Story Stays the Same for Abbott

Having squeezed through the mob to get to his locker stall, Jim Abbott would politely suggest that the numbers do not add up.

Five-plus innings pitched.

Ninety-four pitches flung, misfired and/or bounced into the dirt.

Six hits, including Daniel Bautista’s first home run of 1996.

Six walks, a match for Abbott’s career high.

Five runs, all of them earned.

Six-to-five rousing come-from-behind victory by Abbott’s Angel teammates.

Result?

Twelve sportswriters huddled around Abbott’s locker like iron filings on a magnet?

And Abbott wasn’t handing out free ham and cheese sandwiches?

“We won the game,” Abbott reminded his audience.

With that, he turned sports editor.

“I don’t know why you guys are talking to me,” he said.

“We rallied to win--that’s your story,” he said.

Then, amused at the situation, Abbott grinned and concluded: “I think you guys wrote your stories too early. You’re still focusing on me. You need to go back and rework that first paragraph.”

What, and ignore the sacred tenets of on-the-spot news writing--the hallowed five Ws?

As in:

Who (Abbott).

What (failed to win again).

When (Sunday, in addition to his previous three starts).

Where (Anaheim Stadium, which hasn’t witnessed a victory by Abbott since July of 1994).

Why.

Yeah, that’s what we’d all like to know.

By the grace of the Angels’ four-run eighth-inning rally and his subsequent non-decision, Abbott is 0-3 after four starts this season. His earned-run average is 7.99--higher than twice his career average. And he remains winless at home in his second stint as an Angel--his last Anaheim Stadium victory coming on July 24, 1994, when Abbott defeated the Angels, 6-4, as a member of the New York Yankees.

That was the reason for the crowd around Abbott.

Why?

“I can’t explain it,” Abbott said, with as much patience as he could muster. “It certainly would be nice to pitch well here.”

It hasn’t happened, not since last July’s momentous return from the hinterland, not since Abbott re-upped with the Angels in January for three years and $7.8 million.

It hasn’t happened, so Abbott conducts a postgame interview saying things like “I’d like to win a game here” and “I’d like to win a lot of games here. It’s kinda important--it is our home field.”

Sunday, Abbott was given a 2-0 lead after two innings and still couldn’t get it done. Walks to Mark Parent and Chad Curtis led to Detroit’s first run in the third inning. Another walk to Curtis and a bounding single by Travis Fryman brought the Tigers even in the fifth inning. And in the sixth, Abbott walked Eddie Williams, served up Bautista’s home run, served up a single to Alan Trammell . . . and that’s when Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann halted the exercise, after 94 laborious pitches.

“It wasn’t so much him getting the ball up,” Lachemann said, “as it was him making a lot of pitches. He walked six guys and three of them scored. In five-plus innings.

“You make that many pitches, you’re going to make some mistakes.”

Lachemann shrugged. This isn’t something he hasn’t seen before. In 1991, Abbott started 0-4, had a 6.00 ERA through April--and then went 4-0, 1.96 in May. Abbott finished 1991 with the best personal numbers of his career: 18-11, 2.89.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing that happen again,” Lachemann deadpanned.

In 1991, Abbott’s 0-4 start had some calling for his swift demotion to triple A, because, well, Abbott had never pitched in triple A before and therefore it had to be something he was missing and desperately required. Doug Rader, however, resisted the urge, Abbott never pitched an inning in the minors and today, he can talk with experience of waiting bad patches out because “in this game, things go in streaks.”

“I’ve started a lot of seasons very slowly,” Abbott said. “Today I didn’t pitch very well, but overall, I actually feel [this month] has been very similar to my start in ’91. I’d have a couple bad outings, I’d have a couple good ones, but either way, things wouldn’t fall into place. It’s very frustrating, but all you can do is try to do what’s right and not worry about the results. It takes a bit of faith.”

Pitching for a team in the midst of a five-game winning streak can be a faith saver, too, even if Abbott is starting to tire of the outside-looking-in routine.

“When it comes, hopefully it will come in bunches,” Abbott said, “and I’ll be able to help the team like I hope, too.”

Maybe even, as he said, win a game at Anaheim Stadium.

“I’d like to get that monkey off my back,” he said. “I can’t deny that that’s not on my mind.

“I think it’s a fluke, but if the losses keep adding up, people are going to say, ‘It’s not so fluky.’ ”

Abbott knows what he has to do to keep them from talking. Give them something different to write about, a new angle, the next time they come calling by his locker.