Baseball Makes a Reinstatement

It was another head-spinning news day for the Angels Wednesday, a collage of headlines that included Tony Phillips’ reinstatement from a drug suspension, catcher Todd Greene’s disabling wrist injury, pitcher Mark Langston’s first start in three months, and New York Yankee pitcher Hideki Irabu’s at-times dominant, at-times bizarre Southern California debut.

When it was over, after the Angels suffered a doubleheader sweep at the hands of the Yankees, 7-3 and 8-5, before 32,343 in Anaheim Stadium, the Angels couldn’t have been feeling too good about their playoff hopes, and not just because they fell 1 1/2 games behind Seattle in the West and seven games behind New York in the wild-card race.

Greene, who has put a charge into the Angel lineup with nine home runs and 24 RBIs in 34 games, broke a bone in his right wrist in the first game and was placed on the 15-day disabled list, but he’ll likely be sidelined for six to eight weeks--the rest of the regular season.

Langston, who replaced Greene on the roster, got bombed in the nightcap, and right-hander Ken Hill, believed to be the final piece to the Angels’ pitching puzzle after being acquired for catcher Jim Leyritz on July 29, got roughed up again in the first game.

With Chuck Finley suffering from a wrist injury, Allen Watson from fatigue and Jason Dickson from periodic shoulder stiffness, it seems the only pitcher the Angels can rely on these days is knuckleballer Dennis Springer, who was supposed to drop out of the rotation once Langston got back.

But Langston, who underwent elbow surgery May 27 and hadn’t pitched since May 19, didn’t exactly secure his job Wednesday night, giving up five runs on six hits in one inning.

The Angels wanted Langston to make a fourth minor league rehabilitation start, but the veteran left-hander refused, claiming he was ready to return. A compromise was reached Tuesday--Langston agreed to pitch a simulated game Thursday.

But when Finley was injured Tuesday and was relieved by Dickson, the scheduled Game 2 starter Wednesday, Manager Terry Collins turned to Langston. An inning or so later, that rehab start wasn’t looking like such a bad idea.

Langston’s second pitch was blasted for a home run by Derek Jeter, and Mike Stanley added an RBI double in the first. Rey Sanchez then smashed a three-run homer that caromed high off the left-field foul pole in the second.

After an error and a walk, Langston was done, yielding to reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa and a matchup the Japanese media craved--Hasegawa vs. Irabu.

Neither disappointed: Hasegawa threw six innings of scoreless relief before giving up a three-run home run to Jeter in the seventh, and Irabu gave up three runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings, his two balks leading to two runs and the second balk in the seventh eliciting a strange protest, Irabu showing his disgust by kicking furiously at the rubber like a mule.

The Angels scored in the second on Jim Edmonds’ home run, in the fourth on Irabu’s balk, in the seventh on Chad Kreuter’s groundout and in the eighth on Tim Salmon’s two-run home run, his 24th of the season.

But they squandered an opportunity when Rickey Henderson struck out for the fourth time, with two on, against reliever Jeff Nelson to end the seventh.

Greene’s evening ended much earlier, when he suffered a fractured bone in his wrist after Sanchez fouled a ball off it in the fourth inning of Game 1.

Greene, who missed much of the 1996 season because of wrist injuries, played for another inning before being sent to Anaheim Memorial Hospital, where X-rays revealed the fracture.

There are no healthy, big- league-ready catchers in the farm system, because triple-A catcher Chris Turner and double-A catcher Bret Hemphill are hurt. So General Manager Bill Bavasi will be burning up the phone lines today attempting to trade for a catcher.

Too bad he can’t send Hill back to Texas for Leyritz. The right-hander was ripped in Game 1, giving up seven runs on 11 hits in five innings and leaving to a smattering of boos.

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* RANDY HARVEY

A young arbitrator’s logic hits home. C2