Finley Takes Heat for Angels’ Loss

The Angels played the blame game Sunday at County Stadium.

Manager Marcel Lachemann was disappointed in relievers Rich Monteleone and Chuck McElroy. Monteleone was angry at himself.

Chuck Finley, speaking loudest and most convincingly of all, fell on the sword for letting his teammates down in an 8-4 loss to Milwaukee. He said Sunday’s loss, and the five-run seventh inning that led to it, was his fault and his alone.

In fact, there was probably plenty of blame to go around.

Lachemann had it right. So did Monteleone. And it was difficult to find fault with Finley’s postgame logic.

“There are times when you hope guys will bail you out,” Finley said. “I can’t expect them to pick up my dirty work.”

The Angels trailed, 1-0, led, 2-1, were tied, 2-2, fell behind, 3-2, then rallied to tie, 3-3, in the top of the seventh.

Finley, hardly at his sharpest Sunday, at last seemed poised to silence the Brewers, however. He had retired them in order for the first time in the sixth.

But his control went south in a hurry in the seventh.

Pat Listach singled, then was sacrificed to second. Finley walked Greg Vaughn, who hit his 21st homer in the third. John Jaha walked to load the bases. After walking Matt Mieske to force in the go-ahead run, Finley was through.

Lachemann summoned Monteleone to face Jeff Cirillo and halt the rally.

Didn’t work. Cirillo delivered a run-scoring single.

Exit Monteleone. Enter McElroy.

Jose Valentin’s two-run double off McElroy proved to be the back-breaker. McElroy then gave up a run-scoring sacrifice fly to Fernando Vina and suddenly the Angels faced an 8-3 deficit.

“We’ve got to get a better job when we take [Finley] out of there,” Lachemann said. “We’ve got to do a better job with the inherited runners. [Finley] battled and kept us in the game all day long.

“Monteleone left a ball up to Cirillo. McElroy left a forkball up. It doesn’t seem to matter who relieves [Finley], but I can’t leave him out there forever.”

Finley threw 112 pitches over the course of 6 1/3 innings, not a particularly taxing start. But he went eight innings and threw 123 pitches in defeating Chicago in his start last Tuesday.

Neither he nor Lachemann would say so, but it looked as if somebody had moved the plate on Finley during the seventh inning. His pitches simply weren’t hitting the intended targets. A few went crashing into the dirt and catcher Don Slaught scrambled to keep the ball in front of him.

“I tried to get them to chase a couple of pitches,” Finley said.

Vaughn, in particular, wouldn’t bite.

“He’s a very patient hitter right now,” Finley said. “I’m all right with that walk. I’m still all right with walking Jaha. Walking in that run is the only thing that bugs me about the whole ballgame. There’s only five minutes of that game that really hacks me off.”

Monteleone believed he let down Finley and the rest of his teammates. “If I want to give up runs, I’d rather they be mine,” he said. “The toughest part of our job is giving up somebody else’s runs. When [Finley] came out it was a one-run game. We [the relievers] gave up a couple of key hits that were costly.”

This was a rare breakdown for the Angel bullpen, which has been superb since sending disgruntled closer Lee Smith to Cincinnati in exchange for McElroy on May 27.

In the 15 games before Sunday, the bullpen had a 6-0 record with seven saves and a 2.42 earned-run average. Although charged with only one run and two hits Sunday, it was clearly not the bullpen’s finest performance.

Finley (9-5) remains on pace to become the Angels’ first 20-game winner since Nolan Ryan won 22 in 1974. His 4.50 earned-run average is higher than Lachemann believes it should be, and he pointed out that three of the seven runs charged to Finley scored after he left the game.

“His ERA is so ridiculously high [because Angel relievers allowed inherited runners to score],” Lachemann said. “A lot of it is coincidence. It’s just happened to happen to him. A lot of times the other team takes a deep breath and relaxes. They’re glad he’s out of there.”