate.

Grahe walked Thomas on five pitches, loading the bases. George Bell, who had homered the last two nights against the Angels and was hitting .423 the past week, eagerly stepped to the plate.

“I was thinking if we could somehow get out of this thing with one run,” said Angel Manager Buck Rodgers, “we’d be OK.”

Just when Rodgers wondered how the situation could become any more grave, he watched Bell signal for time out . . . step away from the plate . . . and Grahe deliver a pitch anyway.

The ball hit directly off the catcher’s helmet without Orton flinching.

“Since everyone started laughing so hard,” Grahe said, “I thought I might as well laugh, too. I mean, it was pretty funny. I always wanted to be on one of those major league blooper videos, and not too many can top this.

“The crazy thing about it, though, was that it really relaxed me. I mean it. I was pretty tense out there, but after that happened, it just loosened up the whole situation.”

By the time the crowd of 22,991 stopped laughing, Grahe was catching a one-hopper back to the mound from Bell. He threw to Orton for one out, and Orton threw to first baseman J.T. Snow for an inning-ending double play.

“I felt like going out there and hugging him,” Langston said.

Grahe pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts for his fifth save. He has pitched 7 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings and believes he is close to his 1992 form, when he had 21 saves in 24 opportunities.

“I’m still not quite there because every morning I wake up and my neck is still stiff,” Grahe said. “But I’m getting there, and I can’t tell you how good that feels.

“Best of all, I get to see myself on blooper films the rest of the year. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this one.”