Angels Get a Forkful

The Angels hardly knew what hit them Saturday. They knew what they didn’t hit--most of San Diego Padre left-hander Sterling Hitchcock’s pitches--they simply had no idea what kind of pitches they didn’t hit.

Hitchcock went the distance on a two-hitter with nine strikeouts to lead the Padres to a 5-1 interleague victory over the Angels before 31,948 in Qualcomm Stadium, taking a no-hitter into the eighth before Phil Nevin led off with a home run to left.

The American League’s hottest team in June, the Angels have combined for 10 hits and seven runs in their last three games and suffered successive losses for the first time since May 25 and 27.

Perhaps the offensive lull was to be expected--the Angels have played the last four games without cleanup batter Tim Salmon because the designated hitter is not used in National League parks.

But a bigger concern might be why Hitchcock seemed to catch the Angels completely off guard, fooling them with a forkball-filled arsenal that made the left-hander look like a mini-Chuck Finley.

“His forkball was working so well, it was sticking in the bottom of the zone but not winding up in the dirt,” Padre catcher Jim Leyritz said of Hitchcock. “He threw a couple of curves for show, but it was the fastball away and in and the splitter all day long.”

That was news to the Angels.

“We didn’t have the splitter in our scouting reports--they said he threw a fastball, curve and changeup,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “But I’m sure with [pitching coach] Dave Stewart over there, a few guys are going to break [that pitch] out.”

Hitchcock, a former Seattle Mariner and New York Yankee, shelved his forkball for much of 1997 because he developed elbow problems throwing it, but he has used it more regularly this season. What the Angels thought was a changeup was actually a forkball, which nose-dives before reaching the plate.

“His changeup acts like a splitter--it tumbles, and the bottom drops out of it,” Nevin said. “A couple guys came back to the dugout and said, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before.’ I swung at one before it even bounced in front of the plate.”

The pitch Nevin hit for a homer, which stopped a bid for the first no-hitter in the 30-year history of the Padre franchise, was a curve that actually broke Nevin’s bat, a testament to how dominating Hitchcock was and to how well the ball travels in San Diego’s stadium during the day.

It was the only break the Angels have had against the first-place Padres, who have won 16 of their last 19 games and can sweep the three-game series today.

“Hitting has been contagious around here, and the ball has bounced our way for a month now,” Nevin said. “But that’s not going to last forever.”

Neither is interleague play, which is fine with Angel hitters. The Angels are 8-3 against National League West teams, a marked improvement from their 4- 12 interleague record in 1997.

But they’re still having trouble adjusting to the larger NL strike zone, which Hitchcock used to his advantage a lot more than Angel starter Omar Olivares, who gave up four runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings to fall to 5-3, his string of quality starts halted at eight.

“By the time we figure out their strike zone, we won’t see it anymore,” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “It’s a big zone. The ump [Greg Bonin] was consistent with everyone, but it’s tough to adjust to.

“It opens up your zone, and you have to treat every at-bat like a hit and run. In our league, the pitch above the waist is a ball. Here, it’s a strike. It’s a whole different game here. If I was a pitcher, I’d be in this league in a heartbeat.”

There were no such complaints when the Angels scored 22 runs to win two of three at Arizona in June. Padre pitchers such as Kevin Brown and Hitchcock, and hitters such as Greg Vaughn, who drilled his 26th homer in the second inning and added an RBI single in the sixth, were more responsible for the Angel losses than the umpires.

“It’s not like we’re playing an expansion team,” DiSarcina said. “They’ve got a great lineup.”