Finley, Salmon Can’t Get Away From the Pain

It was getaway day for the Angels Wednesday, and they couldn’t get away from Arizona soon enough.

In their final Cactus League game, starting pitcher Chuck Finley was knocked out in the first inning of a 17-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics when Jason Giambi’s liner drilled him in the left triceps.

Right fielder Tim Salmon departed in the third inning after he fouled a ball off his left shin, leaving a nasty welt above his ankle, and reliever Mike Magnante took a liner from Mike Macfarlane in the forearm of his glove hand in the sixth.

None of the injuries are serious, but Manager Terry Collins, who has already lost shortstop Gary DiSarcina and pitcher Jason Dickson this spring, couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief at the end of this contusion-fest.

“Oh my God, am I glad that’s over,” Collins said. “What else could happen on the last day here?”

Collins said his heart “skipped a beat” when Finley got hit--the Angel ace was nailed by three line drives in 1998, two when he was on the mound and one when he was in the dugout.

Finley suffered a bruise Wednesday and told Collins he could continue, “but he’s throwing the ball too good, and I didn’t want him to change his mechanics or anything,” Collins said. “He’s fine, but I didn’t want to risk it.”

With Finley and Steve Sparks, who missed Monday’s game because his wife was giving birth, essentially missing starts this week, Collins will probably shuffle his rotation for the weekend, splitting Saturday’s game against Aguascalientes between Finley and Sparks.

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Catcher Matt Walbeck returned to the team after spending a week in Sacramento to be with his mother, Aileen, who died of stomach cancer Saturday. She was 54.

“She’d been fighting since last June, she went through six rounds of chemotherapy and two surgeries. . . . Now she’s in a better place,” Walbeck said. “It’s been brutal to see the whole family dealing with it. I’m relieved because she’s not suffering, but it’s a loss. We were really close.”

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The last time DiSarcina was sidelined for an extended period, in the summer of 1995, the Angels blew an 11-game lead.

DiSarcina will undergo surgery today to have a plate screwed into the ulna bone in his left forearm and will be out until at least the All-Star break. The key to filling in, Andy Sheets believes, is to try to be Andy Sheets, not Gary DiSarcina.

“Sure, there’s more pressure, but I’m trying not to think about it,” Sheets said. “It’s not like I have to do anything spectacular. I just have to do my part.”

Sheets is not a prolific offensive player--he’s a career .229 hitter who strikes out too much--but he has above-average speed and is a steady defensive player. He has been a reserve in the big leagues but did spend two one-month stints as the Mariner third baseman in place of the injured Russ Davis.

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A split squad featuring Angel regulars Mo Vaughn, Darin Erstad, Todd Greene and Garret Anderson won a 4-2 exhibition game in Lake Elsinore against a collection of the club’s top minor leaguers. Vaughn had only one at-bat, grounding out to second. Greene was hit in the chest by a pitch from Matt Wise and left the game after the second inning. Acting manager Rod Carew said Greene wasn’t seriously hurt. . . . Greene said his shoulder “felt fine” Wednesday after making four throws to second base in a game Tuesday. All four runners stole successfully, “but I made some good throws, and my shoulder doesn’t hurt,” Greene said. . . . Third baseman Tim Unroe, who hit two homers and had five runs batted in Wednesday, is pushing first baseman Chris Pritchett for the final roster spot. He’s batting .361 with five homers and 11 RBIs this spring. Pritchett is batting .286. . . . Scott Schoeneweis relieved Finley and pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings, and the left-hander will compete with Mike Fyhrie and Toby Borland, who pitched two scoreless innings Wednesday, for the final bullpen spot. “We’ve got some serious things to talk about the next few days,” Collins said.

Staff writer Mike Terry contributed to this story.