Angels Still Need a Starter After Loss

And the search goes on.

Nobody really thought Mike Harkey would be the quality starter the Angels believe will help them win a division title, and Friday night the veteran right-hander put forth the kind of journeyman effort expected from a pitcher plucked from the waiver wire.

Harkey, who was released by Oakland last week after going 4-6 with a 6.27 earned-run average with the A’s, gave up two runs and seven hits in five innings and the Detroit Tigers hung on to beat the Angels, 4-3, before a paid crowd of 21,731 at Anaheim Stadium.

“We were looking for five or six innings and that’s what we got,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “It was a pretty good outing.”

Lachemann said Harkey will get another start, unless the front office can come through with a deal. The Angels’ desire to acquire a premier starter has expanded with their lead in the American League West, still four games because of Texas’ loss to the New York Yankees.

General Manager Bill Bavasi said there are seven pitchers available who fit the Angels’ needs, and he is “aggressively trying to make a deal.” Two weeks ago, he said the team was probably not in the running for the “big-money guys”--such as Toronto’s David Cone and the Mets’ Bret Saberhagen--but the Angels’ recently concluded 7-1 trip seems to have changed that and the club apparently is ready to up the ante.

“We would be willing to reach pretty far for a quality starter,” he said.

Is money an obstacle?

“No,” Bavasi said.

The problem, however, might be the Angels’ unwillingness to part with a promising big league position player, especially any of the young guns who have made them baseball’s top-scoring team.

“There aren’t a lot of guys we want to move,” Bavasi said. “These guys are how we’re going to win, and you don’t want to blow a hole to fill a hole.”

Their pursuit of pitching is reaching the critical stage, though, as the end of the month approaches. Any player traded after July 31 would have to pass through waivers and could be blocked by almost any team in the majors.

“It’s hard to gauge progress [of trade talks] because we could be talking to clubs who have no intention of dealing with us but just want to keep the number of bidders up,” Bavasi said. “Or we could be very close to a deal.

“And most of what we have to offer is in the minor leagues, so clubs are in the process of watching our minor league clubs and that evaluation takes time.”

In the meantime, the Angel untouchables continued to provide considerable offense, even against one of the league’s top starters. They had eight hits Friday night and a runner on base in every inning except the eighth against left-hander David Wells, who began the game with the fifth-best ERA (2.99) in the league and improved his record to 9-3. Mike Henneman pitched the ninth to earn his 18th save in 19 opportunities.

“Wells was awesome tonight,” second baseman Rex Hudler said. “The guy’s an all-star pitcher, and he had all his pitches working tonight. We got some things going, but we just couldn’t finish them.”

Hudler, moved to the leadoff spot because Tony Phillips had a night off, played the role to the hilt in the first inning. He walked, stole second, took third on a groundout and then caught Wells napping and stole home.

Harkey, a former Cal State Fullerton All-American, gave up two hits in each of the first three innings--and got three outs on drives to the warning track--but Detroit managed to push across only solo runs in the first and third.

The Angels took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third when Jim Edmonds singled and Tim Salmon slammed a home run to left. It was Salmon’s second hit--and second homer--against Wells and marked the 10th consecutive game in which Edmonds has scored a run, one shy of the club record.

Harkey threw 90 pitches in five innings, so Lachemann went to his bullpen, but the Tigers quickly jumped on reliever John Habyan. Catcher John Flaherty lined a single to center and right-fielder Danny Bautista homered to left.