There Is Nothing Cold About Angels

The shortstop looked as if he had lost a fight in an alley. The center fielder dodged a beer shower tossed at him from behind the outfield fence. The first baseman shoved a fan out of his way to catch a foul ball. And the guys sitting in the bullpen warded off the bitter cold by wearing black parkas borrowed from the home team.

Nothing routine about this game for the Angels--except, that is, for the victory. On a night better spent inside, with the fireplace crackling and a hot chocolate in hand, the Angels extended their winning streak to eight games with an 8-4 victory Friday over the Chicago White Sox.

The Angels’ eight-game winning streak is their second of the season, a feat unprecedented in club history. Their 23-16 start matches the best in team history, particularly satisfying for a team whose 6-14 start was the worst.

With a temperature of 42 degrees at game time--and a wind-chill factor of 34--the Angels leaned upon locals who grew up playing in cold, rain and even snow. First baseman Scott Spiezio, from nearby Joliet, homered and drove in three runs. Relievers Lou Pote and Al Levine, each from the greater Chicago area, combined for four hitless innings.

“Chicago is their kind of town,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. He couldn’t resist saying it, to a chorus of groans, but laughter comes easily when your team has lost twice in the last 24 days.

“I’ve got in-laws in Chicago,” starter Scott Schoeneweis said. “Does that count?”

Sure, why not? Schoeneweis, who grew up in the cold of New Jersey, staggered through five innings, giving up four runs and nine hits but earning the victory by stranding runners at third base with one out in the fourth and fifth innings.

And center fielder Darin Erstad, who grew up coldest of all in North Dakota, scored twice and had three hits, raising his average to .299. He missed eight days because of a concussion, went hitless in his first game back and is hitting .379 in the 15 games since then.

Although Erstad still hurls his body around the field with reckless abandon, team executives will be pleased to know he does not endorse concussions as a means of breaking out of a slump.

“I won’t do that again,” he said. “It wasn’t very fun.”

Neither was what happened to shortstop David Eckstein. In the first inning, a foul ball caromed up from his bat, slammed directly into his face and then proceeded to crack his batting helmet. Television replays showed blood trickling from his face, but Eckstein said he was so cold he didn’t feel a thing, even as he walked back to the dugout to get a new helmet.

“I didn’t even know I got hit,” he said.

“I had my helmet in my hand, I was looking at the helmet, and I saw blood dripping down.”

He was worried for a few moments that his right eye might shut, but Angel athletic trainer Ned Bergert treated him--”like a cut man in the corner,” Scioscia said--and Eckstein returned. The eye was swollen and discolored, and a bandage covered a cut on his nose.

His only hit, a bunt single, ignited a fifth-inning rally in which the Angels scored three times to take the lead for good. Chicago starter Jon Garland forced home two of the runs by walking Brad Fullmer and Tim Salmon with the bases loaded.

The White Sox ought to schedule the Angels more often, since friends and relatives of the visiting players accounted for sizable chunks of the announced crowd of 12,736.

One of the most annoying fans was the one in the outfield bleachers who tossed a beer at Erstad as he ran to field a double. Erstad made the play; the fan missed on the throw.

The most puzzling fan was the one Spiezio pushed aside to catch a ball that would otherwise have landed in the first couple rows of the stands. And what did Spiezio notice about the guy trying to interfere with the catch?

“It was a guy with an Angel hat on,” he said.

Bandwagons are weird places to be, apparently.