Yankees’ Early Dozen Does In Angels, 12-5

Terry Collins has spent the last 14 years with the Dodger and Astro franchises, so he’s still marveling at the proliferation of offense in the American League. Sitting in his office before Wednesday night’s game, the first-year Angel manager was saying that “a two-run lead disappears so fast over here, it’s really scary.”

A couple of hours later, he was wondering how to make a 12-run lead go away in what became a 12-5 Angel loss to the New York Yankees.

New York scored four times in the second inning, doubled that with eight in the third and Collins was left to ponder what to do if Dennis Springer’s arm fell off. That was just about the only scenario in which Collins could remove the knuckleballer until the late innings of the game witnessed by 19,242 at Anaheim Stadium.

Collins’ tattered staff has been so overworked in this season-opening homestand that he admitted before the game that if starter Allen Watson struggled, he could bring in Springer and then maybe count on “an inning from [Chuck] McElroy and an inning from [Mike] Holtz.”

So there was a definite sense of finality when Collins handed Springer the ball with New York already leading, 6-0, and runners on first and second with one out in the third. “Good luck, son, you’re out here for awhile . . . no matter what happens.”

Under normal circumstances, Springer would have been in the shower before the inning ended. He faced six batters before recording an out and that came on Paul O’Neill’s sacrifice fly that pushed across Yankee run No. 11. By the end of the third, every Yankee in the lineup except the No. 9 hitter, Jorge Posada, had been to the plate three times.

“You get good pitching and your team looks a lot better,” Collins said. “We really need to get some of that right now.”

Some solid fielding wouldn’t hurt, either. The Angels made three errors in the third inning--four on the evening--but maybe that was understandable, considering that baseballs and Yankees were flying around at such a frenetic pace it was difficult to keep track of the tote board, er, scoreboard.

Springer held New York scoreless over the next six innings until Holtz came on to pitch the ninth, but the Yankees were pretty tuckered out from all that sprinting in circles. Springer, who brought a 27.00 earned-run average out to the mound, gave up eight hits and four runs while striking out five and walking three in 5 2/3 innings.

Not a bad outing, by current Angel standards.

“We needed some good innings out of Allen tonight and obviously we didn’t get that,” Collins said. “He left too many balls out over the plate. It put Dennis in a tough spot, but he did a great job and got us through some innings.”

New York starter David Wells, who broke his hand in an offseason fight in a bar, was punching out the Angels with regularity until he gave up singles to the first four Angels he faced in the fourth. All four eventually scored, but it was a four-of-a-kind hand that did little to dispirit New York, which was already counting on scraping in the pot and going home a winner.

Wells went the distance, giving up nine hits, and the Angels didn’t score again until Eddie Murray walked, went all the way to third on a wild pitch and came home on a groundout in the ninth.

The Angels are now faced with the less-than-inspiring prospect of going on a nine-game road trip that includes stops in Cleveland, New York, Minnesota and Kansas City with a starting rotation that has been severely punished thus far in 1997.

Only Jason Dickson and Mark Langston have averaged more than six innings in their two starts and they are the only starters with ERAs less than 9.00. Mark Gubicza, who will start against Cleveland on Friday night, has a 17.18 ERA in his one start. And Watson’s is 13.50.

Shigetoshi Hasegawa, who has since been moved to the bullpen, gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings during his only start.

You can bet the Angels will be anxious to hear about the outcome of Chuck Finley’s rehabilitation start tonight in Lake Elsinore. If all goes well, Finley is scheduled to make his first start Tuesday in New York.

Clearly, not a moment too soon.

* DISARMED

Nerve problem in shoulder sidelines Troy Percival. C5