Rangers Knuckle Under to Sparks

Steve Sparks, who pitched the Angels to an 8-5 victory over the Texas Rangers Monday night, was once so fired up by a Christian motivational speaker who ripped a phone book in half in 1994 that he tried it himself--and separated his left shoulder, sending him onto the disabled list.

And among Sparks’ hobbies, according to his media guide biography, are watching the “Andy Griffith Show” and whistling show tunes.

Does this guy think like a knuckleballer, or what?

Quirky personalities seem to come with those who throw baseball’s most quirky pitch--remember Charlie Hough?--but the knuckleball-friendly Angels don’t mind.

They got nine wins out of knuckleballer Dennis Springer last season and another huge one out of Sparks when he threw 6 2/3 credible innings to help the Angels defeat the Rangers before 43,380 at the Ballpark in Arlington.

Sparks, who sat out the 1997 season because of elbow reconstruction surgery, gave up four runs on six hits and struck out five for his first major league victory since July 1, 1996, when he pitched the Milwaukee Brewers over the Detroit Tigers.

The 32-year-old right-hander couldn’t beat the triple-A Fresno Grizzlies last week--he was winless in eight minor league decisions--but he beat the American League’s second-best hitting team to pull the Angels to within a half a game of first place.

Phil Nevin, Garret Anderson, Tim Salmon and Craig Shipley homered, reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa got the dangerous Juan Gonzalez to fly to left with the tying runs on base to end the seventh inning and Troy Percival recorded his league-leading 20th save.

The Angels won three of four games from Texas. “This is very satisfying,” Angel bench coach Joe Maddon said. “Going in, you hope for at least a split, but once we won the first two, it would have been disappointing to not win three.”

They won the series finale with power--their four homers gave them nine in the series and 14 in the last five games--and finesse. Many of Sparks’ knuckleballs wouldn’t have shattered a plate-glass window.

“Our first-base coach [60-year-old Ed Napoleon] throws harder than that,” Ranger Manager Johnny Oates said. “If he can stand out there and throw it that hard without a screen in front of him, I tip my hat to him.”

The Angels staked Sparks to a 3-1 lead in the second inning when Nevin, in his first at-bat in 10 days, hit a two-run homer off starter Bobby Witt, and Gary DiSarcina added a two-run double.

“To be honest, I don’t know how I hit that ball,” said Nevin, who served a three-game suspension over the weekend and missed several games because of a stomach virus. “I was going to swing no matter what, and I got the good part of the bat on it.”

So did Anderson, who lined a two-run homer in the third; Salmon, who homered in the seventh; and Shipley, who homered in the ninth. Salmon had six RBIs in the series, which was more than Rusty Greer, Gonzalez and Will Clark, the Rangers’ third, fourth and fifth hitters, had combined.

The Angels return to Anaheim for six games against division-rivals Seattle and Texas, having won 13 of their last 15 games.

“Hopefully there will be some fans in the seats when we get home,” Nevin said. “This is a pretty fun team to watch, as I found out the last three days.”

It wasn’t Monday night for Manager Terry Collins, who served the seventh game of an eight-game suspension. The team hotel didn’t carry the station that televised the game, so Collins had to listen to the first six innings on a hotel radio and the last three innings in a van in a stadium parking lot.

“Is that ridiculous, or what?” Collins steamed. “Boy, you should have seen me tonight. . . . I’m going to have Bill [Bavasi, the general manager] call the league and complain.”

About everything but the result.