Knuckler Is His Friend

The knuckleball has been known to baffle players, floating softly toward the plate, dipping and darting in different directions and causing even the best of batters to flail in futility.

Except no one seems to have mentioned this to Angel right fielder Garret Anderson. He hit a two-run home run off Tim Wakefield in the second inning of Sunday’s 8-6 victory over the Red Sox and has a .387 career average with five home runs against the Boston knuckleballer.

“It’s almost like a day off, a break from the norm, when you face a knuckleball pitcher, so I just go up swinging,” Anderson said. “I don’t try to hit it as far as I can or finesse it. That guy can make you look silly, or you can get some hits off him. He’s not what you want to see every day.”

After Boston took a 2-0 lead on John Valentin’s two-run homer in the first inning, Anderson followed Gregg Jefferies’ second-inning single by hooking a knuckler around the right-field foul pole for a homer that will not draw any comparisons to Mark McGwire. Estimated distance: 305 feet.

“I don’t think I’ve ever hit a 305-foot home run,” Anderson said. “But I’ve hit some balls a lot farther than that that have stayed in the park, so I’m not going to complain.”

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Angel right-hander Jeff Juden was pumped enough as it was Sunday, making his first career start in Fenway Park, the stadium he used to go to as a youngster growing up in nearby Salem, Mass.

Then, after Juden warmed up for the bottom of the fourth, a Red Sox television announcer interrupted the game to wish former Boston slugger Ted Williams a happy 80th birthday over the public-address system.

Williams was watching from his Florida home, and Red Sox fans responded with a lengthy standing ovation. The delay took Juden by surprise, and Nomar Garciaparra drilled Juden’s second pitch of the inning into the right-center-field bleachers for a home run.

“I had to tip my hat to Ted Williams--he was a household name growing up,” said Juden, who gave up six runs on five hits--three of them homers--in 4 2/3 innings. “I felt like a little kid out there.

“I’m trying to win a game, but you know, maybe they shouldn’t have done that. It was weird. It was definitely a distraction. Maybe I should have hit Nomar in the neck.”

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The Angels had 31 hits in the three-game series against Boston, 29 of them singles, two of which barely disrupted the blades of grass between the mound and third base Sunday.

After Orlando Palmeiro and Randy Velarde opened the third inning with walks, Darin Erstad’s chopper down the third base line landed in the area between the grass and dirt and spun into fair territory, loading the bases.

Tim Salmon then tried to check his swing on an 0-2 Wakefield pitch but wound up tapping a grounder toward third on which Valentin had no play, and Palmeiro scored. Jefferies doubled in two runs, and Anderson’s RBI groundout gave the Angels a 6-2 lead.

“Two of our best hitters had singles that went a combined 86 feet,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. Added Salmon: “I was taking advantage of the Green Monster there. I had them playing back.”

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X-rays on Jim Edmonds’ back were negative, but the center fielder was found to have a strained rib cage and upper back muscle--which could hinder his ability to throw.

Edmonds did not start Sunday but was a defensive replacement in the ninth. He is expected to return for Tuesday’s game against Cleveland.

“He said he could have played,” Collins said, “but the only thing that could have happened is him swinging too hard at a [Wakefield] knuckleball and us losing him for another three weeks.”