Angels Enjoy Long Nights

At this rate, the Angels never will take batting practice again.

The afternoon showers so common here persuaded Angel Manager Mike Scioscia that batting practice would be a dicey proposition. So the Angels simply waited for game time Tuesday and Wednesday, extending batting practice from the usual 40 minutes to nine innings.

The power show bordered on the absurd, with the Angels hitting home runs almost at will. After tying the club record by hitting six homers Tuesday, the Angels set the record by hitting seven Wednesday in an 11-2 rout of the Montreal Expos.

Garret Anderson tied a club record by hitting three home runs. Jeff DaVanon hit two for the third consecutive game, becoming the first major leaguer in 34 years to hit multiple home runs in three games in a row and only the fourth ever.

DaVanon, the fill-in for injured center fielder Darin Erstad, called his performance “out of this world.” Joked Angel pitcher Jarrod Washburn: “Did they check his bat for cork?”

Sure, Hiram Bithorn Stadium is tiny, but the Angels are playing as if they packed aluminum bats for the trip to Puerto Rico. In two games here, the Angels have hit 13 home runs, matching an American League record for home runs in consecutive games -- set by the 1939 New York Yankees, a World Series championship team that featured Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey and Babe Dahlgren.

After totaling 26 runs and 39 hits in the two games here -- the most hits for the Angels in back-to-back games since 1980 -- they expressed sympathy for the Expos, who must play 22 games here.

Anderson, citing the combination of humidity and short fences, said the ballpark plays unacceptably “small.”

Said Anderson: “Not to be short and blunt, but I can’t describe it any better. It’s too small, probably.”

Said Washburn: “I feel sorry for their pitchers.... A lot of the home runs that were hit here are outs most any place else.”

Anderson set a career high with his three homers, and Brad Fullmer and Troy Glaus homered too. Washburn pitched six strong innings and got a hit of his own, one of the Angels’ 17 hits.

The Angels extended their winning streak to four games. At 29-27, they climbed two games above .500 for the first time since April 13.

By hitting a home run from each side of the plate in back-to-back games, DaVanon performed a feat last accomplished by Ken Caminiti in 1995, for the San Diego Padres. With six home runs in three consecutive games, DaVanon fell one shy of the major league record, set last year by the Dodgers’ Shawn Green.

“Before the first home run, he tripped on the way to the on-deck circle,” the Angels’ Shawn Wooten said. “We told him he’d better trip every time he goes up there.”

In the four games since Erstad reported to triple-A Salt Lake for the start of his rehabilitation assignment, DaVanon has six home runs -- and 11 hits -- in 17 at-bats. Erstad will be back Monday, but he will not play every day at first, and not only because he will have been out seven weeks because of a lingering hamstring injury.

While DaVanon’s feats are bordering on legendary, the performance of Washburn (6-5) was no less impressive.

After all, he is a fly ball pitcher, and the balls apparently fly here like nowhere else. In six innings, he gave up one run -- yes, a home run, by Jose Macias -- but still lowered his earned-run average to 3.09.

Washburn also singled in three at-bats, with his career batting average dropping from .357 to .353. He could live without hitting a home run, even here, where everyone can be a slugger.

“I don’t have pop,” he said. “I’m just a singles guy. But if I had a shot anywhere, it’s probably here.”

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Three of a Kind

ANGELS WHO HAVE HIT THREE HOMERS IN A GAME

*--* PLAYER DATE OPPONENT LEE THOMAS Sept. 5, 1961 at Kansas City LEE STANTON July 10, 1973 at Baltimore CARNEY LANSFORD Sept. 1, 1979 at Cleveland FRED PATEK June 20, 1980 at Boston DOUG DECINCES Aug. 3, 1982 Minnesota Aug. 8, 1982 at Seattle REGGIE JACKSON Sept. 18, 1986 Kansas City WALLY JOYNER Oct. 3, 1987 Cleveland DAVE WINFIELD April 13, 1991 at Minnesota TROY GLAUS Sept. 15, 2002 Texas GARRET ANDERSON June 4, 2003 Montreal * * San Juan, Puerto Rico

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THREE CONSECUTIVE MULTI-HOME RUN GAMES (IN MAJORS)

*--* PLAYER TEAM YEAR JEFF DaVANON Angels 2003 LEE MAY Cincinnati 1969 FRANK THOMAS New York Mets 1962 GUS ZERNIAL Philadelphia A’s 1951

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