Hudler Doesn’t Waste Opportunity : Baseball: Given a chance to taste life in the major leagues again, the Angel is having a feast.

Rex Hudler hasn’t had a lot of experience as a leadoff hitter, but new Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann penciled him into the No. 1 spot Friday night.

This doesn’t figure to be the beginning of a new order, but if Hudler continues to punish the ball the way he has lately, he may be vying with Tim Salmon and Chili Davis for the third and clean-up positions in the lineup.

These days, the 33-year-old who spent seven seasons as a role player in the National League and last year in Japan is definitely an RBI guy.

In his last eight at-bats, Hudler has six hits, including four doubles and a home run. Friday night, he scored three of the Angels’ first four runs and drove in two during their 7-6 victory over Kansas City at Anaheim Stadium.

Hudler led off the first inning with a double down the left-field line and scored on Salmon’s sacrifice fly. In the second, he lined another shot into the corner in left to score Gary DiSarcina and later scored on Salmon’s double. And in the fourth, he slammed a one-run homer that landed in left-field seats about 400 feet from home plate.

“He did some damage,” Lachemann said. “You can’t discount the job Harold Reynolds has done (at second base), but there’s certainly the temptation (to keep playing Hudler). We’ll see how tempted I am when I make out the lineup card (today).”

Never mind the spot, Hudler is glad just to have a uniform.

“At my age, after being away in Japan for a year, I’m feel very fortunate just to have a job at all,” Hudler said. “And believe me, I’m extremely thankful. Being on the bench is the next best thing to being in the lineup.”

And for Hudler, anywhere in the lineup is as good as it gets.

“With the (Yakult) Swallows in Japan, I was the No. 2 hitter all spring until I missed a sign, one lousy sign, and you needed a computer to decipher their signs over there,” he said. “After that, I hit eighth all year.”

Hudler finished the year batting .300 with 14 homers and 64 RBIs as the Swallows beat the three-time champion Seibu Lions for the Japanese League Championship. The most significant statistic, however, might have been his 410 at-bats.

“All those at-bats really made me a better hitter,” he said.

Evidently. In his last four starts, he’s hitting .625 and has boosted his season average to .408.

The Angels can thank San Francisco for Hudler, who was lured back and then released a week before the Angels signed him on March 28.

“I became a better all-around player in Japan,” Hudler said. “If you made an error, they benched you for a game. That really makes you concentrate. And I went over there determined to do all the exercises they did, to dispel their notions about lazy Americans. And I ate the same food they do.

“By the time we went to the World Series, I acted, thought, even felt like a Japanese player. It has helped my self control and my focus.”

Hudler, who originally planned to end his career in Japan, says he would definitely consider going back. If he continues to hit line drives like he has been recently, however, he’ll have to go to Benihana to satisfy his cravings for Japanese food.