Davis Lets Bat Do the Talking in Defeat of A’s

Designated hitter Chili Davis said he is finished speaking to reporters this year.

Presumably, he was happy to get four hits and four runs batted in to lead the Angels to a 9-4 victory over Oakland on Sunday.

It’s a safe bet he felt better about matters after the Angels snapped a four-game losing streak before 16,526 at the Oakland Coliseum.

And it’s probably a good guess to say he would have been miserable over the three-day All-Star break if the Angels (43-45) had lost and stayed in sole possession of last place in the American League West.

Instead, Davis said only:

“I’m shut down, guys. I just don’t want to say anything. It’s nothing personal against you guys. I’m done talking.”

Even on a day when almost everything goes their way, the Angels still do things that make you wonder.

There were two important questions Davis left unanswered. First, did Davis feel compelled to load the Angels on his back and personally deliver a victory before the break? Second, what is his opinion of the club at this point?

But since he wasn’t talking, there was no way to know the answers.

Clearly, the Angels were desperate for a victory Sunday. Davis did lead by his actions. He drove in the Angels’ first run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning and had run-scoring singles in the third, fourth and sixth.

But what comes next remains unclear.

Tony Tavares, Angel president, said Saturday there will be meetings over the break to discuss the club’s lackluster first half and how to put it back on the right track.

Manager Marcel Lachemann said Sunday there could be a number of changes, but refused to elaborate.

“We’ll sit down and go over the ballclub,” Lachemann said. “We made a lot of changes in the first half, so I’m sure there will be more in the second half.”

Acquiring more pitching figures to be a priority. Of course, every team in the major leagues, with the possible exception of the Atlanta Braves, could use a few more capable arms.

Considering recent efforts, right-hander Shawn Boskie looked like an all-star Sunday. Boskie (9-4) gave up two runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and two walks in 6 1/2 innings.

It was exactly what the Angels needed.

They had given up an average of 10.7 walks in losing the first three games of the four-game series against Oakland.

“Home runs are going to happen,” Lachemann said of bases-empty homers by Oakland’s Matt Stairs, in the second inning, and Mark McGwire, in the eighth. “But if you don’t walk people it makes a big difference.”

Boskie, who had never won more than seven games in a season before this year, was in control until tiring in the seventh.

The Angels led, 9-2, at that point, thanks to Davis and Garret Anderson, who also had four hits. Rex Hudler’s two-out double, Anderson’s run-scoring single and Don Slaught’s two-run double in the eighth provided the right insurance against the seemingly inevitable bullpen meltdown.

When things went temporarily haywire and the A’s scored twice in the eighth off reliever Chuck McElroy, there was at least a margin of error for the Angels.

That had not been the case in quite a while. The Angels hadn’t won a game by more than two runs since defeating Milwaukee, 10-3, on June 20. They have only won five of 17 since then.

Amazingly, although they are tied with Oakland for third place (or last, depending on how you look at it), they are only 8 1/2 games behind first-place Texas in the AL West.

The Angels were five games behind Texas June 20.

“We haven’t played well, but we’re still in it,” Lachemann said. “Again, it all comes down to expectations. We had a lot of expectations coming into the season.

“But we’ve weathered a storm here and we’ll see what happens in the second half.”

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* FIRED: Rene Lachemann, the brother of the Angels’ Marcel, was fired as manager of the Florida Marlins. C5