Angels’ Trip Is a Huge Hit : Baseball: They finish it with 10-3 victory over Blue Jays, but Finley and Snow are banged up.

If hitting is contagious, the Angel offense is starting to look like something out of the movie “Outbreak.”

The Angels pounded out 17 hits, 14 of them singles, in Thursday night’s 10-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays before an announced crowd of 37,194 in the SkyDome, closing their trip with a 7-1 record and opening a four-game lead--their largest of the season--over Texas in the American League West.

Seven singles came during a six-run first inning, which brought Blue Jay fans to such despair that after the sixth Angel run, one began yelling: “Block that kick! Block that kick!”

Second baseman Rex Hudler had four hits and three runs batted in, shortstop Gary DiSarcina had three hits and two RBIs, and right fielder Tim Salmon hit his 17th home run as the Angels reached double figures in hits for the 38th time this season and amassed 15 or more hits for the ninth time.

The Angels have five starters--Chili Davis (.345), DiSarcina (.322), J.T. Snow (.316), Salmon (.301) and Jim Edmonds (.301)--hitting better than .300, and four, Edmonds, Salmon, Snow and Davis, with 10 or more homers and 40 or more RBIs.

But there was a flip side to the Angel victory, aside from the somersault Hudler performed after lunging to catch Devon White’s first-inning popup in shallow right.

Angel starter Chuck Finley had to leave the game after the second inning after Ed Sprague lined a ball off the inside of his right heel, and Snow, the first baseman, came out after banging his right knee into the wall trying to catch Paul Molitor’s popup in the third.

Finley was found to have a contusion on the inside of his heel and Snow a bruised knee. Both will have X-rays today in Anaheim. Finley is not expected to miss his next start; Snow was listed as day to day.

Manager Marcel Lachemann said “everybody will be fine,” but recent injuries to pitchers Shawn Boskie and Mike Bielecki and infielder Spike Owen were not believed to be serious, and all three wound up on the disabled list shortly after getting hurt.

Finley was hit with none out in the second but remained in the game after a lengthy discussion with Lachemann and trainer Ned Bergert. The left-hander retired the next three batters, but Lachemann took him out because he felt he was landing awkwardly on the injured foot.

Mike Butcher replaced Finley and gave up no runs and two hits in four innings--his longest outing--to gain the victory, and Mike James pitched two scoreless innings before closer Lee Smith, hoping to sharpen his delivery, gave up two runs in the ninth.

“I felt like my heel was broke,” said Finley, who gave up two hits and struck out four. “I was just trying to buy some time because I couldn’t feel my foot. It kept throbbing, but I wanted to see if the numbness would go away.

“I could have kept going, but if I would have hurt my arm in a game that was already out of hand it wouldn’t do myself or the team any good. Then, instead of looking for one more starter [in a trade] they’d be looking for two.”

Snow felt he had a play on Molitor’s pop, but Snow never realized how close he was to the wall until it was too late.

“When it first happened I thought I blew my knee out,” said Snow, who had two hits and two RBIs. “It got numb real fast and I got real scared. Coming from a football family, I know the knee is a delicate thing. It got kind of puffy, but I don’t think anything turned.”

If that wasn’t enough, Salmon leaped over the wall and into the crowd trying to catch Alex Gonzalez’s foul ball in the fifth and came out shaking his left wrist, as if it was hurt.

Salmon was fine, though, and he put the finishing touches on the trip with a bases-empty homer in the ninth.

“I’ve never been on a better trip, especially considering the way Detroit was playing and the brutal weather we had there, the way Cleveland is playing and the way Toronto [which had won eight of 11] was playing,” Lachemann said. “It’s not like we were running into some easy clubs. We gained four games in the standings--it was a great trip.”