Angels’ Power Makes Sure the Red Sox Knuckle Under

Chili Davis said it was like playing Wiffle ball. Tim Salmon compared it to pepper. The end result Friday night was a home-run derby, with the Angels outdistancing the Boston Red Sox, 6-3, in a rare matchup of knuckleball pitchers in Fenway Park.

The Angels’ Dennis Springer and Boston’s Tim Wakefield treated a crowd of 30,693 to a variety of floating, darting deliveries in the first major-league pairing of knuckleballers since Wakefield, then of the Pittsburgh Pirates, shut out the Dodgers and Tom Candiotti, 2-0, on Aug. 26, 1992.

Both pitchers gave up three home runs, but the difference was the Angels had a runner on base for each of their blasts, hit by Salmon in the first inning, Davis in the third and Garret Anderson in the eighth.

The Angels also used some outstanding relief pitching by Mike Holtz and Troy Percival, and several above-average defensive plays, including two by catcher Jorge Fabregas, to win their third consecutive game since their recent six-game losing streak.

Angel catchers have been dreadful against the run this season, throwing out only 29 of 144 (20%) base-stealers going into Friday’s game.

But Fabregas threw out Darren Bragg on a stolen-base attempt in the first and completed a key double play in the fourth, catching a third strike to Mo Vaughn and throwing Jeff Frye out at second. The play grew in magnitude when Wil Cordero followed with a home run.

“I have no explanation for it, but I definitely feel more relaxed,” said Fabregas, who was demoted to triple-A Vancouver for three weeks in June and July. “I just told myself to go out and have some fun and not worry if the manager or general manager is looking over my shoulder.”

That seems to be a common theme in the Angel dugout, where interim Manager John McNamara has apparently loosened the reins.

“He just lets us play,” said center fielder Jim Edmonds, who had three singles, a double and scored twice. “Like in the middle of the game, he told us, ‘You’re on your own, run if you want to.’ That shows confidence in the players and helps the team relax.”

Davis, a base clogger who had one stolen base this season and three in 1995, took advantage of the green light, swiping second in the sixth inning, a move that so stunned the Red Sox he didn’t even draw a throw.

“I got to second base and [umpire] Ken Kaiser said, ‘What have we got here, Lou Brock?’ ” Davis said. “That was sheer speed, bro.”

His homer, as well as those hit by Salmon and Anderson, were sheer power. Davis’ 23rd homer of the season sailed into the net above the Green Monster in left-center. Anderson’s 10th homer--and first since June 29--traveled several rows deep in the right-field bleachers.

And Salmon’s 26th homer of the season, which gave him his first multiple-RBI game since July 17, was a bomb that easily cleared the screen above the 37-foot left-field wall.

“That was my easiest swing of the year,” Salmon said. “I was just playing pepper, not trying to swing hard at all.”

Davis said hitting Wakefield “is like playing Wiffle ball. What do you do against a knuckleball? Keep your hands back? Stay on top of the ball? You just have to hope he floats one and you hit it. He’s a challenge.”

But so was Springer, who gave up only four hits and was not hurt by his five walks. Springer (3-1) gave up Troy O’Leary’s homer in the first, Cordero’s homer in the fourth and Tim Naehring’s homer in the seventh, which trimmed the Angel lead to 4-3.

But Holtz, who was called up from double-A Midland in July, retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth, lowering his earned-run average to 0.98 in 18 1/3 innings, Anderson’s homer gave the Angels some breathing room, and Percival pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 30th save.