Boskie Has Managed to Elevate His Game : Angels: After kicking around the majors for five years, his control has helped him go 5-0 in ’95.

Last year, he was traded from the Cubs to the Phillies for a minor-league pitcher named Kevin Foster, from the Phillies to the Mariners for a minor-league infielder named Fred McNair and finally released.

This year, Shawn Boskie is a candidate for the Angels most valuable player, helping ignite their rocket ride to the top of the American League West.

Boskie, who had never won more than five games in any of his five seasons in the majors, has gone from castoff to blastoff.

“Before the season I was talking with my wife and I told her I just wanted to win more than five games,” Boskie said. “I guess that’s kind of an embarrassing goal for a major league starter, but, you know, first things first.”

Boskie has walked out to the mound nine times this season and on eight of those occasions, the Angels have won. If Boskie’s quick start was a surprise at first, his winning ways have bordered on the ho-hum of late. He has pitched six or more innings six times.

“Actually my last start was more routine for last year,” said Boskie, referring to Thursday’s game in Boston, when he was chased after giving up seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. “This was a very big game for me to prove to myself and my teammates that I wasn’t going to go into the tank after one bad outing.”

Tuesday night, Boskie rebounded, boosting his record to 5-0, dropping his earned-run average to 3.99 and lowering the boom on another baffled lineup as the Angels beat the Twins, 7-2.

The guy is anything but unhittable. He gave up eight hits--including three consecutive singles in the fourth inning--an assortment of line-drive outs and a couple of well-hit shots that Angel outfielders ran down. But Boskie won’t beat himself. He was consistently ahead in the count, forcing the Twins to hit his pitches, not 2-0 and 3-1 fastballs down the middle. And he didn’t walk a batter.

It was the seventh outing in which he has allowed less than two walks.

“That’s an important part of why he’s been successful,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “Everyone is going to give up hits, but he’s making sure they have to swing the bat to get on. Nobody’s walking to first.”

Boskie’s new-found command has produced another positive: he’s not only walking fewer batters, he’s keeping the ball down.

“I don’t have one really nasty out pitch, so I’m going to give up plenty of hits,” Boskie said. “So not giving up walks is a big deal for me.”

The Twins loaded the bases with none out in the fourth but scored only once. And that run crossed the plate because Scott Leius out-ran Gary DiSarcina’s relay to first and stay out of an inning-ending double play.

“There always seems to be one inning when the game is going to turn one way or the other,” Boskie said. “In Boston, Mo Vaughn came up with the bases loaded in the fourth and hit a bases-clearing double. Tonight, I was able to work out of it.”

It has been almost a year since Angel starters have been credited with victories in three consecutive games. But they accomplished the feat again Tuesday, thanks to Mark Langston, Chuck Finley and starting pitcher nobody wanted in 1994.