Angels’ Myers Leaves Disabled List, Joins Winning Effort : Baseball: Catcher’s two-run homer in the seventh inning is the difference in 7-5 victory over Seattle.

Greg Myers had been in more platoons than a career infantryman, but his chance to be the everyday starting catcher was finally at hand. For the first time since he made it to the major leagues in 1987, the left-handed-hitting catcher was going to be in the lineup no matter who was pitching.

But six days before opening night, Myers fouled a ball off his right foot during an exhibition game and broke his big toe.

He came off the disabled list Saturday night, and sure enough, there was his name on the lineup card, even though left-hander Tim Davis was Seattle’s starting pitcher.

Myers, making only his fifth start against a left-hander, didn’t fare too well against Davis, striking out twice. But when right-handed reliever Bob Wells came in the game, Myers singled and then slammed a two-run homer that propelled the Angels to a 7-5 victory in front of 21,882 at Anaheim Stadium.

“It felt like opening night for me; I had the jitters and everything,” Myers said. “I only missed a couple of days of batting practice, so I was able to keep the bat going, but it’s a whole different thing when you start facing the real thing.”

It took him a couple of at-bats to get warmed up, but Myers found his timing at the right time for the Angels when he connected with Wells’ first pitch, an outside fastball, lining it into the seats high above the 370 sign on the right-field fence in the seventh inning.

Fortunately for the Angels, Myers had his hitting shoes on. OK, they’re actually running shoes, but you can bet he’ll be wearing them at the plate at least until his next prolonged slump.

“The spikes seem to press right on the toe and they really hurt when I ran (after singling in the fifth),” he said. “So, I got a pair with plastic spikes and changed into them.”

Myers wasn’t the only one wearing home-run shoes on this evening, though.

Angel starter Shawn Boskie, who sprained a muscle in his neck and chipped two teeth during Thursday night’s brawl with Oakland, was rocked again by the Mariners in the first inning when they scored three times on home runs by Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez.

But the Angels came right back and tied the score with a run in the first--Tony Phillips walked, went to third on Damion Easley’s double and scored on a ground out--and two in the second when Gary DiSarcina doubled to drive in J.T. Snow, who had walked, and Eduardo Perez, who singled.

The Angels chased Davis, who was making his third major league start, in the fourth inning after he gave up a run-scoring single to Easley. And Snow gave the Angels a two-run margin with a leadoff homer to left-center in fifth.

And Boskie seemed to have settled into a nice little groove. Through six innings, he had thrown only 88 pitches and allowed only one hit in his last three innings. But Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann, who said before the game that he didn’t have to worry much about a pitch count with Boskie because he was pitching in the Angels’ minor league camp long before the strike was settled, went to his bullpen, anyway.

“After the fifth, his velocity was down 5 or 6 m.p.h., according to the (radar) gun,” Lachemann said. “He’s usually right at 90 with his fastball, but he threw only one above 85 in the sixth.”

Two Mariner batters after Boskie left, the Angels’ two-run lead had evaporated. Russ Springer replaced Boskie, walked leadoff hitter Chad Kreuter and then gave up a two-run homer to Luis Sojo, who had hit 17 homers in 1,086 previous major league at-bats.

Then came Mike James, who walked Darren Bragg and gave up a single to Joey Cora. Lachemann was back on the mound signaling for Mitch Williams, not usually the kind of pitcher you want with two runners on and nobody out.

Williams got lucky, though, and ended up the winning pitcher thanks to Myers and Easley. Griffey hit a rocket right at the Angel second baseman, who managed to keep from being knocked into right field and made a throw to DiSarcina at second to double up Bragg.

In the ninth, Lachemann was able to go to his bullpen with a good measure of confidence. Lee Smith, who appears to be worth every penny of the $4 million the Angels will pay him over the next two years, retired the side in order and earned his fourth save.