Dickson Makes Major First Impression

The Jason Dickson line looked pretty grim early Wednesday afternoon. One pitch, one hit and one earned run, it read, after Derek Jeter deposited the first big league delivery of Dickson’s life into Yankee Stadium’s left-field bleachers for a home run.

“It was a shock,” Dickson said.

So, too, were the next 6 1/3 innings.

Dickson, who pitched in the New Brunswick (Canada) Men’s Senior League two summers ago and went unrecognized by some teammates in the Angels’ New York hotel Tuesday, recovered from the early blast to tame one of baseball’s most potent lineups in the Angels’ 7-1 victory over the Yankees.

A crowd of 27,811 saw Dickson, the latest passenger on the overcrowded Vancouver-to-Anaheim shuttle, give up 10 hits but wriggle out of several sticky situations with the help of well-placed off-speed pitches, crafty relief work and a suddenly airtight Angel defense.

“You have to be inspired by what he did,” said Angel bench coach Joe Maddon, who filled in as manager after a blood clot was discovered in John McNamara’s calf Wednesday. “Here’s a team that put up 17 runs the day before and Jason gave up just one. . . . Not a bad first game.”

Maddon had never seen Dickson pitch, but he read all the minor league reports calling the 23-year-old right-hander resilient, and saw no reason to panic after Jeter’s home run. Neither did Dickson.

“I came back to the dugout and a couple guys said, ‘Welcome to the big leagues,’ ” Dickson said. “So I kind of laughed it off. I was real nervous, even warming up before the game, but after I got through the first, I relaxed a little bit.”

Dickson, from the province of New Brunswick, about 4 1/2 hours northeast of Maine, had never been in a major league park before Tuesday, and his assignment Wednesday was like jumping from sixth-grade math to calculus.

In the American League’s most hostile environment, he faced a lineup that included Wade Boggs, Darryl Strawberry, Cecil Fielder, Tino Martinez, Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill, and a team that had amassed 27 runs and 32 hits in its last two games.

“What struck me about their lineup was that O’Neill [a .303 hitter] was batting seventh,” Dickson said. “I thought, ‘Great, how good are these other guys, then?’ ”

Not good enough to beat Dickson. Chili Davis provided book-end two-run homers, one in the first inning from the right side of the plate and one in the ninth from the left side, and the Angels backed Dickson with several sparkling plays.

With runners on first and third in the fourth, first baseman J.T. Snow, whose error led to six unearned runs Tuesday night, made a lunging, backhand grab of Mariano Duncan’s liner to end the inning.

Rookie catcher Todd Greene threw out Joe Girardi trying to steal in the fifth, and shortstop Gary DiSarcina turned O’Neill’s one-hop smash toward the hole into an inning-ending double play in the sixth.

Dickson left in the seventh with runners on second and third and one out, but reliever Mike Holtz retired Boggs on a fly ball to shallow center and Strawberry on a ground ball.

Troy Percival threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings for his 32nd save, Garret Anderson made a fine running catch of Williams’ pop to shallow left in the eighth, and the Angels blew open a 2-1 game with three more runs after Davis’ homer in the ninth.

“Where’s this guy been?” Percival said of Dickson. “He’s got pretty good stuff and real good composure. I told him I’m going to have to start calling him by his name instead of ‘new guy.’ ”

Snow, who saw Dickson in the hotel lobby Tuesday but “didn’t know who he was,” now has a name--and a performance--to attach to the face.

“I’m sure he’ll never forget his first pitch in the big leagues,” Snow said. “But I’m sure he’ll never forget his first win, either.”

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Losing the Arms Race

The major league record-tying 27 pitchers the Angels have used this season, with their won-loss records and earned-run averages:

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Pitcher W-L ERA *Jim Abbott 1-15 7.79 Kyle Abbott 0-0 21.00 Shawn Boskie 11-6 4.94 Jason Dickson 1-0 1.42 *Ken Edenfield 0-0 10.38 **Mark Eichhorn 1-2 5.13 Chuck Finley 11-12 4.69 *Todd Frohwirth 0-0 11.12 Greg Gohr 1-1 7.94 Jason Grimsley 5-7 7.19 *Ryan Hancock 4-1 7.48 Pep Harris 0-0 7.20 Mike Holtz 2-2 0.83 **Mark Holzemer 1-0 8.46 Mike James 5-5 2.93 Mark Langston 6-5 4.82 *Phil Leftwich 0-1 7.36 **Chuck McElroy 4-1 3.38 **Rich Monteleone 0-3 5.87 *Brad Pennington 0-0 12.27 Troy Percival 0-1 2.08 *Scott Sanderson 0-2 7.50 *Jeff Schmidt 2-0 7.88 *Lee Smith 0-0 2.45 Dennis Springer 3-2 5.98 *Ben VanRyn 0-0 0.00 *Shad Williams 0-2 8.89 Team totals 58-68 5.50

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* Not on current Angel roster

** On disabled list