With Second Win, Finley Is Leader of the Unpacked

At least Chuck Finley won’t have to worry about tripping over any luggage on the way to his locker for a while.

Somebody left a suitcase in front of his stall before his last start Tuesday, and Finley, who was 0-4, immediately understood the message. “If something good didn’t come out of it, they might send me packing,” he said, smiling.

A number of good things resulted: 15 strikeouts, a two-hitter and a 10-0 victory over the New York Yankees.

Before Sunday’s game, an 8-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox, Finley had every reason to think the baggage might be back. He wasn’t feeling well--teammate Shawn Boskie said Finley had a “kennel cough” that sounded just like his ailing dog--and the Angel hitters were slumping.

But Angel bats returned after a two-game absence and Finley went into his “grinder” mode as the Angels defeated the Red Sox in front of an announced paid crowd of 27,497 at Anaheim Stadium.

“There are a lot of guys in this game who get a hangnail and won’t show up,” Chili Davis said, “but Chuck ain’t one of them. You’re going to have to drag him off the field.”

Manager Marcel Lachemann removed Finley after 5 2/3 innings and required no assistance. The veteran left-hander had thrown 124 pitches, was admittedly “pretty tired.” The Angels were leading, 7-3, having scored in each of the first four innings.

Finley gave up six hits and walked five, but he struck out nine.

“I didn’t know what to expect after getting our butts whipped the last two nights,” Finley said, “but they gave me a few runs early and that made it a lot easier. Still, from the third inning on, it was pretty much of a grind. Usually I’ll lie to [Lachemann] as long as I can. I’ll just hang on the ropes and take a beating until they throw in the towel.”

Finley didn’t have the unhittable forkball or the command he did when he struck out 15 Yankees, but he wasn’t exactly a club fighter being pummeled by a contender, either. He struck out more than a third of the Red Sox batters he faced.

“When I’m striking out a lot of guys that means I’m working too deep into the count,” Finley said. “I tried to throw a lot balls right down the chute that ended up one or two feet outside. I was getting behind and then having to make pitches. That’s where the strikeouts came from.”

Finley gave up back-to-back walks and a run-scoring single to Tim Naehring in the first inning, but the Angels responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning on RBI singles by J.T. Snow and Greg Myers. And they scored again in the second on singles by Gary DiSarcina and Tim Salmon.

Finley couldn’t handle a shot up the middle by leadoff hitter Steve Rodriguez in the third and was charged with an error. Rodriguez stole second and scored on a single by Mo Vaughn. But the Angels padded their lead with two runs in third--on a solo homer by Snow and a run-scoring double by DiSarcina--and then went ahead, 7-2, in the fourth when Davis and Myers each singled in a run.

The Angels, who were averaging nine runs a game during a seven-game span before losing the first two games of the series to Boston by scores of 8-3 and 12-1, were again crowding the basepaths. They had 12 hits and left 10 runners on base.

“We had trouble with [Erik] Hanson Friday night and then got the knuckleballer [Tim Wakefield] that we’d never seen before last night,” Lachemann said. “That’s going to happen. But we came back. And what’s nice about our offense right now is that it isn’t just one or two guys. A lot of people are producing.”

Everyone in the lineup except Damion Easley reached base and five Angels drove in runs.

“It’s hard to tell what kind of a team you’ve got until after the All-Star break,” Finley said. “But when you look at the big picture, with the team being sold, the way the division sets up, the way we’re playing, maybe this is our one last shot before [Gene] Autry has to hand over the reins.”