Quinlan Helps Them Run the Box and Won

September being no time for the squeamish, Robb Quinlan closed his eyes, stood his ground and awaited contact.

Forehead, ear, neck, wherever.

These are the new Angels, remember. The cling-to-their pitching staff Angels, the runners-left-in-scoring-position Angels, so they prick their fingers, squeeze and let the runs come, a drop at a time.

They trade a headache for a run. They barter a tooth. A pound of flesh for a lead and an inning of rest for the bullpen.

If it looks hard, it’s because it is. If it looks imperfect, well, that’s the nicest thing anyone’s said about them in a while.

The Angels are 24 days now, and 22 games, from Oakland, starting at a flat-footed tie. From 8 1/2 games up, to two back, to dead even, the ride has hit every cobblestone on the block, a few twice, and the curb once.

They’ll get to that four-game series in Oakland in a little more than three weeks, mix in some baseball in between, and if what gets them there is Quinlan in the batter’s box and Vladimir Guerrero on his way to third, Quinlan will just have to stand there and take it.

“We’ve got to do that right now,” Quinlan said.

As it doesn’t look like they’ll be bailed out by any three-run home runs soon, particularly if Guerrero isn’t going to hit them, it’s what they have left.

In the eighth inning, the Angels holding to a 2-0 lead behind a rookie pitcher, Guerrero lunged from second base on ball three to Quinlan, standing, as he would, in the batter’s box between home and third base. A’s catcher Jason Kendall backhanded the pitch, rose from his crouch, cocked his arm and saw only Quinlan’s helmet.

“I thought his arm was going to hit me in the head,” Quinlan said.

The baseball missed him. The arm missed him. And when the ball sailed wide right, off Guerrero’s wrist and into left field, the Angels had their 3-0 lead, which is how it would end. They had beaten the A’s twice in three games, playing nothing close to their expectations of themselves, just as the A’s had won two of three in Oakland last month.

Mike Scioscia has occasionally referred to Quinlan as a “guts and glory” kind of player, baseball code for “does nothing exceptional,” but also for “a guy I like having around.” As it turns out, Quinlan would have taken that throw in either his guts or his glory, if that’s how it had to go.

Kendall argued. Even A’s Manager Ken Macha had a say.

“At that point,” Quinlan said, “I’m trying to stay in there as long as I can. I have a right to be in the batter’s box. If he hits me in the head, it’s probably not going to feel very good, but it will score a run.”

Yeah, score a run. The Angels have fairly well established they won’t be hitting their way into the postseason. On the first day of the final month, they were pitched into a tie for first place by Ervin Santana, and nudged along by another home run by Quinlan.

And yet, there was something about Quinlan standing there, maybe a little afraid, lowering his helmet a few inches just in case.

“Quinlan backed up into me,” Kendall said. “You can’t do anything about it. I didn’t even know where I was throwing.”

But, he didn’t back up. He didn’t duck. He didn’t fall. He only hoped it wouldn’t hurt too bad.

“Another hitter might have ducked, I don’t know,” Scioscia said.

Maybe it’s going to be who they are for a while. Maybe that’ll get them to Oakland with a chance.

Maybe.

“If we play offensively the way we played the last three weeks, it’ll be difficult,” Scioscia said. “We don’t anticipate that happening. You still need that offense. You need that pressure every inning to break some games open. Your pitching staff might be out of gas if every game is going to be 2-1 (Tuesday and Wednesday nights’ scores) or 3-0 (Thursday night’s score). You still need that fundamental foundation of guys swinging the bats well.”

Quinlan is pretty sure that’s true. He’s also pretty sure it’ll come.

In the meantime, he’ll throw his guts and glory out there, see how that plays.

“It’s definitely going to be a dogfight to the end,” he said. “We’ll start picking it up. In the meantime, we’ve got to do that right now.”