Even Super-Sub Hudler Can’t Push Angels Over Hump

He’s the reason the Angels felt comfortable going with a 12-man pitching staff and sending Damion Easley to the minors, the reason Randy Velarde can slice open his finger while opening a window without causing a panic in the manager’s office.

Rex “Wonder Dog” Hudler, the quintessential super-sub, is always waiting in the wings.

OK, panting in the wings.

Hudler had only played once in six games before Tuesday night, when he was pressed into action at second base in place of Velarde, but he was ready.

Rex Hudler is always ready.

Double. Homer. Single. Stolen base. Walk. Two runs scored. And, of course, the usual amount of mud, blood and sweat.

The only time Hudler didn’t reach base in his five at-bats came with two on and two out in the seventh inning. The Tigers were replacing right-handed pitcher Richie Lewis with left-hander Mike Myers and the scoreboard operators used the delay to recap the United States’ Olympic gold rush on Tuesday.

By the time they had featured the women’s gymnastics team’s historic gold-medal performance, Hudler was probably too pumped up.

He grounded into a force play on Myers’ second pitch.

“I was getting juiced watching that, man,” Hudler said after the Angels’ 8-3 loss to Detroit. “I was getting goosebumps. I almost cried. I said, ‘OK, Hud, now’s the time to get yourself a knock.’

“I waited and got a good pitch and I hit it pretty hard, I just didn’t hit in the right place. That guy [the shortstop] has been there for 100 years, man, so that was a bad piece of hitting. I’m not saying that would’ve been the difference in the game, but I left that man out there.”

He wasn’t the only one. The Angels left 15 men on base.

Hudler, who has 23 hits in his last 56 at bats and 10 hits in his last 20 at-bats at Anaheim Stadium, held up his end of the deal. He has boosted his batting average to .335 and his first inning homer--a 376-foot solo shot into the seats in left--was his 13th, the most in one season in his career.

Tuesday night was the 20th time he has put together two or more hits in a game. He led off the first inning with a line-drive double down the left-field line, but was stranded when Jim Edmonds and Chili Davis struck out, sandwiched around a Tim Salmon pop out.

He ripped a single to center in the fifth, stole second and eventually scored when Edmonds, Salmon and Davis all walked.

“Rex played hard and he’s not even 100%,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said, referring to a strained hip muscle that has been bothering Hudler. “He tried to do everything he could, but we had five hits through seven innings and he had three of them.”

Hudler said the hip sometimes tightens up near the end of the game, but wasn’t really a problem Tuesday night because he kept it loose with all that baserunning. He has recently started taking a line of special diet supplements--(like this guy needs an energy boost)--because “I’m going to take advantage of every opportunity to prolong my career.”

His versatility and the way he’s swinging the bat have pretty much ensured that for the forseeable future. He has started twice at first base, three times in left field, 11 times in center, five times at designated hitter and Tuesday was his 28th start at second.

Asked recently what a whole team of Rex Hudlers would be like, he thought about it for awhile, seeming to enjoy the image.

“First, I think we would have caused [Lachemann] to commit suicide by now,” he said, laughing. “We’d be OK in the emotion department, but we’d be hurting in the skill department.

“I think we’re a lot better off with some Tim Salmons, Chili Davis’s and Jim Edmonds’s mixed in.”

Maybe. But Salmon, Davis and Edmonds were a combined two for 10 Tuesday night.

On this evening anyway, the Angels could’ve used another Rex Hudler.