Result Finally Matches Langston’s Effort

His numbers have been good. His luck has been off.

The Angels’ Mark Langston began Friday’s game with a 3.80 earned-run average in three starts. He had 17 strikeouts and only five walks. He had given up only 17 hits in 21 1/3 innings.

It all translated to an 0-1 record.

So it was hardly surprising that after laboring nine innings, he still had to wait for Dick Schofield to sprint home from second base with the winning run before celebrating his first victory.

Not that Langston’s complaining.

“My job is to keep the team in the game,” Langston sad. “I stay focused on that. I just want to give the team a chance to win.”

The Angels did, finally. They beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, at Anaheim Stadium on a single by Don Slaught with one out in the ninth.

Langston hung around, and hung tough through it all.

Not since 1988 has he had to wait this long--four starts--for victory No. 1. He pitched a seven-hitter for his first complete game since July 8, 1995.

“Actually, I’m not pitching as well as I should,” Langston said. “I have had much more effective games.”

Such as April 3 against Milwaukee, Langston’s first start of the season. He pitched seven shutout innings and left with a 2-0 lead. The Angels ended up winning, but Langston didn’t. Lee Smith gave up two runs in the ninth and the Angels had to go extra innings.

Langston pitched well in his next two starts. Yet he had nothing to show for it.

This time, he got to see it through to the finish.

“Mark actually pitched better the last four or five innings,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “He got into a rhythm.”

The only thing that disturbed it was Mark Parent’s two-out, two-run homer in the seventh that barely cleared the fence in the right-field corner. It gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead and left Langston somewhat stunned.

“The pitch was up a little, but it was on the outside part of the plate,” Langston said. “It was the type of pitch I had been getting ground outs with. It shocked me. But down in that corner, it doesn’t take a lot to get it out.”

It was about the only mistake he made.

Langston handled Cecil Fielder, who already has hit nine home runs. Fielder was hitless in three at-bats, including a strikeout with a runner on first with one out in the fifth.

“It’s nice to get that type of pitching,” Lachemann said.

That’s something that has been lacking until recently. The Angels’ staff had a 5.86 ERA entering the game. Langston’s victory came two days after Chuck Finley had the team’s first complete game this season, a 3-1 victory against Toronto.

“We’ve had three pretty good starts from Mark, Chuck and Jim [Abbott] in the last week,” Lachemann said. “For us to do what we want to do, those three have to pitch well.”

Langston did just that Friday and got a victory as well.