Erstad, Spiezio Help Chill Giants With Hot Hitting

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Angels filed onto the field for batting practice before Game 3 of the World Series in Pacific Bell Park on Tuesday night looking more like the Green Bay Packers coming out of the tunnel for a December game in Lambeau Field.

Several players donned heavy parkas and knit caps covering their ears to shield against the chilly conditions, which registered all of 57 degrees. Not first baseman Scott Spiezio, who grew up in Morris, Ill., and considered this T-shirt weather.

Spiezio, wearing his usual warmup jersey and nothing that could be purchased in a ski shop, looked at all the cold-weather gear, shook his head and offered this one-word assessment of his teammates: “Wimps.”

Spiezio looked right at home in the cool, breezy and sometimes drizzly conditions, and so did teammate and North Dakota native Darin Erstad. The pair basked in all the elements China Basin had to offer, combining for five hits, three runs batted in and three runs scored to help the Angels defeat the San Francisco Giants, 10-4, before 42,707.

Erstad doubled and scored during the Angels’ four-run third inning, and Spiezio highlighted the rally with a two-run triple to right-center field.

Erstad, the Angel center fielder, singled and scored in the Angels’ four-run fourth, and Spiezio knocked in a run during the rally with a single, giving him 16 RBIs in the postseason, three shy of Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar’s record of 19, set in 1997.

The Angels have played 12 playoff games this month, and Erstad has at least one hit in every game, the longest hitting streak since New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter hit safely in 12 consecutive playoff games in 1999. Erstad also has 22 playoff hits, three shy of Marquis Grissom’s record of 25 in a postseason, set for Atlanta in 1995.

“I had long sleeves on too -- I’m not stupid,” Erstad said. “But it does help that you grew up in that type of environment, to deal with those things.”

Spiezio, the son of Ed Spiezio, a utility player for the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox from 1964-72, was raised in similar conditions. There were two mounds in the yard of their Illinois home, and frigid temperatures weren’t an excuse to take a day off.

“Every day it wasn’t snowing, we took batting practice,” Spiezio said. “And when it was snowing, we had hitting stations set up in the basement. That was from the time I was 3 years old right through my minor league days.”

At the end of most hitting sessions, Ed would conduct situational drills with Scott.

“Then we’d go bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth, full count, down one, Game 7 of the World Series,” Spiezio said. “I’d need to get on base some way. My whole career, I would think of that during the regular season, and if you can handle it then, you can handle it now. But this is the first time I’m using that for a purpose.”

Spiezio may not get a chance to reenact those Game 7 situations against the Giants if he, Erstad and the Angels continue an offensive onslaught that has resulted in 24 runs on 41 hits for a .353 average in three games.

Erstad followed David Eckstein’s leadoff walk in the third Tuesday night with a laser of a double down the right-field line. The Angels tied the game, 1-1, when Giant third baseman David Bell couldn’t cleanly field Tim Salmon’s grounder and took a 2-1 lead on Troy Glaus’ RBI single.

Spiezio then sent a perfectly placed liner to right-center that rolled all the way to the 421-foot sign, the deepest part of the park, for a two-run triple.

Erstad sparked the Angels’ fourth-inning rally with a one-out single, and Tim Salmon walked. With pitcher Livan Hernandez paying Erstad little mind, Erstad took off for third, stealing the base with a head-first dive while Salmon took second.

Erstad scored on Garret Anderson’s groundout, Glaus walked, and Spiezio came through in the clutch again, banging an RBI single to right. Adam Kennedy and Bengie Molina added RBI singles, giving the Angels a comfortable 8-1 lead.

“The idea is to keep pressing, to keep pouring it on as much as you can, regardless of the score,” Erstad said. “It’s like playing prevent defense in football. It’s not a good thing to do.”

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Great Scott!

Garret Anderson, Troy Glaus and Tim Salmon were Angels’ top three producers in runs batted in during the regular season, but Scott Spiezio leads in that category in the postseason:

*--* REGULAR POSTSEA SEASON SON Player Plate RBI Plate RBI Plate RBI Plate RBI App App App App Anderson 684 123 5.6 Spiezio 51 16 3.2 Glaus 671 111 6.1 Salmon 52 12 4.3 Salmon 568 88 6.5 A. 39 10 3.9 Kennedy Spiezio 571 82 6.9 Anderson 55 10 5.5 D. Erstad 663 73 9.1 Glaus 52 8 6.5

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SPIEZIO IN THE POSTSEASON

*--* G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG 12 43 8 16 4 1 2 16 6 2 372 440 651

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THE REAL DEAL

A key move by the Angels in the off-season was trading Mo Vaughn to the New York Mets, allowing Spiezio to play first base regularly. A comparison of their 2002 statistics

*--* G AB R H 2B HR RBI BB SO BA SLG Fielding Sp 153 491 80 140 34 12 82 67 52 285 436 3 errors, .997 ie Pct zi o Va 139 487 67 126 18 26 72 59 145 259 456 18 errors, ug .984 Pct hn

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