BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : After Doing Nothing, He Did It All

While no one was feeling exactly chipper after the Angels’ 4-3, 14-inning defeat Monday to the Seattle Mariners, no one was feeling quite like Ron Tingley.

Tingley, who caught the last 4 1/3 innings, stole his first base in two years, and even recorded his first plate appearances of the season. He played more Tuesday than he played the previous seven weeks combined.

“I’m sure my wife will cut out the box score,” Tingley said, laughing, “just to prove I’m still playing.”

The most bizarre aspect of the night was Tingley’s entrance into the game as a pinch-runner for Chili Davis.

“When I came out to get Chili,” Tingley said, “he gave me a look like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ I guess he found it hard to believe a catcher with four knee operations was pinch-running for him. The trouble was that it had been so long since I was on base I forgot what the signs were. And when I was at the plate, the only reason I ended up taking a walk was because I couldn’t even see those pitches to swing.”

Just how long did the 4-hour 45-minute game seem to the players?

Said Mark Langston, who left Tuesday morning to be with his wife, Michelle, due with their second child today: “I was just praying, ‘Come on, Michelle, hang in there.’ ”

*

The other statistical oddities from Monday’s game: Luis Polonia was caught stealing a club-record three times, which tied a major league record; the Mariners stranded 19 baserunners, including 13 from the eighth to 13th innings; there were 16 walks in the game, none of them scoring; the teams combined to make 22 lineup changes in the eighth and ninth innings; the Mariners own a career 7-1 record in games that last longer than 4 1/2 hours.

*

Fernando Valenzuela (1-1, 4.09 ERA) will be returning to Southern California when he starts Friday for the Baltimore Orioles against the Angels. . . . Langston, who said he felt dehydrated during the game when his hamstring started to cramp, is expected to make his next start Saturday. . . . Second baseman Damion Easley, who said his shin splints “were just killing me” during Monday’s game, was kept out of Tuesday’s game.