Angels’ Pain Only Increases

Angel second baseman Randy Velarde already had left the SkyDome on Thursday night by the time Mike Stanley’s two-out homer in the bottom of the ninth inning left the SkyDome field, giving the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-4 victory over the Angels in front of 25,606.

But Stanley’s bases-empty homer off Angel reliever Rich DeLucia was a mere twist of the knife compared to the wound inflicted on the Angels earlier in the evening.

Velarde, who punctuated his return from a 20-month absence with a home run, single and three runs against Chicago on Wednesday and another homer against the Blue Jays on Thursday, left the game in the sixth inning because of “severe pain” in his right elbow, which was surgically reconstructed in 1997.

By the time his dejected teammates returned to the clubhouse, their two-run ninth-inning rally against one of baseball’s best closers gone to waste, Velarde was en route to Southern California, where he will be examined today by Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angel team physician.

There was no definitive news Thursday night, but you could tell by the tone of Manager Terry Collins’ voice that it wasn’t good. Velarde’s season--and perhaps his career--could be in jeopardy.

“It’s very concerning,” Collins said. “We’re extremely worried that there is a severe problem. Hopefully, it’s just scar tissue or some bad inflammation. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Velarde, who made several strong throws Wednesday night, including one from shallow center field to first after a diving, back-hand stop of a Ray Durham grounder, said before Thursday’s game that his elbow was “pretty stiff,” and he considered asking for the night off.

But his arm loosened up with some heat treatments and he decided to play, vowing not to baby his elbow during his comeback.

“The way I’m looking at it now is if my arm falls off, it falls off,” Velarde, 35, said. “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. If not, I’m just going to keep rolling with this.”

He was rolling along fairly well until the bottom of the fifth Thursday night, when he turned a double play on Ed Sprague’s grounder to shortstop. Velarde used an awkward arm angle and had little on the throw.

“I noticed it on the double-play ball,” Collins said. “I called him over after the inning, and he said his arm was killing him, that there was a real sharp pain. I told him he was done.”

His teammates felt Velarde’s pain too.

“It doesn’t sound good,” said pitcher Chuck Finley, who had a 6 1/3-inning, four-run, 10-hit, 134-pitch performance against Toronto, striking out nine. “He was that little spark that we needed. It just shows you how good we can be when we get all our guys back.”

Added first baseman Cecil Fielder: “I think we got a teaser from him as far as his hitting. He was ready. He came here swinging. I know he’s bummed out, but he has to stay positive and hope for the best results.”

That won’t be easy for Velarde, who spent all of 1997 in rehabilitation, lifting weights and running to stay in shape, only to suffer a relapse in his second game back after such an exhilarating start.

Velarde homered to center off Woody Williams in the third inning Thursday, tying the score, 1-1. Tony Fernandez’s two-run double in the third and his RBI single in the fifth gave Toronto a 4-1 lead, but Norberto Martin, Gary DiSarcina and Darin Erstad bunched eighth-inning singles to make it 4-2.

Then the Angels rallied in the ninth against near-invincible closer Randy Myers, who had blown only two of his previous 56 save opportunities for Baltimore in 1997 and Toronto this season.

Jim Edmonds, Dave Hollins and Matt Walbeck singled for a run, Hollins making a key dash from first to third on Walbeck’s single to left, and Martin’s sacrifice fly to deep right made the score 4-4.

But Stanley drilled a full-count fastball from DeLucia over the center-field wall, and the night went from bad to worse for a team that just can’t shake its injury bug.

“If it’s not one thing,” Finley said, “it’s another.”