Angels Only Good for One Comeback

Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann got caught with his ‘pen down Saturday, his infatuation with one of baseball’s better comeback stories perhaps impairing his judgment.

Scott Sanderson, the 39-year-old right-hander who had major back surgery last August and hadn’t pitched in a big league game in 10 1/2 months, looked sharp through five innings in his 1996 debut, giving up three runs to the Detroit Tigers but displaying good command of his pitches in a 9-5 loss.

But not until Cecil Fielder opened the sixth inning with a double did Lachemann phone the bullpen, informing Mark Eichhorn to get loose, and not until Melvin Nieves singled Fielder to third did Lachemann send pitching coach Chuck Hernandez out to talk to Sanderson.

Eddie Williams then slapped a two-run double into the right-field corner, breaking a 3-3 tie and sending Lachemann to the mound to pull Sanderson, second-guessing himself all the way.

“I should have been more ready to take [Sanderson] out in the sixth,” Lachemann said. “I probably should have had someone up when he went out there [to start the inning]. It was not a very good job of managing today.”

Lachemann’s most important offensive decision turned sour as well. Trailing, 7-4, in the seventh, the Angels had runners on first and second with one out and a full count on Garret Anderson, a left-handed batter who was facing left-handed reliever Mike Myers.

Lachemann sent the runners, Myers struck out Anderson on a nasty slider, and catcher Mark Parent threw out Tim Salmon at third for an inning-ending double play.

George Arias then led off the eighth with a single off Myers, a hit the Angels could have used in the seventh. But that’s how Saturday’s game went for the Angels, whose timing was as imperfect as the soggy, chilly conditions in Tiger Stadium.

The Angels had 11 hits, including three by leadoff batter Randy Velarde to end a 0-for-11 skid and one by shortstop Gary DiSarcina to end a 0-for-18 drought. They also left 11 men on base.

But Angel batters don’t deserve all the blame for the team’s sluggish 5-5 start. The Angels have the second-worst earned-run average in baseball (6.13).

“We’ve been treading water,” pitcher Mark Langston said. “We haven’t pitched like we can, we haven’t hit like we can. . . . But our job is to keep us in the game, give us a chance to win, and we haven’t done our job.”

For much of 1995, the offense relieved Angel pitchers of pressure, staking them to big early leads, giving them the luxury of attacking opponents without fear of making mistakes.

But only two Angel regulars--No. 7 batter George Arias (.304) and No. 8 Jorge Fabregas (.318)--are hitting better than .300.

“We’re scoring three, four, five runs a game, and even that’s a struggle,” Salmon said. “If we get the bats going, start putting up some runs, we’ll put pressure on other clubs. Right now we’re not creating the kind of pressure that helps our pitchers.

“You can see a little glimmer of it, but we haven’t really got our bats locked in. We just have to be patient.”

As patient as Sanderson has been since last June. Considering his age and the severity of his injury, few expected him to return.

Sanderson improved gradually during the fall and winter, and Saturday’s start, in which he gave up five runs on nine hits in five-plus innings, was the culmination of many long and grueling hours of rehabilitation.

“I’m encouraged by everything but the loss,” Sanderson said. “I’m strong, I’m confident, I’m excited about pitching. . . . I’ve come a long way back, but it’s not enough just to come back. This team is looking for me to excel, and that’s what I want.”