Angel V-Team Means Victory

The Southern California Chapter of Underachievers Not-So-Anonymous gathered for its monthly meeting Thursday night, the Dodgers and Angels pulling up chairs for a baseball game/group therapy session in Edison Field.

Any volunteers to begin? “Uh, hi, I’m Chuck Finley, and I can’t get anyone out. . . . Hi, I’m Raul Mondesi, and I can’t hit a home run. . . .”

Some 3 1/2 hours later, after much gnashing of teeth and bashing of baseballs, only the Angels were feeling better about themselves because Mo Vaughn’s run-scoring single in the 10th inning gave them a 7-6 victory over the Dodgers before a sellout crowd of 43,911.

Randy Velarde, whose seventh-inning homer off Pedro Borbon tied the score, opened the 10th with a double off the right-center field wall. With the left-handed Vaughn coming up, Dodger Manager Davey Johnson pulled Alan Mills for left-hander Onan Masaoka.

Vaughn then slapped a one-hopper where the shortstop usually plays, but the Dodgers had Mark Grudzielanek shifted toward the second-base bag, and the ball skipped into left field, scoring Velarde. The victory lifted the Angels, basement dwellers since May 25, into third place in the American League West. They remain 6 1/2 games behind first-place Texas.

“That’s nice--hopefully we can keep jumping up slots,” Velarde said after the Angels won for the 13th time in their last 21 games. “This team is finally starting to believe in itself after three long months.”

Some couldn’t believe the Dodgers, whose four-game winning streak ended, pitched to Vaughn with first base open in the 10th. But Johnson said, “I’d do it again in the same situation.” There was also the matter of Vaughn’s average against left-handers, .393 entering Thursday’s game.

“That whole lefty-lefty thing is overrated,” Vaughn said. “Lefties can make more mistakes against lefties. There’s something about facing lefties. . . . I get more relaxed against them.”

After blowing leads of 4-0 and 5-3, Velarde got the Angels back in it by banging a Borbon changeup into the left-field bullpen with two outs in the seventh for a 6-6 tie.

That took Finley off the hook, but the Angels may want to send the left-hander for further counseling. Finley was staked to a 4-0 lead but coughed it up by giving up three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, prolonging the worst slump of his 14-year career.

In his last five starts, Finley has been pummeled for 32 earned runs in 22 innings (13.09 ERA), with 17 walks and 16 strikeouts. It may be just coincidence, but Finley’s funk began after telling reporters on June 19 that he would consider waiving his trade veto rights for a deal to a contender.

His opponent Thursday night, Dodger ace Kevin Brown, wasn’t much better, giving up five runs on five hits. The vaunted Orlando Palmeiro and Jeff Huson combined for four of the hits and four of the RBIs.

But once Brown got the lead, he struck out the side--Velarde, Vaughn and Garret Anderson--in the fifth and got the first out in the sixth before walking Palmeiro and being pulled for Borbon.

“We were glad to get Kevin out of the game,” Vaughn said. “He was really getting sharp in those middle innings.”

Right-hander Al Levine was sharp for the Angels, replacing Finley to start the sixth and pitching three scoreless innings to keep his team in the game. Mark Petkovsek added two scoreless innings for his team-leading ninth victory against two losses.

“This team has a lot of heart and character,” Vaughn said. “We played well before the break, we gave away some runs in the middle of the game, but we battled back. It was a good way to start the second half.”

Until Velarde’s homer, it appeared the Angels might be haunted by ex-Angels in two stadiums on the same night. In Texas, former Angel Lee Stevens walked to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth, and former Angel Mark McLemore hit a three-run double, giving the Rangers a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In Anaheim, Dodger center fielder Devon White, another former Angel, blasted a three-run homer off Finley in the fifth, giving the Dodgers a 6-5 lead.