Angels’ Pitching Is Downfall Once Again

There was no Springer in the Angels’ step on Sunday and, by the end of the third inning of their game with the Chicago White Sox, there wasn’t one on the pitcher’s mound, either.

Russ Springer, making his major league debut as a starter, wasn’t any more effective than those who have gone before him in the fourth and fifth slots in the Angel rotation. The first six Chicago batters to face him reached base, the White Sox built a five-run cushion by the end of the first and won, 11-6, in front of 34,187 in Anaheim Stadium.

It wasn’t exactly the start Springer had hoped to show the Angels, desperate for pitching help; or his parents, whom he knew were back home in Louisiana watching on the satellite dish he gave them last year.

But shortly after George Bell’s first-inning grand slam, Springer, too, was watching on television--in the clubhouse.

“I don’t know. I call home after every game, and this is not a good one to call home about on Father’s Day,” said Springer, who was recalled from triple-A Vancouver on June 2 and had no decisions and a 4.50 earned-run average in five Angel relief appearances. “My father is my biggest supporter and my biggest critic, too.

“I didn’t throw the ball as bad as the numbers on the board looked. I’ve got to locate a little better--I usually throw inside more--and I need to get the curve over.”

The reason Springer didn’t work inside more, he said, wasn’t that he was quivering with excitement. And no, he wasn’t intimidated by Chicago’s lineup.

“I was going to come inside more later,” said Springer, who lasted only 2 2/3 innings. “I was going to change up during the game. But I wasn’t in there long enough.”

He has company. The fourth and fifth starters in the Angel rotation have combined for a 14.26 earned-run average this month. In eight starts, John Farrell, Julio Valera, Hilly Hathaway and now Springer have allowed a total of 47 earned runs in only 29 2/3 innings.

“It always seems like we’re coming from behind,” Angel first baseman J.T. Snow said.

Yet the Angels, who took two of three from the White Sox this weekend while having Hathaway and Springer make their first major league starts, have managed to stay tied for second in the AL West, only one game behind front-running Kansas City.

“I think it is very important that at least one of these two pitchers succeed,” Rodgers said. “Then we would feel like we have a chance to compete.

“The way we are right now, we have three pitchers and two question marks. We’ve got to solve at least the fourth starter. Everyone (in the AL West) has at least one question mark.”

The trouble is, Hathaway and Springer looked more like the second coming of Farrell, optioned to Vancouver; and Valera, banished from the rotation to the bullpen, this weekend than like answers to the Angel questions.

Hathaway yielded six runs on five hits in five innings on Friday. He walked four but was redeemed when Chili Davis hit a one-out, two-run homer to give the Angels a 9-8 comeback victory.

On Sunday, Springer wasn’t so fortunate.

Tim Raines led off with a double to right field that glanced off the outstretched glove of Tim Salmon. Joey Cora followed with a bunt single on which the Angels swore he should have been called out. Then Frank Thomas pulled a ground ball into left field that squirmed under the mitt of diving shortstop Gary DiSarcina.

Two batters later, Bell swatted the grand slam--the first of two homers for him--to make the score 5-0.

“I was hoping he’d get us past the third, that’s for sure,” Rodgers said. “I was hoping for seven innings and 100-plus pitches.”

Instead, he got 2 2/3 innings, during which Springer allowed seven runs and eight hits. He threw 58 pitches.

Although the Angels pulled to within 7-5 in the seventh, the White Sox quickly ended comeback hopes with four more runs in the eighth.

“We’re going through a readjustment period in our pitching staff,” Rodgers said. “We went from a couple of guys going bad to a couple of guys breaking in, and that’s never pretty.”