Angels Make Most Of This Opportunity, Beat Dodgers

They may never play in Anaheim Stadium again, so the replacement Angels figured they had better savor the moment. When they were through defeating the Dodgers, 4-1, in a Freeway Series game Friday night, they gathered in front of the dugout and tipped their caps to salute the 22,452 fans.

Believe it or not, the feeling was mutual.

Angel center fielder Chris Powell won the crowd over with a spectacular diving catch in the sixth inning, and fans so appreciated their efforts in the crisply played, 2-hour 9-minute game, that they gave the Angels another standing ovation while fireworks erupted afterward.

“That sent a chill up my spine,” said Angel first baseman Tom Redington, the former Esperanza High School star who tripled and scored in the fifth and added a two-run single in the sixth. “That made my career.”

Six Angel pitchers combined to three-hit the Dodgers, who had a Grapefruit League-best 20-7 record, and there was only one error and three walks in the game.

Powell made a catch that any major leaguer would be proud of, sprinting back on Edwin Alicea’s drive to the gap in right center and making a fully extended, diving grab about 20 feet short of the wall.

“It was a do-or-die play,” said Powell, who played at nearby Edison High and Cal State Fullerton. “It was a lucky play, too.”

Powell earned a standing ovation after the play and another upon his return to the dugout after the inning.

“Oh my God, that really made me feel at home,” Powell said. “If this is the only time I’m going to play here and I got two standing ovations. . . . I really appreciate it. I didn’t expect that, because the fans didn’t know any of us.”

Said Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann: “That’s as good a play you’re gonna see right there.”

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Baseball Notes

Dodger Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo, pitching in a game Friday for the first time this spring, retired six of the seven batters he faced against the Class A New York Mets’ team in Vero Beach, Fla. Nomo, who received a record $2.2-million signing bonus from the Dodgers, struck out three, including the last two batters he faced, and did not walk anyone. He threw 19 pitches, 14 of them strikes.

In Denver, Coors Field, a $215.5 million brick-faced ballpark nestled downtown in a former warehouse district, opened to a crowd of 47,563. Bruce Springsteen sang over the state-of-the-art sound system, a church youth choir sang the national anthem, and Peter Coors, president of Coors Brewing Co., threw out the first pitch. Then the Colorado Rockies, who played at Mile High Stadium during their first two seasons, defeated the New York Yankees, 4-1, in an exhibition.