Angels Feel the Sprain of Victory

This was supposed to be a matchup of the two hottest second-half teams in baseball featuring two of the game’s hottest starters. But neither the Angels’ Chuck Finley nor the Yankees’ David Wells was feeling so hot when they departed the Anaheim Stadium field on a warm and sticky Tuesday night.

Finley, the ace of the Angel rotation who had won 10 in a row, sprained his left wrist when he took a tumble while backing up home plate in the second inning of what would become a 12-4 Angel victory. He was examined by team medical director Dr. Lewis Yocum and will see a hand specialist today to determine possible ligament or tendon damage.

Wells, who had won 10 of his last 14 starts and brought a 14-5 record with a 3.60 earned-run average into the game, also was gone after three innings, having been pounded for 10 hits and 11 runs before a crowd of 22,596.

The Angels, with a 25-14 record since the All-Star break that is second only to the Yankees’ 25-13, moved into a first-place tie with Seattle, reduced New York’s advantage in the wild-card race to five games and were so far ahead that the Yankees had a knuckleball pitcher named Wade Boggs on the mound for the final three outs.

But there wasn’t much in the way of celebration in the Angel clubhouse.

“We could lose [Finley] for one start or a couple starts or we could have to [put him on the disabled list],” Manager Terry Collins said, “but you don’t want to speculate. We’ll just wait and see what the doctor says.”

The last time the Angels were in a division race and they lost Finley . . . well, any student of Angel history who doesn’t know what happened can guess. In 1989, the Angels were tied for first with Oakland on Aug. 25 when Finley injured his foot in Kansas City. He was out of action three weeks. During his absence, the Angels lost 13 of 18 games and when he returned on Sept. 15, they were six games behind.

A lot of things seemed to be falling into place for the Angels until Finley walked Tino Martinez and Mike Stanley with two out in the third and then headed for the clubhouse.

General Manager Bill Bavasi had gathered his troops in a tight circle around him in the left-field corner before batting practice to give them . . . a pep talk? A lecture on the evils of drug use?

Only the Angels know for sure, but it must have been an awfully inspiring message.

The Angels responded by sending 12 batters to the plate in the first inning, seven of whom scored. Rickey Henderson had a walk and a double in the inning, Darin Erstad had a double and a single and five players had a least one run batted in.

Yankee second baseman Rey Sanchez, acquired from the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, got three RBIs in the second inning when he blooped a two-out, 3-2 pitch into right-center. With the bases loaded and the runners going on the pitch, Stanley, Charlie Hayes and Joe Girardi all crossed the plate.

Finley, running to back up the plate, caught the cleats of one foot in the shoelaces of the other, tripped and went down awkwardly, using his left arm to break the fall.

“I felt a hot flash in the wrist when it happened and when I looked down it was already starting to swell,” Finley said. “It got worse on the bench. I thought maybe I could go one more inning, but it kept getting worse.”

Catcher Todd Greene slammed a line-drive, two-run homer to right-center in the second inning and Tim Salmon hit a towering, 422-foot, two-run shot deep into the new left-field bleachers in the third and the Angels were up, 11-4.

Jason Dickson, who was scheduled to start the first game of today’s doubleheader, gave up a run-scoring single to the first batter he faced, Paul O’Neill in the third, and then gave up only two more hits to improve to 12-6.

“I was a lot more nervous than I’ve been in quite a while,” Dickson said. “It’s kind of like being a pinch hitter. The pressure was on.”

The Yankees also had an unexpected ace in their bullpen. Boggs, who threw 17 pitches, 11 for strikes, made his debut as a pitcher after 16 years in the majors and accomplished something Wells couldn’t. The former All-Star third baseman got Salmon to hit a slow roller to short and struck out Greene. Against Wells, the pair had combined for two homers, a single, two walks, five runs scored and five RBIs.

“There was some laughter [in the dugout],” Collins said, “but nothing is going to make things too bright when your best pitcher is hurt.”

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* TONY PHILLIPS: Union files grievance to protest Angels’ suspension of outfielder for cocaine arrest. C6