Appier Plays It Fast and Loose

The Angels had the perfect antidote for pennant pressure. On a day they desperately needed to win, their starting pitcher was their resident goofball.

Baseball etiquette demands that teammates stay away from that day’s starting pitcher, to let him prepare in solitude. Kevin Appier wanders up to anyone who will listen--teammates, coaches, reporters, clubhouse attendants--to chat and poke fun at people.

“You try to stay away from him,” third baseman Troy Glaus said, “but he won’t let you.”

With baseball’s equivalent of Alfred E. Neuman on the mound--what, him worry?--the Angels had no need for concern Saturday.

Appier never dominated, but he never surrendered, dancing through six shutout innings with little margin for error in the Angels’ 2-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

The Angels got one earned run off Boston knuckleballer and nemesis Tim Wakefield, and that was good enough on a day they played smart and played well.

The Angels stole three bases--one despite a Boston pitchout--and turned a season-high four double plays. The bottom two hitters in the lineup, Adam Kennedy and Jose Molina, each singled home a run. First baseman Scott Spiezio added to his Gold Glove portfolio, saving one hit with a diving catch and another with a terrific stretch, and turned a line drive into a double play.

The best bullpen in the American League supported Appier with three shutout innings--one each from Brendan Donnelly, Scott Schoeneweis and Troy Percival--and the Angels reclaimed a share of the lead in the AL wild-card race. They’re tied with the Seattle Mariners and 2 1/2 games ahead of Boston.

Are the Angels watching the scoreboard? “We definitely are,” Appier said.

Faced with the possibility of losing to Wakefield on Saturday and Derek Lowe today and falling behind Boston in the wild-card standings, the Angels rebounded after losing three of the first four games on this trip.

“I don’t think our confidence has been shaken,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Maybe it has been tested, but it hasn’t been shaken.

“We’re not going to go away. We’re confident we’re going to be a playoff team.”

With Aaron Sele on the disabled list, Appier is the only Angel pitcher to start a playoff game. That postseason experience, and 12 years of major league experience, enable him to control the nervousness he freely admits precedes any start this time of year.

That experience also enables him to act as his own pitching coach at times, to make corrections on the fly, a valuable skill for any pitcher and especially so for one with such an awkward delivery.

“The impression you get at times is that he’s out of sorts,” pitching coach Bud Black said. “But pitch to pitch--knowing hitters, knowing situations and knowing his stuff---this guy is as good as anyone I’ve ever been around.”

For the third consecutive game, Appier walked the first batter on four pitches. He threw 25 pitches in the first inning, 35 in the fifth.

“Every fifth or sixth pitch, I had no idea where the ball was going,” he said. “It was on its own program.”

Appier (12-9) joined Jarrod Washburn (15-5) in giving the Angels two 12-game winners for the first time in five years. In his last nine starts, Appier is 6-2 with a 2.37 earned-run average.

In his first season with the Angels, he has been indispensable, on the mound and in the clubhouse, as a mentor to younger pitchers and as a carefree spirit. Percival calls him a “nut case” on the days he starts.

Said Glaus: “He’s different, but it’s about whatever it takes to get yourself as comfortable as you possibly can.

“If it’s hiding in the corner, hide in the corner. If it’s standing on your head, stand on your head.”

No, Glaus said, he has not seen Appier stand on his head before one of his starts. He was merely saying that. But there’s still one month left in the season, and you never know.