Magrane of Old Leads Angels, 3-1

Sunday’s performance by Joe Magrane, a pitcher who had not thrown a complete game since 1990, was the kind of turnaround the Angels’ top management envisioned when it hired Manager Marcel Lachemann.

Magrane, who brought an 8.51 earned-run average into the game, had a shutout going into the ninth inning and limited the Milwaukee Brewers to four hits as the Angels ended a six-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory in front of 33,581 at Anaheim Stadium.

Lachemann is becoming baseball’s version of Stuart Smalley, the “caring nurturer” of “Saturday Night Live” fame. Even in the bad times--and with this staff there have been plenty of them--Lachemann is able to accentuate the positive.

“Maybe this wasn’t your best outing, but doggone it, people like you.”

Lachemann refused to take any credit for Magrane’s U-turn, unless “telling him he’s going to keep going out there helps your confidence.”

Clearly, it doesn’t hurt.

“Confidence is a huge part of the equation, especially in the American League where the strike zone is geared for hitting,” said Magrane, who led the National League with a 2.18 ERA for St. Louis in 1988.

Magrane, who had made more than 50 starts since his last complete game, said Lachemann and pitching coach Chuck Hernandez helped him with his delivery, specifically his arm angle.

“Credit Chuck and Marcel with looking at films and fine-tuning my delivery,” he said.

The result was more velocity--”this was the hardest I’ve seen him throw,” catcher Jorge Fabregas said--and more movement on his fastball. Good stuff, combined with a lot of first-pitch strikes, allowed Magrane to shut down the Brewers until the ninth, when John Jaha walked and scored on Brian Harper’s double down the left field line.

“I really wanted to finish it,” said Magrane, who underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery Feb. 8, “but the most important thing for this team was to get the win.

“My arm strength is starting to come around. I was able to challenge guys with the fastball. You feel a little inferior when the best part of your game is challenging guys with your fastball and you don’t have it.”

There was nothing inferior about Sunday’s outing, but it was Magrane’s off-speed pitches that seemed to baffle the Brewers. He took something off a pitch to strike out Darryl Hamilton with two on and two out in the fifth inning.

“If you can get your changeup over for strikes like that, you’re going to be successful in this league,” Brewer Manager Phil Garner said. “He kept us off balance all day.”

Magrane also got considerable help from his defense. J.T. Snow, who was recalled from Vancouver Friday night, started two double plays that helped Magrane slip out of potential jams and Tim Salmon made a fine running catch on the warning track on a line drive by Greg Vaughn in the ninth and then held on to the ball after colliding with center fielder Chad Curtis.

The Angels, who had 12 hits and drew four walks, left 13 runners on base. They had a runner on third with less than two outs three times in the first four innings, but were unable to score against Bob Scanlan (0-3), who was making his first start of the season.

The Angels managed to push across a run in the fifth, however, and two more in the sixth against Jaime Navarro, the pitcher Scanlan replaced in the starting rotation.

Walks to Curtis and Chili Davis, sandwiched around a single by Salmon, loaded the bases in the fifth and Jim Edmonds’ ground ball into the hole that shortstop Jose Valentin bobbled momentarily gave the Angels a 1-0 lead.

The Angels got three hits and a walk in the sixth. Spike Owen, making a start at third base and batting leadoff, drove in one run with a bases-loaded single to right that chased Navarro. And Salmon picked up an RBI when he drew a bases-loaded walk from reliever Graeme Lloyd.

Snow has only been with the Lachemann-led Angels for a couple of days, but he likes what he’s seen and heard.

“Most of the guys like his approach,” Snow said. “You hear nothing but positive stuff from him. I’m really impressed.”