One Third Too Many for Angels

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Aug. 22, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

It’s a good thing that Manny Ramirez, who is batting .310 with 38 home runs and 109 runs batted in, and Nomar Garciaparra, the two-time defending American League batting champion, were not in the Boston Red Sox’ lineup Tuesday night.

Otherwise, things could have been hideous for the Angels.

Instead, they were merely ugly for the Angels and pitcher Scott Schoeneweis, who needed a tent-sized tourniquet to stop the bleeding during an eight-run third inning that propelled the Red Sox to an 8-5 victory before 24,402 at Edison Field.

Reserve catcher Doug Mirabelli, acquired from the Texas Rangers in June after starter Jason Varitek suffered a fractured elbow, opened the third with a walk and capped it with a grand slam, as the Red Sox pulled to within three games of the Oakland Athletics in the wild-card race and prevented the Angels from cutting their seven-game wild-card deficit.

Boston right-hander David Cone, a 38-year-old war horse whom many thought was washed up in New York last season, gave up two runs and six hits in seven innings to improve to 8-2, his only blemish Tim Salmon’s two-run home run in the fourth.

Angel shortstop David Eckstein made things interesting with a two-out, three-run homer against Bill Pulsipher in the bottom of the ninth, cutting an 8-2 lead to 8-5, and Darin Erstad followed with a walk.

But right-hander Ugueth Urbina, acquired from the Montreal Expos before the July 31 trade deadline, came on to strike out Troy Glaus, sending the Angels to consecutive losses for the first time since Aug. 3-4 at New York.

Minus Ramirez (strained right hamstring) and Garciaparra (scheduled night off), the Red Sox still bunched six hits in the third, five of them singles.

The decisive blow came when Mirabelli, the No. 9 hitter, lined a sinking fastball that didn’t sink very much over the wall in left for Boston’s eighth grand slam of the season and an 8-0 lead.

Schoeneweis fell behind Mirabelli, 3 and 0, before running the count full with a called strike and a foul ball. Schoeneweis seemed to have one thought with his next pitch: Do not walk Mirabelli.

“Everyone in the ballpark knows what I’m going to throw there,” Schoeneweis said. “I don’t want to throw a slider and walk the guy. I went with my best pitch, the sinker, and it went for a home run. You don’t want to walk the nine-hole catcher, but [a grand slam] was the last thing I expected right there.”

An eight-run inning was about the last thing the Angels expected against Schoeneweis, who was 4-0 with a 3.86 earned-run average in his previous seven starts, his last loss coming against the A’s on July 4.

The left-hander also looked sharp in the first inning Tuesday night, striking out two of the three batters he faced. But after escaping a first-and-third, two-out jam in the second, Schoeneweis completely lost it in the third, an inning that began with a walk to Mirabelli.

Chris Stynes singled and Mike Lansing blistered a liner off the glove of Eckstein and into center field for a single that loaded the bases. Trot Nixon’s single to right scored two runs and Carl Everett walked to load the bases. Second baseman Adam Kennedy couldn’t get a glove on Dante Bichette’s sinking liner, which went into right field for an RBI single.

Shea Hillenbrand’s RBI single to center made the score 4-0 before Schoeneweis (10-9) struck out Jose Offerman for the first out. Troy O’Leary flied to shallow center, the runners holding, giving Schoeneweis a chance to escape with a four-run inning.

But Mirabelli doubled down on Schoeneweis with his grand slam, giving the Red Sox an insurmountable lead.

The eight-run thumping was not unprecedented for Schoeneweis, who gave up a franchise-record 11 runs in four innings of a 12-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on May 23 and nine runs in 22/3 innings of a 9-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners on June 29.

Schoeneweis bounced back after each drubbing, giving up no earned runs in seven innings of a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on May 28 and one run in 82/3 innings of a 4-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 12.

“Scott’s good and outstanding starts far outweigh his bad ones,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I have all the confidence in the world in him. This is a bump in the road. I have no doubt in my mind he’ll bounce back.”

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AL WILD-CARD RACE

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W L GB Oakland 73 53 - Boston 69 55 3 Angels 66 60 7 Minnesota 65 61 8

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