Raindrops Again Fall on Angels : This Time, Jones’ Homer, 1-0 Lead in Second Don’t Count

BALTIMORE —  The weather in the East is on a roll. Monday night, the winning-streak reached two as another rainstorm in another city washed the Angels out of another home run and another lead.

The Angels traveled 500 miles to forget about Sunday in Detroit--a 2-0 advantage and Wally Joyner’s 16th home run lost in a downpour. Welcome to Baltimore. More rain, more delays and, ultimately, the same result.

A 1-0 lead against the Baltimore Orioles in the second inning, courtesy of a home run by Ruppert Jones, became non-history as the Angels were rained out in consecutive games for the first time since 1983.

“Pretty boring, huh?” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said as he sat slumped in a chair in his office. “I get bored when we don’t play.”

Also irritated. It is presumptuous and premature to say the Angels would have won either game, but Mauch knows this much: His team was ahead when both games were called.

“We’ve lost home runs, we’ve lost leads,” Mauch grumbled.

He also lost a pitching schedule that had Mike Witt set to face Detroit next Wednesday in Anaheim. Witt beat Detroit, 11-1, his last time out.

“This disrupted a nice little program we had,” Mauch said. “We had Witt opening at home against Detroit, where we wanted him. That’ll be altered now. Losing the off-day changes that.”

The off-day was supposed to have been Thursday, sandwiched between the Baltimore series and a four-game set in New York. But the game that was rained out Monday has been re-scheduled for Thursday (10:05 a.m., PDT), moving Mauch’s rotation up a day.

Thus, Witt will pitch Wednesday against the Orioles and Monday against the Yankees. Unless, of course, there is another rainout.

Today’s forecast for Baltimore: 70% chance of rain.

Monday’s postponement came after two delays totaling nearly two hours. The first lasted 27 minutes, interrupting play after the Orioles’ Eddie Murray had opened the bottom of the second with a single.

When the game resumed, Cal Ripken doubled over the head of center fielder Gary Pettis, who slipped on the wet turf as he tried to retreat and run down the ball. That moved Murray to third.

After Larry Sheets lofted a shallow fly to Pettis for the first out of the inning, the clouds opened up again. Play was halted and, 1 hour 19 minutes later, the game was officially called.

The next batter was Juan Beniquez. The ex-Angel will have to wait for his debut against the team he led in hitting last season.

And Jones, who cleared the center-field fence in the top of the second against Baltimore starter Ken Dixon, will have to wait for his third home run of 1986.

“I’ve lost two others because of the rain,” Jones said with a shrug. “I want to win games; I don’t care about home runs.

“We went a whole year without (a rainout) last year, and now we have two in a row. Yesterday, both (Don) Sutton and (Bob) Boone felt Sutton had good stuff. We lost a 2-0 lead in the third. That was disheartening.”

Jones, however, has been here before.

“One year with the Yankees, we came into here playing good baseball,” Jones recalled. “We won the first game and we had an 8-0 lead in the fourth inning of the second. I had a double and a triple. It started raining and they took a long time putting the tarp on. The field was unplayable, so they called it.

“The next night it rained from start to finish--and they played the whole game. They beat us. It was a downpour, much worse than this.”

Tales of rainy days were big around the Angel clubhouse. The one Mauch remembered was a game that wasn’t called--Game 4 of the 1982 American League playoffs.

“That’s the one that really bothers me,” Mauch said. “That Saturday in Milwaukee. That was the one we never should have got in.”

But that day, the Angels couldn’t buy a rainout.

These days, they can’t avoid them.

Utilityman Darrell Miller, always helpful, had prepared some thoughts for reporters who had to write again about a game that didn’t count.

Miller, hitting .132 in 38 at-bats, walked up to a reporter, put his arm around him and launched into a mock-serious discourse.

“I had a good batting practice,” he intoned. “I would have attempted to raise my batting average. Except I don’t play.

“I like Baltimore. My brother is here. Basically, I was determined to put on a display for the people I love.

“No, losing the off-day isn’t important. The off-day is null and void. I’m a gamer. A day free in New York is a waste of time. I don’t have any money to spend, anyway.”

Doug DeCinces looked at it differently.

“Do you know how much this is going to cost me?” DeCinces joked. “Now, my wife is going to have a whole day free in New York . . . with the other Angel wives.”

Angel Notes

Gary Pettis, on the wet grounds that hindered him in his attempt to chase down Cal Ripken’s double: “I slipped trying to get back. They can cover the infield when it rains, but there’s nothing you can do for the outfield. Anything can happen there. You can slip and end up losing a ballgame like that.” . . . John Candelaria is scheduled to throw off the mound today for the second time since his April elbow surgery. Sunday, he pitched for 10 minutes without any complications. “As long as he’s pain-free the day after, we can continue to progress,” said Roger Williams, the Angels’ team therapist. “Next, we want to step up the intensity and the duration of the workout.” Candelaria remains at least a month away from returning to the Angels’ rotation. “I can’t see it happening earlier than a month,” Gene Mauch said. “If he’s back by the 20th of June, I’d be amazed.” . . . On The Racks: Wally Joyner is scheduled to be profiled in both Sports Illustrated and Time next week. Joyner will share the spotlight with Reggie Jackson in the Time article.