Salmon Steps Up; Angels End Slide : Baseball: Rookie gets two homers in 15-8 victory over A’s that stops losing streak at 10.

He was the other Angel rookie.

The one who didn’t captivate all of Southern California in the month of April, who didn’t win player-of-the-week awards, who didn’t revive memories of Wally World.

And the one whose current place of employment is not in Vancouver.

Tim Salmon, quickly making Angel fans forget that J.T. Snow or any other rookie ever existed, accomplished Tuesday night what no man has the last two weeks.

He led the Angels to a victory, 15-8 over the Oakland Athletics before 22,761 at Anaheim Stadium, ending their 10-game losing streak.

Salmon hit two home runs for the first time in his career, had a career-equaling high four runs batted in, and had his teammates finally believing the worst is over.

The losing streak started in Cleveland, traveled to Boston, found its way to New York,and came to a dramatic end Tuesday with the sweet swing of Salmon’s bat, the four hits and four RBIs by Chad Curtis, and the grand debut of third baseman Eduardo Perez.

“The streak was really getting me down,” Salmon said, “but my wife opened my eyes. She said, ‘Look, this has only been a little more than a week. You guys have played great all season, don’t let this get you down.’

“It really got me to thinking. I told myself, ‘I’m just scratching the surface of my career, and I’m not going to let this discourage me.’

“This thing seemed like it lasted an eternity, but really, it wasn’t that long. We’re not going to keep playing like this all year.”

Salmon, whose dramatics have been upstaged by Snow and others all year, once again found another teammate grabbing the spotlight. Say hello to Perez, the son of former Cincinnati Red great Tony Perez, who made his major league debut.

Perez, who will be the Angels’ everyday third baseman while they determine whether they can count on him for 1994, made his debut in style, going two for four with a double and three-run homer in the eighth inning that had a certain household in Miami shouting in ecstasy.

“My wife was screaming when she told me the news,” Tony Perez said from his home in Florida. “It reminded me of my first home run in my first game against the (Milwaukee) Braves.

“He’s going to hit a lot of them. He’s big and strong.”

Perez, who batted .306 with 12 homers and 70 RBIs in triple-A Vancouver, said: “It was a great feeling, believe me. This is something I’ll never forget. I’ve dreamed of this day as long as I can remember.”

Tony Perez, who hit the game-winning homer in the 15th inning of the 1967 All-Star game at Anaheim Stadium, said his son has talked about playing in the major leagues since the day he could talk. He never considered any other occupation, convinced that one day he would be following his father’s footsteps.

“He was always fascinated about about players signing autographs,” Tony said. “I sent him to school, but he didn’t want to go. He just wanted to play baseball. I told him, you have to go to school to read and write.

“Well, a few months later he comes up to me and says, ‘I ain’t going to school no more. That’s it.’ I asked him why. He said, ‘Because I already learned how to write my name for autographs.’ ”

Salmon set the stage in the first inning by hitting a three-run home run, triggering the Angels’ biggest offensive night in more than two years. The Angels scored six runs in the first inning--the most since Sept. 3, 1991--sending Bobby Witt to the showers after retiring only one batter, his shortest career outing.

The Angels still had to hang on until Perez’s homer. Ken Patterson pitched 2 2/3 hitless innings for his first save in two years.