Burkett Is Guided by Angels

Getting knocked around the ballpark and you’re about to be demoted to the bullpen? Step right up. A rookie pitcher looking to make a name for yourself? Come on down. Struggling with your control and you’re about to be sent to the minor leagues? Do we have a team for you.

The Angels have been like the Red Cross to weary and worn-out opposing pitchers this season, sheltering them from the cold, mending their broken spirits--not to mention their bloated earned-run averages--and they turned another straggler into a Cy Young Award candidate Tuesday night.

John Burkett, who was so ineffective he was sent to the bullpen in early June and who entered the game with a 1-3 record and 7.20 ERA, blanked the Angels on one hit for seven innings to lead the Texas Rangers to a 5-0 victory over the Angels before 22,274 at Edison Field.

The right-hander, who was bombed for five runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings of an 8-4 loss to Anaheim on April 9, walked one and struck out seven--Mo Vaughn three times, and Darin Erstad and Garret Anderson twice each. The Angels had two baserunners in the game, Matt Walbeck, who doubled, and Erstad, who walked, in the third.

This was one night after journeyman Mike Morgan, who had a 5.69 ERA, went the distance on a seven-hitter, beating the Angels, 9-1, with stuff his own manager said would not have impressed any baseball scout.

This, of course, is nothing new for the Angels, who fell 8 1/2 games behind the Rangers and are in danger of being swept in a three-game series they themselves were hoping to sweep. They were shut out for nine innings on one hit by a rookie from Tampa Bay named Ryan Rupe on May 23.

Boston’s Juan Pena made his major league debut against the Angels on May 8 and held them to one run on three hits in six innings of a 6-1 Red Sox win. Toronto right-hander Joey Hamilton had an 11.32 ERA when he took the mound against the Angels on June 16. He held them to two runs on six hits in seven innings.

San Francisco left-hander Shawn Estes was on the verge of being demoted to the bullpen June 8 when he gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings to beat the Angels and solidify his rotation spot. Giants’ rookie Chris Brock gave up two runs on six hits in eight innings to the Angels the next day.

Ranger rookie Ryan Glynn will take a 1-2 record and 7.46 ERA into tonight’s game. Get your tickets now--the kid probably will throw a no-hitter.

“I don’t care who you face on a nightly basis, you’ve got to go up with some kind of plan and carry it out,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “John Burkett went out there with a plan and carried it out. We didn’t.”

While Burkett--who allowed an American League high 123 earned runs last year--received a shot in the arm, the Angels took another blow to the gut. Though they beat Oakland, 4-3, Sunday night for their sixth win in seven games, the Angels have scored one run in their last 25 innings, and they had no answer for a Texas offense that pounded out 13 hits.

The Rangers scored twice off Angel starter Omar Olivares in the fourth inning and put the game out of reach in the eighth on Juan Gonzalez’s three-run home run off reliever Mark Petkovsek.

Gonzalez, two-time American League most valuable player, now has a career .316 average with 18 home runs and 54 RBIs in Edison Field.

“Just put up four fingers when he comes up,” Angel second baseman Randy Velarde said, meaning he would prefer the Angels intentionally walk Gonzalez. “That wouldn’t bother me a bit.

“He’s a run-producing machine, one of those guys you don’t want to pitch to when the game is on the line. He punishes pitches, whether they’re great pitches or pitchers’ mistakes. He swings from head to toe and expands the strike zone. He makes any theory of how to pitch to him obsolete.”

Olivares did a credible job on three days’ rest, limiting the Rangers to two runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. Texas scored its two runs in the fourth when Gonzalez walked and Rafael Palmeiro and Todd Zeile each singled to load the bases.

Lee Stevens lined a sacrifice fly to deep center, Gonzalez scoring and Palmeiro taking third, and Roberto Kelly lined an RBI single to right-center for a 2-0 lead.

And Burkett did the rest.