A Guardian Angel Must Be Saving Them

An alien visiting earth on the holiday weekend might study the won-lost records of the Angel pitching staff and conclude that this is a team that has long been eliminated from the division and wild-card races.

There is no more bizarre statistic involving a playoff contender in either league than the continuing possibility that the Angels might qualify for postseason competition without any of the 13 starting pitchers they have used so far having won 10 games.

Heck, they would settle for a starter with eight wins.

Reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa has eight and he leads the staff. Jarrod Washburn leads the starters at 7-2, but he’s on the disabled list for the third time this year and isn’t expected to return any time soon. Nor is Seth Etherton, who is 5-1 and also on the disabled list.

The Angels are operating with a force-fed rotation that includes Ramon Ortiz (4-5), Scott Schoeneweis (6-7) and Matt Wise (3-2).

At no time in their 40-year history have the Angels finished a season, even those abbreviated by labor problems, without a 10-game winner, and they are one of only three teams--Kansas City and Pittsburgh being the others--without one now.

Steve Hirdt of the Elias News Bureau, baseball’s official stats house, said that without a time-consuming search he could not be sure if any team has ever reached the playoffs without a 10-game winner, but added:

“I don’t know what’s more amazing--that the Angels have a chance to do it or that they’re only four games behind Seattle [as of Friday] despite the fact that they’re only three games over .500.

“Obviously, the Mariners and [Oakland] A’s have helped keep the Angels in the race by the way they’ve played recently.”

The Angels and A’s were 11-15 in August but gained ground on the disintegrating Mariners, who were 11-17 and lost 14 of their last 17 games.

However, the best Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman has been able to do for his fragile rotation down the stretch is add the recycled Scott Karl and send thank-you notes to the charitable Mariners and A’s.

Pitching coach Bud Black studied the stats sheet the other night and said, “For being where we are and not having a guy been a stabilizer or a stopper for us all year is unheard of and kind of crazy.

“We’re right there, in the thick of it, and our leading winner is in the bullpen. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say, you’re only as strong as the sum of your parts, and our parts have been able to get the job done collectively.”

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So, Pedro Martinez often uses the inside part of the plate to the extreme and umpires tend to protect the superstars. What’s new?

The most interesting aspect of Tuesday’s brawl-studded game between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Devil Rays might have been that it probably was the first time a team had an 8-0 ejection differential. Not only was Tampa Bay Manager Larry Rothschild ejected, but so were two of the coaches who succeeded him--Bill Russell and Jose Cardenal.

They were ejected because they were managing when Tampa Bay pitchers Dave Eiland and Cory Lidle were ejected for throwing at Brian Daubach, whom the Devil Rays thought had delivered some cheap shots during the initial melee in which Gerald Williams charged Martinez. Daubach is sidelined by an elbow injury suffered in the fight, but he will receive no flowers from the Devil Rays, who have urged discipline czar Frank Robinson to render a stiff penalty.