Angel Catcher Is a Hit After All

Angel Manager Terry Collins considers himself a fair judge of talent, but his assessment of catcher Angelo Encarnacion appears to have been way off base . . . and Collins couldn’t be happier about it.

When the Angels made a minor league deal to acquire Encarnacion from the San Diego Padre organization Aug. 23, Collins described the 24-year-old as a light-hitting defensive specialist.

A good catcher, Encarnacion is. A light hitter, he isn’t--at least, he wasn’t Sunday. Encarnacion had a run-scoring single in the second inning and a three-run home run in the fourth to key the Angels’ 7-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants before 24,751 in 3Com Park.

Encarnacion had only two home runs and 11 RBIs in 66 major league games, but his three-run shot to left off Wilson Alvarez erased a 2-1 deficit and helped the Angels remain within a game of Seattle in the American League West.

“Keep proving me wrong,” Collins said. “It’s a good thing he did . . . we haven’t been driving the ball lately. We’ve hit some solo home runs, but we haven’t had the big multi-run homer in a while. That was a huge lift for us.”

It wasn’t the only sizable contribution from an unexpected source. Left-hander Darrell May, a reliever-turned-starter because of Chuck Finley’s wrist injury, kept the Angels in the game with a five-inning, three-run, three-hit performance, and Chris Turner, filling in for Darin Erstad at first base, singled before Encarnacion’s homer.

“It’s refreshing more than anything,” said shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who didn’t start but replaced Craig Grebeck in the eighth. “Guys are tired, worn down, missing pitches they usually hit. To get a three-run homer from a guy you didn’t expect one from was a huge morale boost.”

For the Angels and Encarnacion. The native of the Dominican Republic was so frustrated by the trade that sent him from Pittsburgh to San Diego last spring and by his belief that he had no future with the Padres, that all he wanted in mid-August was for the season to end.

“I was ready to pack all my stuff and go home,” said Encarnacion, who hit .245 with three homers and 23 RBIs for triple-A Las Vegas. “For me, the season was over. They had no plans for me, and I wasn’t playing very well. I came from nothing to this . . . it feels great.”

Encarnacion, activated when Finley went on the disabled list, is only 5 feet 8 and 180 pounds, but the day he reported to Anaheim for his physical Collins noticed Encarnacion’s upper body had filled out.

“The first time Terry saw me I was just a little tiny guy,” said Encarnacion, who was in the Pirate organization in 1993, when Collins coached under then-Pittsburgh Manager Jim Leyland. “I told him I’ve been lifting weights and that I had more pop. He just laughed at me.”

Collins beamed at Encarnacion on Sunday. In addition to his big hits, Encarnacion was solid behind the plate and a soothing influence on May, who pitched to Encarnacion when both were in the Pirate system.

“I was a nervous wreck for two innings,” said May, who made 22 relief appearances this season. “I was guiding my pitches and didn’t feel good. But having Angelo back there helped me.”

May actually got through the first two innings without giving up a run, but a walk to Alvarez, Bill Mueller’s RBI double and Jeff Kent’s RBI single in the third gave San Francisco a 2-1 lead.

Encarnacion’s homer made it 4-2, and the Angels added three more runs in the fifth on Tim Salmon’s sacrifice fly and Erstad’s pinch-hit, two-run double, a flare that right fielder Stan Javier was slow to react to and he couldn’t make a shoestring catch. Rickey Henderson and Tony Phillips started the rally with walks off Alvarez.

The Giants made it 7-3 on Mueller’s homer off May in the fifth and 7-4 on Brian Johnson’s homer off reliever Mike James in the seventh, but Angel left-hander Mike Holtz retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth, and Troy Percival struck out two in the ninth for his 23rd save.

The Angels have lost 10 of their last 16 games, but they have 25 more games to close a slim deficit in the West.

“We’re lucky we’re just a game out,” DiSarcina said. “We’ve played great baseball all year, but in the last two weeks we’ve been beating ourselves. But if you told people in April we’d be a game out to start September you’d get a lot of raised eyebrows. We’re right where we want to be.”