Fortune Smiles on Angels, so Lachemann Smiles Too

The Angels’ Marcel Lachemann is in his first full season as a major league manager, but he already has a handle on what separates good decisions from bad ones.

“A lot of this stuff is more luck than anything else,” he said.

Take Sunday’s game, an 8-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox before 26,344 in Comiskey Park. The Angels had Jim Edmonds on first and a two-run lead in the top of the ninth, so Lachemann, looking for an insurance run, asked Damion Easley to bunt.

But when Easley ran the count to 3-1 against pitcher Tim Fortugno, Lachemann scrapped the bunt. Easley smashed the next pitch into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer that wound up being the difference.

“I thought there was a chance he’d get a ball to drive,” Lachemann said. “I can’t say I expected a home run.”

But that’s how this season has gone for the Angels, who have become masters of the unexpected. Picked by many to finish last in the American League West, the Angels (15-9) are in first place. They swept a three-game series from Chicago and went 7-3 on a trip that included stops in Kansas City and Minnesota.

They hit 20 home runs on the trip and--believe it or not--Tim Salmon didn’t hit one. Cleanup batter Chili Davis had three, but the rest came from alternative power sources:

--Tony Phillips, the lead-off batter who says he never tries to hit home runs, had five in the 10 games.

--Edmonds, who had five homers in 94 games last season, had four on this trip, including a bases-empty shot in the fourth inning that gave the Angels a 2-0 lead Sunday.

--Shortstop Gary DiSarcina, the No. 9 hitter, homered in the sixth inning Sunday, had an RBI single in the fourth, and singled and scored in the third.

--Backup catcher Andy Allanson, who did not have a major league homer since 1991, hit two and drove in six runs Thursday.

There has been some surprising pitching, as well. Mike Bielecki, a free agent who was unsure whether he’d make the team or last beyond May 15, when rosters were cut from 28 to 25, gave up one run on five hits in 6 1/3 innings Sunday to improve to 2-0.

Shawn Boskie, who was released by three teams in 1994 but found refuge in the Angel rotation, is 2-0 with a 3.33 ERA.

Closer Lee Smith has been everything the Angels expected--he recorded his league-leading 10th save Sunday and third in three days in Chicago. But the Angels, with the exception of Sunday’s rocky performance, have also gotten significant contributions from just about everyone in the bullpen.

Still not convinced the Angels are for real? Watch the next three weeks.

Starting Tuesday the Angels will play 19 games, nine at home, 10 on the road, against the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox of what many consider baseball’s best division, the AL East.

“It’s definitely going to be a challenge because those teams have always given us problems,” DiSarcina said. “We haven’t had much success against them, but we’re different this year. I think we have a legitimate chance to win the division because of our bullpen and the scrappiness of the club.”

Indeed, the Angels have been a resilient bunch. They outlasted the White Sox Sunday in a four-hour affair that was the longest nine-inning game in Angel history, and every time Chicago made a run at them, the Angels responded.

After the White Sox cut the lead to 5-1 in the seventh, the Angels countered with a run in the eighth. Chicago scored three times in the eighth to make it 6-4, then the Angels pushed it to 8-4 with two in the ninth.

“Call it tenacity or resiliency, but we just play hard,” Bielecki said. “We have some veterans who behind closed doors will get on some guys’ tails. We have a good attitude, we can score some runs, and if the pitching stays above average, we can win some games.”