Finley-Langston Duel a Draw, With Indians Winning in 10th

It wasn’t Old-Timers Night in Edison Field on Tuesday. It only seemed that way, with former Angel Mark Langston, who will turn 39 this month, pitching for the Cleveland Indians and Langston’s old buddy, 36-year-old Chuck Finley, starting for the Angels.

This pair of left-handers combined to win 200 games--30% of the Angels’ victories--from 1990-97, and though both have slipped considerably in recent years--Langston has struggled to remain in the big leagues and Finley isn’t nearly as dominant as he was a few years ago--they provided a crowd of 25,777 with a blast from the past Tuesday night.

It’s too bad neither earned the victory. That honor went to Indian left-hander Ricardo Rincon, who threw 1 1/3 perfect relief innings to help Cleveland to a 2-1 victory in 10 innings.

The Indians snapped a 1-1 tie in the 10th when Omar Vizquel and Roberto Alomar singled with one out against reliever Mark Petkovsek, Vizquel taking third on Alomar’s hit to right.

Manny Ramirez then lifted a sacrifice fly to deep right, his major league-leading 115th run batted in of the season, to score Vizquel with the winning run before reliever Mike Magnante struck out Jim Thome to end the inning.

The Angels threatened in the bottom of the 10th when pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro walked with two out and took third on pinch-hitter Jeff Huson’s broken-bat single to center.

But Indian closer Mike Jackson struck out Trent Durrington on a nasty slider--a pitch the rookie second baseman probably didn’t see much of growing up in Australia--for his 25th save.

Langston, who was bombed for nine runs on 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings of a 21-1 loss to the Yankees in his last start July 24, found an opponent that was much more accommodating than the Bronx Bombers, limiting the Anaheim Anemics to one run on three hits, including Darin Erstad’s homer, and striking out four in six innings.

Finley, who was nearly traded to the Indians last month--a potential deal that Langston lobbied hard for in discussions with General Manager John Hart--was even more impressive, giving up one run on five hits and striking out seven in 7 2/3 innings.

The Angels have lost 21 of 26 games since the All-Star break, their offense deserting them as they’ve fallen a season-high 21 games behind Texas, but they have been particularly impotent in their last five games, losses in which they’ve totaled eight runs on 33 hits.

It’s one thing to get shut down by young right-hander Bartolo Colon, who was still throwing 98 mph in the ninth inning of Monday night’s 4-0 Cleveland victory, but to be nearly blanked by Langston, whose fastballs barely reach 90?

Finley deserved better. The Angel veteran escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the fifth by striking out David Justice and Enrique Wilson and getting Einar Diaz to ground to short, and he should have extricated himself from the same predicament in the sixth.

After Dave Roberts and Vizquel opened the inning with singles and Alomar advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt, the Angels elected to intentionally walk Ramirez to load the bases and pitch to the dangerous Thome.

The strategy worked to perfection when Thome tapped a grounder back to the mound, but Finley’s throw was about six feet wide of catcher Ben Molina and rolled to the backstop, allowing Roberts to score to make it 1-1.

Vizquel also tried to score on the error, but Molina retrieved the ball and made a perfect throw to the plate, where Finley made a sliding catch. Vizquel tried to leap over the pitcher, but Finley tagged him for the second out of the inning. Richie Sexson walked to load the bases, but Justice struck out.

The Indian rally negated Erstad’s second-inning home run off Langston, a shot into the right-field seats that gave the Angels their first lead in 38 innings, a span of more than four games.

Angel center fielder Jim Edmonds and shortstop Gary DiSarcina helped protect the lead, Edmonds diving on the warning track in right-center to catch Vizquel’s second-inning drive and DiSarcina diving to the hole to snatch Alomar’s fourth-inning liner.