Little Hit a Long Run for Myers : Baseball: A single by Angel catcher turns into four runs with the help of Mariner miscues.

The bases were loaded when Angel catcher Greg Myers slapped the baseball into left field and took off . . . .

His speed was certainly not overwhelming.

But Myers made the turn and headed for second . . . .

No, scouts will not be clamoring to time the guy anytime soon.

He rounded second and made his way toward third . . . .

Well, at least his uniform fit nicely.

Wait a minute, he wasn’t finished. Myers roared--well, chugged--around third and scored.

A grand-slam . . . single? Yes, a four-run single. The Angels defeated Seattle, 8-2, Friday night and Myers, catching in place of disabled John Orton, played straight man to some slapstick Seattle baseball.

Mariner starter Erik Hanson had hit one Angel with a pitch and walked two to load the bases in the fourth. Up stepped Myers, with the Angels trailing, 2-0, and he poked an innocent-looking base hit into left.

Then, as Seattle Manager Lou Piniella would say, the Mariners uncorked a play that Piniella hadn’t seen since he was 11-years-old on the Tampa playgrounds.

But let Myers be our tour guide around the basepaths.

“I came down first and I saw the throw coming in high to home, so I was thinking, ‘Go to second,’ ” Myers explained.

Indeed, Seattle left fielder Henry Cotto’s throw to the plate sailed so far over catcher Bill Haselman’s head that the ball could have been an airplane. If not for the screen, the ball would have easily traveled into the stands.

Kelly Gruber had scored on the single, and Cotto’s throwing error allowed J.T. Snow to score. Hanson was backing up the play.

Back to the tour . . .

“I saw Hanson had the ball,” Myers continued. “I was kind of jogging and I saw him throw it to third, and I could tell it was high.”

High? Hanson’s throw was even worse than Cotto’s home, flowing like a shooting star over third baseman Mike Blowers’ head down the third-base line.

“I was going to third when I saw the ball go over third and down the line,” Myers said. “I could tell by looking at the ball, I could score.”

This is a guy who has only one major league triple in a little more than three years, and that came back in 1990 with Toronto.

Myers’ teammates were impressed.

“Geez, he was flying around the bases,” Torey Lovullo said, grinning. “Funny things happen when you get a hit. You feel like Superman.”

Said pitcher Chuck Finley: “He’s been hiding that speed from us.”

For Myers, whose batting average had dipped to .208 thanks in part to going one for 13 on the Angels’ trip to Detroit and Toronto, it was a badly needed respite.

And then he strayed into unfamiliar territory again in the eighth, when he doubled to right and continued to third when Mariner right fielder Jay Buhner bobbled the ball.

He collected his third RBI of the night on the play and raised suspicions that Myers might be the only hitter to figure out a way to doctor the baseball. Seattle, leading the majors in fielding percentage, committed three errors on Friday--all on Myers at-bats. Does this guy have a tack hidden in his bat?

“Maybe I cut the ball a little bit,” Myers said, laughing.

Whatever, Finley, who collected the victory, was happy to see Myers hitting again.

“You always like to see catchers hitting,” Finley said. “It tends to put a smile on their faces when they squat back there and take foul balls off their shoulders.”