Angel Hitters Put Dukes Up, Pound Yankees

The Angels came up with a cute little promotion Wednesday. With loud Yankee fans--sorry for the redundancy--invading Edison Field, the Angels set up tables at two entrance gates and invited New York partisans to exchange their Yankee cap for a free Angel cap.

The Angels set aside 500 caps. They gave away 36.

Had the Angels distributed the caps on the way out, they surely would have had a few more takers. New Yorkers love winners, and the Angels came up big, punishing the best team in baseball with a 10-5 victory before 38,829 at Edison Field.

The Angels crushed celebrated rookie Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, who might not have many more starts in his immediate future. The Yankees were reportedly in serious negotiations to obtain Randy Johnson from the Seattle Mariners. The proposed deal could send Johnson and reliever Mike Timlin to New York for pitchers Hideki Irabu and Ramiro Mendoza, infielder Homer Bush and outfielder Ricky Ledee.

The Angels’ Garret Anderson set a franchise record by extending his hitting streak to 26 games, one better than the mark established by Rod Carew in 1982. Anderson collected four hits, as did Orlando Palmeiro, and the Angels had 19 in all.

Steve Sparks (4-2) won for the first time in a month, retiring 11 in a row at one point. The Yankees (74-27) may clinch the American League East championship, oh, say, tomorrow, but the Angels (58-48) have a 3-2 edge over the New Yorkers this season.

“We’re not trying to win that division,” the Angels’ Tim Salmon said. “Fortunately for us, they’re not in our division.”

The Angels, who remain a game ahead of the Texas Rangers atop the AL West, are the only team with a winning record against the Yankees. If the Angels emerge as division champions, they could face New York in the first round of the playoffs.

“If we play the game like we played in June, we can beat anybody,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “We know we can do it.

“I don’t think we have to make any statements. Whoever plays the Yankees in October is going to be the underdog. I think that’s pretty safe to say.”

Hernandez could have been a poster boy for Disney synergy last winter. The company considered acquiring his baseball rights and movie rights in the same deal, the better to tell and sell the story of the Cuban hero who escaped his homeland and sailed to freedom and free agency.

The Yankees signed him, and the story got better. The pitcher with a million deliveries baffled major league batters, and only the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves had managed to defeat him.

Until Wednesday night, when the Angels bettered those playoff-bound teams by absolutely pummeling Hernandez. In the briefest start of his brief career, the Angels crushed him for 10 runs and 13 hits in 3 1/3 innings, inflating his earned-run average from 2.43 to 3.66.

The Angels battered Hernandez (5-3) as they batted around in the fourth inning, tying a franchise record with seven consecutive hits and scoring eight runs in all.

Anderson, who had two of the Angels’ nine hits in the inning, led off the inning with a double. Dave Hollins doubled him home, snapping a 2-2 tie.

After Phil Nevin struck out, the Angels struck up the hit parade--single, single, double, single, single, home run, single. The home run belonged to Salmon, his 18th of the season and his third in three nights after six weeks without one.

Sparks gave up three home runs--to Darryl Strawberry, Derek Jeter and Tino Martinez--but all were solo. The Yankees scored twice in the eighth inning, with Paul O’Neill greeting reliever Mike Holtz with a two-run double.

Sparks struck out seven and walked one, providing the Angels with an intriguing option should they face the Yankees in the playoffs. Knuckleball pitchers can destroy a team’s offensive timing, and Pittsburgh’s Tim Wakefield beat the Braves twice during the 1992 National League playoffs.

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* FRESH START: Darryl Strawberry is enjoying himself with the Yankees. Bill Plaschke’s column. C5