Boskie, Angels Find the Stuff to Beat Indians

Shawn Boskie and Jim Abbott have something in common--neither has the stuff to overpower big-league hitters--but there is one key factor that separates them by, oh, a couple thousand miles this morning.

Boskie isn’t afraid to put what he does have over the plate.

Saturday, Abbott walked four and fell behind almost everyone while giving up nine runs in less than four innings en route to his 15th loss. Tuesday, he accepted an assignment to triple-A Vancouver.

Tuesday night, Boskie challenged the best-hitting team in baseball and came away a winner as the Angels beat Cleveland, 4-2, in front of 19,569 in Anaheim Stadium for their third victory in the last 15 games.

“I feel that’s my best chance,” Boskie said. “I don’t have great pitches, so I have to go after them. If they hit it, they hit it. But it also keeps the fielders alert and ready to catch the ball.”

A few weeks ago, Randy Velarde said the Angels were a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of team. Since then, however, nobody has seen much of the good doctor. But he made a rare house call Tuesday.

Boskie gave up 10 hits and by the second inning had reclaimed his league lead in home runs given up (29), after Albert Belle and Kenny Lofton hit solo shots. But he also had a team-leading 11th victory, thanks in large part to remarkable plays by Garret Anderson and Jorge Fabregas and the defense and baserunning of Cleveland’s Jose Vizcaino and Sandy Alomar.

The Indians had three hits in the seventh, but came away without a run when Anderson fielded Lofton’s single down the line and fired a perfect one-hop strike to Fabregas. The Angel catcher somehow caught the ball and tagged Alomar--who was trying to score from second without bothering to slide--all in one motion.

Said Anderson: “I knew I had a shot. I saw the ball well off his bat and the ball didn’t slice on me. It was one of those plays where everything clicked.”

Said Fabregas: “It’s the scariest play for a catcher, especially when the guy is 6-5 like Alomar. But I was going to make him go through me. Fortunately, I got a good hop. Any other kind and he’s in there.”

Said Boskie: “When Garret threw Alomar out, I threw up my arms like it was the seventh game of the World Series.”

They were throwing up their hands in the Cleveland dugout, too, but only until home plate umpire Jim Joyce threw up his thumb.

Boskie had lost three times in his last four starts with one no decision. He had given up 21 earned runs in 16 innings over that span, but he had never given in to nibbling at the corners and hoping opponents would swing at bad pitches.

He had walked only five while striking out 11 during that stretch. Tuesday night, he walked one and struck out two.

Mike Holtz came on to pitch the eighth inning for the Angels, got Jim Thome to ground to second, and left having accomplished his job. Mike James came and needed only four pitches to get both Belle and Manny Ramirez on grounders to third.

Troy Percival gave up a one-out single to left by pinch-hitter Casey Candaele in the ninth, but he retired pinch-hitter Jeromy Burnitz on a pop-up and Vizcaino on a bouncer to Velarde to pick up his 28th save, fourth best in the league.

The Angels, who had two solo homers of their own--Jim Edmonds in the first and J.T. Snow in the fifth--went ahead for good in the sixth. Velarde led off the inning with a single, but he was still at first two outs later when Chili Davis hit a routine grounder to Vizcaino’s right. The ball rolled up the arm of the Cleveland second baseman and into right field.

Anderson followed with a bloop into center to score Velarde, but it was his throw, and the way the Angels extinguished the Indian rally, that changed the spirit in a usually somber clubhouse.