Shuffled Angel Lineup Gives Pitchers Nowhere to Go

Tim Salmon, 1993 Rookie of the Year, the guy who hit 54 homers in his first two seasons in the majors, was struggling. Pitchers weren’t giving him anything good to hit, preferring to deal with the bottom of the Angel lineup.

So Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann decided to move Salmon from the No. 5 spot in the order to third, in front of Chili Davis. After all, nobody pitches around anybody to get to Chili Davis these days.

J.T. Snow, 1993 disappointment of the year, the guy with the .233 average in his first two seasons with the Angels, was promoted to the fifth slot in the lineup.

Would Snow, who had spent most of the time sliding downhill after hitting .343 in April of ‘93, be able to hold his new position on the peak? Would Chili ever see another fastball?

“Nothing is cemented in stone,” Lachemann said, “but we’re going to go with it for awhile and see how it goes.”

Thursday night, it went . . . over the right-field fence. Yankee starter Melido Perez made the mistake of pitching around Davis--eventually walking him to load the bases in the second inning--and Snow smacked his second career grand slam. Snow also walked twice and put Gerald Williams’ back against the fence when he flied out to center in the fifth.

The experiment is six games old, Snow is holding his own and the Angels are blowing the lid off the laboratory. They’re 6-0 with No. 6 hitting No. 5.

“I try not to make too big of a deal of it,” Snow said. “I try to keep the same approach no matter where I’m hitting in the lineup. But if they’re going to pitch around Chili, I’ve got to come through. And when they do that, it gets you going as a hitter. I take it as a slap in the face.”

Snow is a modest five for 24 in the last six games, but he has two homers and five runs batted in. And maybe more important, Salmon and Davis are thriving.

Salmon, who hit a two-run home run Thursday night, has improved his average from .229 to .275 since moving up to No. 3. And Davis has a hit in all six games, including a two-run homer Thursday night.

“The switch has worked out well,” Davis said. “I think Timmy can really do a lot more damage up there. And if they’re going to pitch around me, then J.T. is going to see better pitches, too. Just like tonight. With two guys on, [Perez] wasn’t going to give me anything good to hit. But after he walked me to load the bases, he had to come in to J.T.”

Snow’s defense and a .200 average would probably be enough to keep him somewhere in the lineup. His back-to-the-plate, sprinting catch down the right-field line with the bases loaded in the first inning Thursday night was just another example of his worth at first base.

But his maturation as a hitter is what gave Lachemann the confidence to give him a shot at protecting Davis’ bat.

“I think the biggest difference in J.T. this year is that he’s much more selective,” Lachemann said. “He seems to have a much better idea of what he’s going to do and what they’re trying to do with him.

“And he’s had some really big hits for us.”