Freak Injuries Are Helping Finley Forget His Other Mishaps

Hard-luck Chuck Finley swears he hasn’t been walking under ladders or stepping on cracks in the sidewalk, but he has no logical explanation for his rash of freak injuries, the latest suffered when he was struck by a foul ball while sitting on the bench Saturday night.

“I don’t know, it’s just weird, very weird stuff,” said Finley, who suffered a bruised right forearm when Joe Carter pulled a line drive into the Angel dugout.

“I think these injuries are created to make me forget about the one before. I broke my wrist [last August] to forget about cracking my face [in spring training, 1997]. I got hit on the forearm [Saturday night] to forget about my knee.”

Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ team physician, came to Edison Field Saturday night to examine Finley’s right knee, which Finley gouged when he fell awkwardly while covering first base against Tampa Bay Wednesday night. The cut needed eight stitches to repair.

But Yocum never got a chance to look at Finley’s knee because shortly after the doctor arrived, he was examining Finley’s right forearm and sending him to an area hospital for X-rays, which were negative.

“Someone asked me how I felt [Saturday] night,” Finley said. “I said, ‘Well, my knee doesn’t hurt anymore.’ ”

Finley was scheduled to pitch Tuesday in Minnesota, but Manager Terry Collins pushed his start back to Friday in Kansas City.

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Tim Salmon has not hit a home run since June 15, a span covering 28 games and 75 at-bats.

“Home runs come in bunches to home run hitters--you can’t go up trying to hit them,” said Salmon, who his hitting .264, and only .175 with runners in scoring position.

“Unfortunately, in the last few weeks I haven’t had a lot of real good pitches to swing at. It comes and goes. Pitchers will make mistakes, and that’s when I’ll hit home runs.”

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Angel right-hander Omar Olivares, who was 0-4 with a 9.64 earned-run average in his previous four starts, may have saved his spot in the starting rotation Sunday night, giving up only three runs, seven hits and striking out seven in 6 1/3 innings.

“I had better arm speed, finished my pitches more and hit my spots,” Olivares said. “My arm felt a lot better, and I stayed away from pitching high in the strike zone.”