Finley Gets Worst of It From Angels

The Angels made some history and trashed a big piece of their own history Sunday night, becoming the first American League team to have four players hit 30 home runs in a season and reaching the milestone at the expense of the franchise’s winningest pitcher.

Tim Salmon’s bases-empty blast in the fifth inning against former teammate Chuck Finley put the Angels in the record books, and the Angels withstood a furious Cleveland comeback in the seventh to hold off the Indians, 10-9, before 31,504 in Edison Field.

Reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa, doing his best to create a little closer controversy, retired all six batters in the eighth and ninth innings for his eighth save, as the Angels pulled to within four games of Seattle in the American League West and 2 1/2 games of Boston in the wild-card race.

Troy Glaus blasted his 37th homer of the season, a two-run shot that traveled an estimated 440 feet to left field to key a four-run third inning, and Salmon’s fifth-inning shot to left-center, which broke a 4-4 tie, was his 30th of the season and third in 10 at-bats against Finley.

With Garret Anderson and Mo Vaughn each hitting 31 home runs, the Angels joined the 1977 and 1997 Dodgers, the 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999 Colorado Rockies and the 1998 Atlanta Braves as the only teams with four players to hit 30 homers or more in the same season.

“It’s a great accomplishment, a great team accomplishment, and there’s going to be a lot of focus on that record,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “But I don’t think that’s a true characterization of the way this team can manufacture runs. We go from first to third on singles, we steal bases . . . this offense has a lot more to offer.”

So did the defense Sunday night. The Angels threw out three Indians at the plate, including a seventh-inning, game-saving assist from Anderson that Scioscia said was “as good a throw as you’re going to see from a center fielder.”

The Angels blew the game open with five runs in the sixth, an outburst that featured Darin Erstad’s run-scoring single, Salmon’s two-run double and Vaughn’s two-run single that pushed the lead to 10-4.

But the Indians roared back with five in the top of the seventh on Kenny Lofton’s sacrifice fly off left-hander Mike Holtz and Roberto Alomar’s grand slam to right off right-hander Mark Petkovsek, which made it 10-9.

Manny Ramirez followed with a double to left, and David Segui whistled a single to center. But Ramirez, despite there being two outs, got a terrible jump off second, peeked over his shoulder unnecessarily around third and was thrown out by four steps by Anderson, who fired a perfect one-hop throw to catcher Bengie Molina.

Hasegawa, who has saved five games in six opportunities in place of the injured Troy Percival but will probably relinquish the closing role to Percival this week, blanked the Indians in the eighth and ninth, ending a 3-hour 39- minute slugfest in which there were 30 hits.

“I always feel, even if everyone else is going bad, that I’ll be all right because I’m a strange guy,” Hasegawa said. “After all those hits, I figured maybe their arms were tired after swinging so much.”

Those arms were strong for most of the evening, and Finley (10-10) and Angel starter Kent Mercker bore the brunt of it.

Finley, who won 165 games in his 14-year Angel career, suffered his worst loss of the season, giving up eight runs on 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings in his first game in Anaheim since signing a three-year, $27-million deal with the Indians last winter.

“I felt relaxed--I put the novelty of being home aside, and I didn’t get wrapped up in the emotions of it,” said Finley, whose image adorns part of the right-field wall as a member of the Angels’ all-time team. “I came here to do a job and didn’t do it.”

Mercker was rocked for four runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings, but it could have been worse had Segui not been thrown out at the plate twice, in the first inning on shortstop Benji Gil’s relay from the outfield and in the third inning by first baseman Vaughn.

Al Levine replaced Mercker in the fourth and gave up one run on two hits in 2 1/3 innings to gain the victory.

Said Mercker: “I picked a great night to be terrible.”

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30-Something

Major league teams with four players who hit 30 or more home runs in a season:

* 1977 Dodgers--Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32), Ron Cey (30), Dusty Baker (30).

* 1995 Colorado Rockies--Dante Bichette (40), Larry Walker (36), Vinny Castilla (32), Andres Galarraga (31)

* 1996 Colorado Rockies--Galarraga (47), Ellis Burks (40), Castilla (40), Bichette (31).

* 1997 Dodgers--Mike Piazza (40), Eric Karros (31), Todd Zeile (31), Raul Mondesi (30).

* 1997 Colorado Rockies--Walker (49), Galarraga (41), Castilla (40), Burks (32).

* 1998 Atlanta Braves--Galarraga (44), Chipper Jones (34), Javier Lopez (34), Andruw Jones (31).

* 1999 Colorado Rockies--Walker (37), Todd Helton (35), Bichette (34), Castilla (33).

* 2000 Angels--Troy Glaus (37), Garret Anderson (31), Mo Vaughn (31), Tim Salmon (30).

AL WEST RACE

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Team W L GB Seattle 71 59 -- Oakland 68 61 2 1/2 Angels 67 63 4

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WILD-CARD RACE

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Team W L GB Boston 68 59 -- Cleveland 67 59 1/2 Oakland 68 61 1 Toronto 68 62 1 1/2 Angels 67 63 2 1/2

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AL WEST RACE