ANGELS : Another Game of Blunders

The replacement baseball blooper reel got a little longer Saturday, when Milwaukee Brewer right-hander Ron Rightnowar threw a breaking pitch that went completely behind Angel batter Randy Hood in the eighth inning.

“That’s what you call a real backdoor slider,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said after the Brewers’ 11-5 victory at Tempe Diablo Stadium. “That was almost a back-pocket slider.”

The Angels countered with a few blunders of their own, getting not one, but two runners picked off first by Brewer catchers. This came one day after the Angels ran into four outs on the bases.

On Saturday, Demond Smith was picked off first with the bases loaded and two out in the second inning, just after Brewer pitcher Ron Gerstein, who had walked six of the first 10 batters, ran the count to 2-1 on Joe Urso.

Lachemann yanked Smith from the game in the fourth.

“Picked off with the bases loaded and the pitcher struggling to throw a strike . . . unbelievable,” Lachemann said. “These guys have to understand this is not going to be tolerated.”

Milwaukee pounded four Angel pitchers for 15 hits, including four home runs--two by right fielder Kenny Jackson. The Angels had allowed only four homers in 12 previous games. Five Brewer pitchers combined to walk 12, but the Angels had only five hits.

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Angel starter Steve Peck, who played for the Brewers’ double-A team at El Paso last season, gave up a three-run homer to his former El Paso battery mate, light-hitting catcher Bob Kappesser, in the first inning Saturday.

Kappesser, who had only three homers in six previous minor league seasons, turned on Peck’s first pitch, an inside fastball, and lifted it well beyond the left-field fence.

“It was a situation where he guessed right,” Peck said. “He put everything into it and hit it on the button. He’ll do that about once every 5,000 at-bats.”

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Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi said about 20 of 125 minor leaguers in camp at Mesa have expressed interest in becoming replacement players, but there are “no prominent names” in the group.

Among the former major leaguers in the Angel system are Pedro Guerrero, Leon Durham, Shawn Boskie, Shawn Hillegas, Ken Patterson and Carlos Martinez.

Notes

The Brewers, who have used several double-A and triple-A players this spring, improved their record to 4-0 against the Angels and have outscored them, 36-21. “If all of these guys play (in the regular season) they’ll kick the crap out of a lot of replacement teams,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said. . . . Angel first baseman Tyrone Boykin hit a three-run triple in the sixth inning.