Greene Makes Steinbach Black and Blue

Approximately 420 pounds of baseball player met in a collision at home plate in the bottom of the eighth inning Monday night, and it didn’t look, or sound, pretty.

Running from second on pinch-hitter Jeff Huson’s soft one-out single to center, Todd Greene barreled into Twin catcher Terry Steinbach, who fielded Denny Hocking’s strong one-hop throw and withstood Greene’s impact to preserve Minnesota’s 3-2 victory.

Steinbach wound up in the hospital and is believed to have a sprained or separated shoulder, which will sideline him for several weeks. Greene emerged in one piece, thankful he didn’t tear up the right shoulder that had prevented him from catching for a year and a half.

“I’m bruised, and I’m definitely sore, but I think I’m all right,” said Greene, who homered in the second and doubled in the eighth. “I hope Steinbach is all right. I called over there, but they had taken him to the hospital. When I was learning to catch a few years ago, I watched tapes of that guy.”

It wasn’t just the sight of such a violent collision that made players in both dugouts cringe.

“It was loud, too,” Angel catcher Matt Walbeck said. “That was as nasty a collision as I’ve ever seen. There were helmets and masks flying. You don’t like seeing guys get hurt. But I don’t think it was dirty.”

When Hocking’s throw pulled Steinbach slightly up the third-base line, Greene said he considered a hook slide, but when Steinbach quickly shifted his whole body in front of the plate, “I had no choice,” Greene said. “I was out by 10 feet. What was I going to do, slide into his shin guard?”

There were no complaints in the Twin clubhouse.

“It was a good play by our center fielder, a good play by Greene and a good play by Steinbach,” Twin Manager Tom Kelly said. “It was a classic collision. The only bad thing was our catcher got hurt.”

Angel Manager Terry Collins said he wished Greene had slid, “but he’s a gamer, he knows only one way to play, and that’s maxed out,” Collins said.

*

The Angels have scored 18 of 23 runs on this home stand with home runs, “but we’ve got to do the little things to win games,” shortstop Andy Sheets said. They didn’t do enough of them Monday night.

Example: On the play in which Greene was thrown out, Huson should have taken second base but didn’t. Had he advanced, Huson could have scored the tying run on Troy Glaus’ single to left. If anything, Huson should have taken second and tried to force a cutoff and rundown, ensuring that Greene would have scored.

Example: After Doug Mientkiewicz’s one-out, eighth-inning single to right-center, which advanced Steinbach to third, Mientkiewicz took a wide turn around first and stumbled.

Sheets took the throw at second and appeared to have time to nail Mientkiewicz at first, but he held the ball. Turns out, while Mientkiewicz was making his U-turn, he veered right into the path between Sheets and first baseman Chris Pritchett.

“Had I thrown the ball, I think I would have hit him right in the shoulder,” Sheets said. Instead of Todd Walker’s ensuing fly ball to left being the third out, it was the game-winning sacrifice fly.

TONIGHT ANGELS’ KEN HILL (1-4, 5.15 ERA)

vs.

TWINS’ MIKE LINCOLN (1-7, 5.83 ERA)

Edison Field, 7 p.m.

TV--Fox Sports West. Radio--KLAC (570).

* Update--The Angels hope Hill, who has been erratic all season, finds the kind of consistency that Tim Belcher has in his last four starts, in which the right-hander has given up 11 earned runs in 27 1/3 innings to lower his ERA from 9.89 to 7.08. Belcher worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fifth inning Monday night by striking out Brent Gates and Marty Cordova, and he gave up only one run after the Twins loaded the bases with one out in the seventh. Struggling third baseman Troy Glaus had his first multi-hit game since May 1, Randy Velarde had three hits, and Darin Erstad tripled and scored in the third inning.

* Tickets--(714) 663-9000.