Finley Sticks a Fork in Jays

It has been five years since Chuck Finley won three games in April and the way he began this season, nobody was predicting a spectacular spring for the veteran left-hander.

His earned-run average was 27.01 after the season opener and even though Finley--the quintessential grinder--battled for 6 2/3 innings and gave up four runs in back-to-back victories, he didn’t look much like the all-star of last season.

Wednesday night, however, Finley was putting the fastball where he wanted it, the forkball was biting and so were the Toronto hitters. Finley struck out 10, gave up only three hits and pitched his first complete game since last June during a 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays in front of an announced 15,361 at Anaheim Stadium.

It was the most strikeouts and fewest hits he had ever recorded against Toronto. And it put an end to a four-game Angel losing streak.

“This obviously was one we could use,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “To get Chuck, Mark [Langston] and Jimmy [Abbott] off on a roll is very important.

“We just need to pitch like we’re capable of pitching and we’ll be OK.”

Finley has been fiddling with his mechanics lately, trying to maintain the proper arm angle, a problem that has plagued him off and on throughout his career. Lachemann even provided some one-on-one coaching last week and the tutoring apparently paid off.

“Sometimes, he just lets his arm drop down and it has a tendency to flatten out his pitches,” Lachemann said. “He needs to keep pitching downhill.”

After the first inning on this misty evening, Finley was definitely coasting.

Toronto second baseman Miguel Cairo doubled in his first major league at-bat and scored in his first major league baserunning experience, thanks to a two-out single to left by Joe Carter. But Cairo was the only Blue Jay runner to make it past first base.

“The forkball was doing all the damage,” Angel catcher Jorge Fabregas said. “It’s really tough to hit, even when you know it’s coming.”

Finley retired the next eight Blue Jays before he walked Carter in the fourth. Robert Perez’s one-out single in the fifth and Carlos Delgado’s two-out walk in the seventh were the extent of the Toronto “attack.”

“I was talking to my dad [in Louisiana] the other day,” Finley said, “and he said, ‘Let me know when you’re going to start pitching good.’ They don’t want to stay up late and see me get lit.

“I felt really sharp coming out. I hung that one to Carter, but after that things went pretty well.”

Finley was aided by three highlight-film defensive plays. J.T. Snow threw out Otis Nixon from his knees after Nixon’s attempt at a bunt single and rookie third baseman George Arias twice made diving stabs of shots down the line and strong throws to rob Cairo and Perez of extra-base hits.

“When he’s throwing strikes like that,” Lachemann said, “it’s amazing the plays that are made behind him. The defense isn’t back on their heels.”

The Angel offense provided Finley with a four-run bulge by the sixth inning.