Finley’s Slow Start Dramatically Ends With Magnificent Two-Hitter : Baseball: Left-hander wins 100th game snapping out of 0-4 start and striking out 15 as Edmonds homers twice in 10-0 rout of Yankees.

Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann wanted Chuck Finley to forget that he had lost his first four decisions of the season and merely “focus on the process” of pitching against the New York Yankees on Tuesday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Finley couldn’t have been any more focused.

He retired the first 15 batters, had a career-high 15 strikeouts and threw a two-hitter to record his 100th career victory and lead the Angels to a 10-0 rout before 14,952.

Center fielder Jim Edmonds hit two home runs and drove in a career-high four runs, left fielder Tony Phillips hit a three-run home run and right fielder Tim Salmon had a solo shot.

Edmonds also figured in the game’s key defensive play. Yankee third baseman Russ Davis led off the sixth inning with a long drive to center field. Edmonds sprinted back, arriving at the fence at the same instant as the ball. He got his glove on the ball just as he crashed into the fence but it popped free as he fell to the ground.

For a moment, it looked as if he might be able to snare the ball with his bare hand, but he couldn’t hold on and Davis pulled into third with a triple.

His bid for a no-hitter dashed, an unfazed Finley struck out seven of the next eight hitters.

Bernie Williams then blooped a two-out single to center in the ninth that a charging Edmonds couldn’t quite run down.

Finley threw 146 pitches, 87 of them strikes.

“The thing Chuck has to guard against is trying to make himself 4-4 in one game,” Lachemann said beforehand. “You can’t even approach it as ‘I want to win the game.’ You have to stay away from thinking about the goal and focus on the process.

“You can’t win until you get the first guy out and you can’t get the first guy out until you throw the first strike.”

Finley, in the final season of a three-year deal, is hoping to re-sign with the Angels and has expressed cautious optimism that the influx of Walt Disney Co. money into the team will help facilitate it. A few more performances like Tuesday’s wouldn’t hurt, either.

The Angels, who scored an average of only 2 1/2 runs during Finley’s first five starts, gave him an early cushion this time. They scored twice in the third with two out when Salmon doubled to right-center, Chili Davis walked, J.T. Snow singled off Rivera’s right leg to load the bases and Greg Myers blooped a single down the left-field line.

They increased their advantage to 5-0 in the fourth on singles by Damion Easley and Gary DiSarcina and a towering homer to right-center by Edmonds. Myers led off the fifth with a triple to center, the second of his career, and after DiSarcina walked, Phillips hit his sixth homer in 10 games.

Salmon, who had not homered since May 5--the second longest long-ball drought of his career--led off the sixth with a line drive into the seats in left.

And Edmonds, who extended his hitting streak to a career-high nine games, hit his sixth homer of the year in the seventh inning. Edmonds, who lifted weights in the off-season in an attempt to improve his power, had just five home runs in 94 games last year.

Pity poor Yankee right-hander Mariano Rivera, who had not allowed an earned run in his last three starts at triple-A Columbus and had 11 strikeouts in his last outing. He was rocked for eight hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings.