Texas Has Real Deal

The lineup card in the Angel clubhouse will probably be posted right-side up tonight. Someone turned it upside down Saturday, hoping to reverse the team’s fortunes, and the Angels snapped a four-game losing streak. It remained upside down Sunday, and the Angels won again.

The third time brought more harm than charm. Texas right-hander Todd Stottlemyre turned the Angel offense inside out for the second time in a week, leading the Rangers to a 9-1 victory Monday night in the opener of a critical three-game series.

An small and sedate crowd of 33,487 in Edison Field saw Stottlemyre throw seven shutout innings, allowing six hits and striking out seven, and the Rangers took a one-game lead over the Angels in the American League West with six games remaining.

Texas also bombed Angel knuckleballer Steve Sparks for the second time in five nights, scoring five runs in the first four innings to take a commanding lead. Rusty Greer had four hits and scored two runs, and Juan Gonzalez had two hits and two runs batted in, giving him 156 RBIs on the season.

The league’s best offense amassed 14 hits, giving Stottlemyre the benefit of the rout, but this game was decided as much in the Angel and Ranger general managers’ offices on July 31 as it was on the field Monday night.

That was when the Texas outmaneuvered the Angels and several others to acquire Stottlemyre in a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The trade did not pay immediate dividends, as Stottlemyre, a former Oakland and Toronto pitcher, struggled to regain his bearings in the American League. But like a good one-month certificate of deposit, the investment matured just in time for Stottlemyre (5-4) to win two huge games against the Angels in the past week, his first an eight-inning, one run effort Wednesday night.

The Angels, meanwhile, were skunked as thoroughly before the trading deadline as they were by Stottlemyre on Monday night, failing to deal for a pitcher who could have boosted their sagging rotation.

So, they were left to fend off Texas with the likes of Sparks, who has been one of the team’s amazing success stories with nine wins after his June recall from the minor leagues, but who has hardly distinguished himself in his last two starts, giving up a combined nine runs on 14 hits in 5 1/3 innings to the Rangers.

Texas didn’t claim to have any insider information when it came to hitting a knuckleball. “There are four guys in the major leagues throwing the knuckler out of how many pitchers?” designated hitter Will Clark said.

“There are theories on how to hit fastballs, curves and sliders, but there is no theory on the knuckleball, because a lot of times it leaves the pitcher’s hand, and he doesn’t even know what’s going to happen.”

The Rangers seemed to have a clue, though. Maybe it was because this was the fourth time they had faced Sparks (9-4) since June and they were simply familiar with him.

Maybe it was because Texas didn’t overswing on many of Sparks’ floaters--the left-handed-hitting Greer served two ground-ball singles to left, and Gonzalez, with the Angels playing him to pull, grounded an RBI single up the middle in the first.

Whatever the reason, it was clear the Rangers were not the least bit baffled by Sparks, pounding him for seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.

You had a feeling it might be a rough night for Sparks when Tom Goodwin opened the game with a drive that sent Jim Edmonds to the wall in left-center to make the catch.

Second baseman Randy Velarde booted Mark McLemore’s routine grounder, and Greer and Gonzalez followed with singles for a 1-0 lead. First baseman Darin Erstad’s diving catch of Clark’s liner and Garret Anderson’s catch of Ivan Rodriguez’s liner to right prevented further damage, but Texas tacked on two in the second to make it 3-0.

Lee Stevens, the former Angel who couldn’t cut it as Wally Joyner’s replacement in 1992, opened the second with a single, and Todd Zeile doubled him home, Stevens sliding headfirst into the plate just ahead of Velarde’s relay.

Zeile eventually scored on Sparks’ wild pitch--which came one pitch before McLemore grounded out to end the inning. The Rangers finished off Sparks with a two-run fourth, which included Royce Clayton’s double, Goodwin’s sacrifice fly and Greer’s RBI single.

Texas blew the game open with three in the seventh off reliever Jeff Juden and one in the eighth off Allen Watson. Velarde’s RBI double in the ninth off reliever Xavier Hernandez broke up the shutout.