Belcher Delivery Goes First-Class

After 10 days on the road, Angel Manager Terry Collins returned to his office Friday afternoon and opened a stack of mail.

“I got five letters telling me not to pitch Tim Belcher,” Collins said.

Collins crumpled up the letters, then shot them like basketballs into his trash can. Then he handed Belcher the ball, and the beleaguered pitcher responded with six shutout innings, winning his first game in a month in an 8-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Mo Vaughn, who challenged his teammates to maintain their intensity after a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees, personally delivered the victory to Belcher. With the game scoreless in the sixth inning, Vaughn obliterated a Bobby Witt fastball for a grand slam, thrilling the 35,515 at Edison Field. Vaughn singled home two more runs in the seventh inning, tying his career high by driving in six runs.

“Mo’s hit was huge for us,” Collins said, “but the night belonged to Tim Belcher. I think he put to rest any doubt that he was OK.”

Heaven forbid, of course, that he should develop an injury, on a team already riddled by them.

“I’m tired of people telling me about injuries,” Vaughn said. “We have no choice but to succeed, regardless of what goes on.”

On a team with eight players on the disabled list, Vaughn led by word and deed. The guy can barely walk--he’s still hobbling on a sore ankle--but he has hit three home runs and driven in 11 runs in the past four games.

“I think the biggest story tonight was Tim Belcher,” Vaughn said. “The most important thing, with all that has transpired the past few days, is that it’s been good pitching and timely hitting.”

Belcher nursed a shutout into the seventh inning, following back-to-back shutouts in New York and extending the Angels’ streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 25. The club record of 32 2/3 was set in 1974, on a team featuring Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana.

Collins might not have heeded the suggestion of his correspondents, but the fans had a point, at least statistically. Belcher (2-3) had not won in 29 days, had not so much as survived the sixth inning in that time. His earned-run average was an unsightly 9.89, with opponents peppering him at a .391 clip.

Nonetheless, he started. The Angels invested $10.2 million in him this winter, so they must afford him more than seven starts, and they have no hot prospect pushing him.

In the beginning, his eighth start smelled much like his first seven, and the natives quickly grew restless. When the fourth batter of the game, Fred McGriff, walked to load the bases, boos rained down upon Belcher.

The fifth batter, Herbert Perry, hit a vicious line drive toward third base. Troy Glaus grabbed the ball on a difficult short hop, hesitated briefly to consider his options, then stepped on the bag and fired to first to complete a double play.

Belcher retired nine in a row, walked two, then retired eight in a row. Meanwhile, after Vaughn’s grand slam gave the Angels a 4-0 lead after six innings, Collins faced a tricky decision: How could he bolster Belcher’s confidence without risking the victory? Belcher was pitching a one-hitter; then again, he failed to hold a 10-0 lead a few weeks ago.

Collins sent Belcher back to the mound, but not without two relievers warming up behind him. After Paul Sorrento singled and John Flaherty homered, Collins immediately yanked Belcher. With closer Troy Percival unavailable after pitching the previous three nights, Mike Magnante and Al Levine handled the Devil Rays the rest of the way.

Belcher did not stick around to celebrate, or comment. The Angel clubhouse was hardly raucous, with the players far more interested in the dramatic ending to the Utah-Sacramento NBA playoff game than in whooping it up over their own victory.

And that was exactly the mood Vaughn wanted.

“This game is never about a big celebration, especially after a win,” he said. “You have to continue in that each-and-every-day, consistent approach if this is going to happen.”