No Mystery in This X File

Go on a tear like the Angels these last two weeks and you start noticing strange things around the clubhouse.

Guys are wearing stirrups the same way or going days without washing lucky T-shirts. Grungy hats that should have been tossed out are still worn. Some have gone days without shaving, and others guard lucky bats as if they were magic wands.

“All of a sudden,” Manager Terry Collins has noticed, “certain songs are on in the clubhouse every day.”

Maybe it’s superstition, or maybe the baseball gods have nothing to do with it, but the Angels are the hottest team in the game right now, their win streak hitting 10 with Thursday night’s 9-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers before 19,246 in Anaheim Stadium. When Seattle later lost to Minnesota, that cut the Mariners’ lead over the Angels to half a game in the American League West.

Tony Phillips had three hits, four runs batted in and led off a game with a homer for the 27th time in his career, Todd Greene followed his two-homer game Wednesday with a career-high three hits and three runs, and knuckleballer Dennis Springer won for the first time since June 8.

The Angel streak, which equals Montreal’s 10-game run as the longest in the major leagues this season, is the longest since the Angels won 10 in a row from April 11-21, 1979, and one game shy of the club-record 11-game win streak, set from June 16-26, 1964.

The Angels (52-42) pushed their record to 10 games over .500 for the first time since the last day of the 1995 season, when they were 78-67, and they have outscored opponents, 70-32 in the 10 games.

“It’s exciting,” said Greene, who was doused with a shaving-cream pie during a postgame television interview. “Things are going great now. You get on a roll and you never know what can happen. I don’t think anyone thought we’d be in this situation, but it’s always fun to prove people wrong.”

Wins are never routine, no matter how many you string together, but there have been some common themes to the Angel streak--solid starting pitching, clutch hitting and great defense.

Springer, 0-1 with five no-decisions in his previous six starts, went seven innings, giving up four runs on seven hits to improve to 5-3, and he didn’t walk a batter for the first time this season, in any start or relief appearance.

Shortstop Gary DiSarcina made a spectacular play in the seventh, diving to make a back-hand grab of Raul Casanova’s grounder to the hole and making a one-hop throw to first from his knees for the out.

Phillips had a two-out RBI single to cap a three-run second, a two-out RBI single in the fourth and a sacrifice fly to cap a four-run fifth, which included Greene’s RBI single and Luis Alicea’s two-run triple.

Alicea added an RBI single in the second that improved his average with the bases loaded to .600 this season.

“We’re pitching well, we’re getting clutch hits and playing good defense,” Phillips said. “When you’re doing those three things, you’re going to be hard to beat.”

Another tough task for Collins: prying Greene out of the Angel lineup. The rookie is five for eight with two homers in the past two games.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with him [today],” Collins said. “Chad [Kreuter] is going to catch, but we’ll just have to see what happens.”

Angel fans read of Greene’s exploits at far-flung outposts such as Vancouver and Midland, but you can’t blame them for wondering what all the fuss was about.

Yes, Greene hit 35 homers at Class-A Lake Elsinore in 1994, 40 homers at double-A Midland and triple-A Vancouver in 1995, and 25 homers in 63 games at Vancouver this season.

But his two stints with the Angels were pretty much duds--he hit .190 with two homers in 29 games last season and .111 in four games before being demoted last April.

Given a chance to play more regularly since being recalled in early July, Greene is 11 for 29 (.379) with two homers and four RBIs in seven starts.

“I think in the past I was always trying to prove that I belonged here, that I wasn’t a fluke,” Greene said. “Now, I’m just playing. I think they know what I can do or I wouldn’t be here, but you have to do it at this level. It doesn’t mean anything any more to do it in the minor leagues.”