Location a Big Problem for Finley

His 1996 spring debut was so routine that pitcher Chuck Finley barely remembered where it occurred.

“Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere--why not Yuma?” Finley said after pitching two scoreless innings in the Angels’ 5-0 exhibition victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday. “Wait a minute. Where are we? Peoria, that’s right. Wherever. Same thing.”

Finley doesn’t care where he pitches this time of year--just give him a mound, a catcher and a big league opponent, and the 10-year veteran knows what he has to do to prepare for the season.

But the left-hander did have a keen sense of where he was in the top of the second inning because it was unfamiliar territory: the batter’s box. Finley took three good hacks, fouling one off and missing two others for a strikeout.

“At least I got to feel a little wood on it,” said Finley, who hit because the designated hitter was eliminated against the National League Padres.

*

Finley led a tag-team pitching effort that limited the Padres to six hits. First baseman J.T. Snow had three hits and scored twice, and catcher Don Slaught had a three-run double in the first inning to pace the Angels.

Shawn Boskie gave up three hits in three innings, Mark Eichhorn struck out the side in the sixth, and Juan Agosto, Julio Valera and Ken Edenfield each pitched an inning.

*

Steve Ontiveros’ first spring start, scheduled for Wednesday, has been delayed because of tightness in his forearm, which forced him to cut a weekend workout short. . . . Reliever Bryan Harvey, trying to come back from reconstructive elbow surgery last May, is experiencing tightness in his biceps, but is scheduled to pitch in an exhibition game by mid-month. . . . Owner Jackie Autry is scheduled to be admitted to a hospital this week for what a team spokesman said would be minor surgery.