BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Park Talks Up New Attitude

Chan Ho Park stopped by pitching coach Ron Perranoski’s locker before Friday’s game, and Perranoski said Park communicated without an interpreter.

Park, who had struggled through most of his three-inning appearance Thursday, used hand signals and a little English to tell Perranoski that he had been thinking about his tough outing.

“Chan Ho has been very defensive pitching-wise, and I have told him to throw his fastball more, but he’s been tentative,” Perranoski said. “I had taken him back to the clubhouse between innings Thursday and told him, using his interpreter, to throw more fastballs. And when he went out there the last inning, he got more aggressive.

“But today he stopped by to tell me that mentally he had been putting major league players up high, and his pitching, low. He used broken English, and pointed up high and then low, and then said that after his last inning, he realized that he is even with the batters.

“I pointed to my head, and he nodded. What he was telling me is that he has his confidence back.”

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In the fifth inning Friday, Pirate Kevin Young made a great play at third base. When he went to glove a grounder by Cory Snyder, it bounced up, rolled down Young’s back, then continued down his arm and into his hand as he spun around and made the throw to first.

His throw appeared to beat Snyder, but first base umpire Steve Rippley ruled that first baseman Orlando Merced had left the bag and called Snyder safe.

The hit was Snyder’s first since he was activated Thursday, having recovered from several injuries. Outfielder Billy Ashley was sent back to Albuquerque.

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Tim Wallach wasn’t pleased with Angel Manager Buck Rodgers’ comment Thursday about Wallach being one of the players who benefited from the alleged juiced baseballs during the 1987 season. Rodgers said that while it makes it more exciting for the fans, they are still paying for the guys from ’87. Rodgers said that Wallach is one of the players who got long-term contracts just from that year.

“I thought I had a pretty good career,” said Wallach, who played for Rodgers in Montreal. “Have I been that bad?”

“It did kind of surprise me because he singled me out,” Wallach said. So, I don’t know, it could have been a Freudian slip.”

Wallach is 11 for 38 in his last six games, including three home runs and nine runs batted in. Friday night he hit a two-run homer that tied the score in fourth inning. “It was a corked baseball, or it wouldn’t have gone out otherwise,” Wallach said sarcastically.