McGwire Trades Exhaustion for Day Off

Oakland slugger Mark McGwire was not in Sunday’s lineup--extremely odd since he homered twice against Angel starter Dennis Springer on May 28--and red flags went up all around the Oakland Coliseum.

Was McGwire about to be traded? Was he hurt? Neither. The A’s first baseman, who has been the focus of heavy trade speculation in recent weeks, simply needed a day off.

“I was surprised after what happened the last time I faced him,” Springer said, “but I wasn’t disappointed.”

McGwire was off, but the rumor mill wasn’t, much to Angel left fielder Garret Anderson’s dismay. Anderson, who had three singles and a nice running catch of Tony Batista’s sixth-inning blooper with two on Sunday, has been linked to McGwire trade talks . . . and he’s tired of them.

“They won’t go away, but I’m not here to confirm anything,” Anderson said. “I don’t like talking about this. We just won four in a row. We should be talking about the game.”

To that extent, Anderson singled during a three-run third, when the Angels batted around for the 15th time this season. Jim Leyritz had a sacrifice fly, and Tony Phillips and Darin Erstad added two-out RBI singles.

Chad Kreuter doubled to start the fourth, and scored on Phillips’ sacrifice fly for a 4-0 lead. After Oakland’s three-run fifth, the Angels padded their lead to 5-3 on Tim Salmon’s two-out RBI single in the sixth.

“Those two-out runs are huge,” Manager Terry Collins said. “They win a lot of games for you.”

*

Pitcher Allen Watson has reached an out-of-court settlement with the man he punched in a Liberty, Mo., casino in April, agreeing to pay Willie Pulse of Parkville, Mo., $12,000.

Charges of misdemeanor assault, stemming from the April 18 incident at Harrah’s Riverboat Casino, will be dropped as part of the agreement. Pulse had originally asked for $22,000.

“I pretty much paid him off so I won’t have to worry about it,” Watson said. “It was my mistake. I hit the guy and I have to pay. I didn’t want it to go through the courts and pay lawyer fees. . . . I won $8,000 [at the casino] the night it happened, so it’ll only cost me a few thousand dollars.”

*

The Angels had applied to host the 1999 All-Star Game after the opening for Milwaukee’s Miller Park, original site for the game, was pushed back from 1999 to 2000. But a baseball source confirmed that the Boston Red Sox, who were scheduled to host the game in 2001, and Brewers have exchanged the dates, so the Red Sox will play host to the game in 1999 and the Brewers in 2001. . . Center fielder Jim Edmonds, who started all four games in Oakland after sitting out last weekend’s Seattle series, got picked off trying to steal second in the ninth inning, “but he looked great running to second,” Collins said. “That tells you him his knees aren’t bothering him as much.”

ON DECK

* Opponent--Texas Rangers, two games.

* Site--Anaheim Stadium.

* Tonight--7.

* TV--Channel 9 tonight, Fox Sports West on Tuesday.

* Radio--KTZN (710).

Records--Angels 48-42, Rangers 43-44.

Record vs. Rangers--2-1.

TONIGHT’S GAME

ANGELS’ ALLEN WATSON (8-5, 5.27 ERA) vs. RANGERS’ JULIO SANTANA (3-4, 6.51 ERA)

* Update--The Angels will have a good idea how their four-man rotation will work after this week--all four starters will be pitching on three days’ rest. Collins said it should help that no one in the rotation threw too many pitches against the A’s. Watson threw 107 Thursday, Dickson threw 103 Friday, Finley threw 107 Saturday and Springer threw 87 Sunday. Second baseman Luis Alicea, out since July 6 because of muscle spasms in his lower back, took infield and batting practice Sunday and could return tonight. Texas lost the first two games of a four-game series in Seattle but came back to win Saturday and Sunday. The Rangers have scored seven or more runs in eight of their last nine games. Right fielder Juan Gonzalez is hitting .421 (24 for 57) with seven homers and 23 RBIs in the last 14 games.

* Tuesday, 7 p.m.--Jason Dickson (9-4, 3.37) vs. Ken Hill (5-6, 4.93).