Young Angels Second to None

The two players who keyed the Angels’ 11-3 interleague victory over the San Diego Padres before 41,574 at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday were pitching at double-A Midland and playing shortstop for Class-A Lake Elsinore at this time last year.

But the more left-hander Jarrod Washburn and second baseman Justin Baughman compete at the major league level, the more distance they seem to put between themselves and the minor leagues.

Washburn showed why he was considered the Angels’ top pitching prospect in 1997--and why the Angels were smart not to trade him for an established starter or package him in a deal for Mark McGwire--by throwing seven strong innings against one of baseball’s better lineups, giving up two runs and eight hits, walking none and striking out three, to improve to 4-0.

And Baughman showed that Manager Terry Collins’ instincts in spring training--when the Angels shifted the speedster from shortstop to second base--were correct, collecting four hits and two RBIs and making two spectacular defensive plays, one right out of Houdini’s bag of tricks, to help the Angels set a franchise record for wins in a month with 21.

“Our organization doesn’t take a back seat to anyone,” Collins said. “We have good scouts who sign talented players, and we’ve done a good job developing them. Look at the rest of our lineup, with Darin Erstad, Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds, Gary DiSarcina and Tim Salmon. We’ve got a lot of home- grown players.”

Baughman, though, was more of an experiment Collins concocted when it became apparent this spring that Randy Velarde was not going to return from elbow reconstruction surgery.

Baughman, 23, had never played second base, but Collins liked his speed, his hands and his instincts, so he moved him over. Baughman, a Class-A shortstop in 1997, looked shaky initially, but he got a better handle on the position in his month and a half at triple-A Vancouver.

When Velarde re-injured his elbow during a brief two-game comeback in May, the Angels called up Baughman, and he’s been their starter ever since. If he continues to play like he did Sunday, he’ll be the Angel second baseman for years to come.

Baughman dove up the middle to snag Joey Hamilton’s grounder in the third inning and threw him out, and he ended the seventh with a gem that had his teammates and coaches rubbing their eyes, wondering what they had just seen.

The Padres had scored twice to trim the Angel lead to 6-2 and had a runner on second when Tony Gwynn chopped a grounder to Baughman’s left. Baughman charged hard but bobbled the ball, which popped into the air to his left.

With his momentum moving toward first base, Baughman swatted the ball with his glove hand--a back-handed tap, no less--about 10 feet to Cecil Fielder, who made a bare-hand grab to end the inning.

“I’ve never seen that one before,” Angel third-base coach Larry Bowa said. “That’s just great instincts, and him being a good athlete. I think the Angels have a second baseman for a long time.”

Baughman may not have made the play if not for his mistake in judgment.

“I screwed that one up from the beginning,” he said. “Gwynn is not that fast, and if I laid back and waited for a good hop, it would have been an easy play. Once I bobbled the ball, it was a scramble. I just reacted, and Cecil made a great play to catch it.”

Fielder also had another strong offensive game, walking and scoring twice and keying a three-run seventh with a two-run homer, his third homer in five games and the 11th and 12th RBIs in eight games.

The Angels had more hits (14) and runs Sunday than they had in their previous three games combined, scoring once in the second on Baughman’s RBI single, twice in the fourth, thanks to Hamilton’s two errors, and busting the game open with a five-run eighth, which included Craig Shipley’s two-run single and Garret Anderson’s three-run homer.

Baughman added an RBI double in the seventh, and his four-hit day improved his average to .274. Not bad for a guy who was playing Class-A ball in 1997.

“Last year seems so far away,” Baughman said. “The only time I think about it is when someone brings it up, and then you think to yourself, ‘Yeah, this is kind of cool.’ ”