New Angle Takes Sparks Over the Top

Angel pitcher Steve Sparks isn’t naive.

There are two months left in the season. His contract is up. He has gone beyond the fifth inning only twice in his last seven starts.

So Sparks’ performance Sunday in the Angels’ 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins may not have been an official start to a salary drive, but he did get the engine going.

He wowed the 24,045 at Edison Field, and maybe his boss as well. Sparks had a no-hitter going until the seventh inning. He left after the eighth, having given up two hits, and picked up his first victory since June 27.

“A lot of futures are up in the air the next two months,” said Sparks, who allowed only an unearned run in improving to 5-7. “Myself included.

“Of course it’s on my mind. But once you are on the field, you have a job to do. You have to focus on it.”

There was no denying Sparks was focused Sunday.

He breezed through the first six innings, allowing only one ball to be hit out of the infield. Terry Steinbach led off the seventh by lining Sparks’ first pitch into center field for a single.

“I was thinking about the no-hitter after five innings,” Sparks said. “It was like I was throwing darts out there. I tried to get the ball out of my glove as fast as I could and throw it.”

It was the type of performance the Angels had hope to see more of this season.

Sparks went 9-4 last season after being called up in mid-June. So impressed were the Angels they gave him a one-year, $1.35-million contract last winter.

Even Sparks seems to wonder if it was money well spent. This season, his early exits from games have been broken up only occasionally by good outings. His earned-run average has hovered around 5.00.

“What has been disappointing to me was not being able to go out there and give them innings,” Sparks said. “That’s my true value to the team. I need to eat up innings and give the bullpen some rest. I haven’t been doing that.”

Particularly unsettling was his last start. The Angels gave him a 6-1 lead against Tampa Bay, but Sparks couldn’t get out of the fifth.

He went to pitching coach Dick Pole, who changed Sparks’ arm angle and delivery. He threw more over the top Sunday and seemed to freeze batters. He changed speeds, throwing the knuckleball slow early in counts, then harder later on.

“I’m pretty unconventional as a knuckleball pitchers go,” Sparks said. “I was pretty upset about my performance in Tampa Bay. If they give me a five-run lead, I should be able to get a few innings in. Dick tweaked a couple things and got me to slow down the knuckleball.”

As a result, Sparks was only in trouble once, and it was more third baseman Troy Glaus’ doing.

With one out in the eighth, Sparks gave up a single to Chad Allen, then walked Marty Cordova. Torii Hunter followed by hitting what seemed to be an easy double-play grounder, but Glaus had the ball go off his glove, loading the bases.

Denny Hocking hit a sacrifice fly, but Sparks got Todd Walker on a come-backer for the third out.

“That was the best game Steve has thrown for us all year,” Manager Terry Collins said.

Sparks’ performance masked another pitiful display by the Angel offense, which has become more haunted than vaunted.

Collins had promised sweeping changes after Saturday’s 8-0 loss to the Twins. So he massaged the batting order, dropping Mo Vaughn to fifth and Darin Erstad to sixth while moving Garret Anderson into the third spot.

It came at the suggestion of Vaughn.

“Maybe I can get up there more with runners on base,” Vaughn said. “Garret is hitting the ball well. Tim Salmon is taking his walks.

“I know I came over here to hit third, but this is what I see. I just made a suggestion and I was surprised [Collins] did it. We’ll see what happens.”

Not much did. In fact, the Angel offense was pretty much reduced to Erstad.

Erstad singled with one out in the second, then stole second. It allowed him to score on Glaus’ weak looper that dropped in left field.

Erstad then homered to leadoff the seventh, the Angels’ first home run in 143 plate appearances and only their seventh in the last 21 games at Edison Field.